Who to dive with in Caye Caulker

[Tholt]

My fiance and I will be taking our honeymoon in August in Caye Caulker. We were certified in December 2009 so are new to diving. Any recommendations for dive shops in Caye Caulker? Any advice is welcome.

 

[Gaz]

Caye Caulker is a small island and very easy to get around, you did not mention where you were staying on the island but it does not really matter as everything is within walking distance.

Diving

I would reccomend Belize Diving Services which is located on the back of the island next to Iguanas reef Hotel this operation gets consistently good reports but so does Frenchies which is located on the front ocean side of the island.

Diving is located close to the island and is spur and groove formations very similar to Ambergris Cayes diving. You can read about the dive sites located off Caye Caulker by visiting my website Caye Caulker – Dive Sites | DIVE BELIZE The Complete Guide to Diving Belize

Gaz Cooper

 

[drbill]

I second Belize Diving Services. I dove with them in about 2005 after spending 6 weeks on board an eco-cruise ship as marine biologist running between Belize City and Utila. You didn't say when you are going. There can be storms this time of year which keep the diving inside the reef.

 

[peterbj7]

Bill - BDS has changed hands since you visited. It's being run quite differently now. It's still good, but not the same. The two ladies went back to the States last year.

 

[CalgaryDF]

I dove with Frenchies in 2006 and had a blast. Great crew, and lots of good dive sites.

 

[vondo]

I can 3rd Frenchies. On the trip I made there, also 2005 I think, I dived with everyone but BDS and Frenchies was my favorite.

 

[wrinkldogs]

I don't know if I'm too late for your trip, sorry it took so long to post after our vacation. We went to Belize, stayed at St George's Caye Resort for a week in April. It is a wonderful resort, on the pricier side. Their large dive boat was down so they contracted out to Frenchie's for our Blue Hole trip. I can safely say, Frenchie's was the worst dive operation I have ever encountered. They over loaded the boat, there was over 20 people on a small boat that had to travel 1 &1/2 to 2 hrs out to the Blue Hole. When my husband asked for a drink of water on the way out, he was told they would not access the cups at that time and they just started passing the water bottle around for everyone to just drink out of-ewe. In fact the cups never came out until we were done eating and they brought out a big cooler of water that had a spigot on it. On the Blue Hole dive my friend was having trouble with her tank, it was leaking air and was told she would be ok and to hurry up because she was lagging behind everyone. They then proceeded to decend her rather hurriedly down to "catch up". Needless to say she ended the dive with 0 psi and both my husband and I had 1800 psi. Then at lunch we were instructed to eat sparingly because they had not brought enough for everyone, thank goodness our resort packed me a lunch because I am a picky eater & knew I wouldn't be able to eat what they had provided. The photographer/videographer they used that day did a good job, however I did think he harrassed the loggerhead turtle we found.

I would do the Blue Hole again in a heartbeat as the 3 dives we did that day were spectacular, just not with Frenchie's.

Luckily, this was the only bad experience we had on our vacation.

 

[wrinkldogs]

You can also find reviews of Frenchie's that are less than stellar on Tripadvisor.

 

[Tholt]

Thank you wrinkldogs. I have read other stuff about Frenchies and was leaning away from them. Now I will definitely stay away.

 

[Caxy Diver]

I have dove with Belize Diving services and Chip Petersons' crew are some of the best in ALL of Belize they give you a personal touch. They are also the largest training facility in BZ

Bill, Chip Peterson and his wife are the new owners and have done a steller job in keeping the service high. We are still working to get the Sea Trel here thanks for your help last month.
please repost your web site

Steve