Wobbly knees, small kids in tow, pro fall United flights- where to go?

[scubadada]

Hi @diverjen

I'm with @lowwall on this one. With 3 and 5 year olds, I would go for a good AI with pool, beach, kids club, flexible, easy meals. I have never stayed at any of the AIs on Cozumel, but bet you could find one that fits your needs. This would also give you and your husband very good diving. A good, two tank morning dive would not take up the whole day, you would be back for lunch. You might be able to also fit in afternoon dives a couple days. Pool, beach, and kids club would take the pressure off the family member who is watching your kids, they may even get to relax and enjoy some of the trip. The flexibility of the AI meals would probably also be the easiest way to go. I can't imagine you want to prepare many of your meals or have to deal with going out to restaurants for many of them, with your little kids.

My wife and I absolutely love Bonaire, but not at all sure I would choose it for little kids. You would have to stay at Sand Dollar to use their pool and the small swath of beach north of the pier. The pool is not great and the beach, very small. We have stayed at Den Laman since 2017 but do not need the pool or beach. It is incredibly convenient to use the pier for diving Bari Reef and the Dive Friends boats leave from there. @drrich2 stayed at Sand Dollar at the same time my wife and I were at Den Laman last fall, he can give more details about Sand Dollar. Either gives you a good kitchen for meal preparation. The only AIs I know about are Divi Flamingo and Plaza Dive Resort. I have never stayed at either or used their operators.

The Cayman Islands might work out. Grand Cayman does not have many AIs. The Wyndham Reef Resort is an AI, pool, beach, not sure about organized kid activities. You would be diving with Ocean Frontiers, excellent operator, great sites. It is quite isolated on east end, a car would allow you to get around. I stay at Compass Point, not really AI, breakfast included, on site and close restaurants, nice kitchen in all the condos, no specific kid activities. Cobalt Coast might work too, good diving with Reef Divers. No real beach, no kid activities. This is still pretty remote in the northwest, but closer to town than the east end is.

The Cayman sister islands require the puddle jumpers from Grand Cayman. Cayman Brac Beach Resort has the better pool, beach. Little Cayman Beach Resort, arguably, has a little better diving. Both are with Reef Divers. I would imagine no kid activities and not much to do other than diving.

I would pass on Turks & Caicos. The good diving at West Caicos and French Cay is just too far away for convenient day trips. A two tanker lasts until at least mid-afternoon.

One other place that might work is Turquoise Bay on Roatan. I don't know other places on Roatan. Turquoise Bay is pretty remote, nice pool and beach, flexible meals. Subway Watersports is a good operator, diving is a notch below places like Bonaire, the Caymans.

Best of luck in arranging for your trip. I hope that by the time you travel, the Covid-19 situation is in much better shape and that all of these locations are open and available.

 

[diverjen]

Thanks everyone! I am feeling pretty set on looking more into Coz vs. Sunscape in Curacao (we have done a couple of days on Curacao with a car but only snorkeled there - kids club starts at 3!). Seems Coz can check all the boxes with United flights too. Plus as many times as we have snorkeled Mexico and Coz, we have never dove there and its alway fun to do new things.

We are pretty big Bonaire lovers (have almost 4 weeks there total) and have stayed at Sand Dollar, Den Laman (with a 1 year old) and Bamboo Bali. We know the setup there and love it but I think for everyone's sanity and general enjoyment we have to rethink things a bit until I am ready to leave the kids behind. It worked great with a 1 year old and diving grandparents but a 3 & 5 year old are just a whole other thing. I want whichever family member signs on this time to have some freedom from the kids and I think the kids clubs will really help with that aspect.

@drrich2 - Lol about headspinning and Hawaii - I have so many spreadsheets about planning dive trips and yes, Hawaii seems like a pretty big chunk to bite off, both fiscally and research wise.

Fingers crossed for vaccine success and availability because that is what we are waiting for to do this kind of trip, however hopefully we can plan something for the last middle half of next year.

Off to the Coz boards to figure out about timing, dive ops, AIs, etc

Thank you all so much again!

 

[lowwall]

If you've never dived Coz, you need to go anyway

The Marine Park is to the south of the town which is convenient for the southern resorts. When you are researching, keep in mind that you'll have a choice between the house dive op and the independents since most (all?) of the resorts allow the independents to pick up and drop off at their docks. And most of the independents will get you from the southern resorts. But verify everything first of course.