Your Favorite Repeat Travel Destination?

[mbs]

Most repeats - Bonaire. For friends we meet up with there as well as ease of diving and lots of it. When we need to relax its Club Med on San Salvador Bahamas. Killer wall diving, sharks, great food and beach. Next its LCBR. Again killer walls, top notch dive op and resort.

 

[Kharon]

Most repeats Bonaire. I know the island, I know the system and can live cheaply, I can dive my own schedule and do as many dives as I want, where I want, solo, without a single suppliment charge. It has the perfect mix of hard & soft coral, sponges, and fishes for me. Nothing big but that's OK. It's not especially easy or cheap to get to but almost nowhere is where I live.

I have explored new destinations and too often have been somewhat less than wowed so I tend these days to opt for a (probably) sure thing - CoCoView, Glovers Atoll, Fakarave/Rangiroa (all future exploratory trips). I would like to return to Dominica for the topside as well as the diving.

 

[Samshaks]

Sydney Australia

 

[Doc]

We go off diving between 5 and 7 extended trips (five to fourteen day) per year. We chaperone families who want to go diving. We manage the dive process and the local dive Sherpas. All over the world. We go for free.

Sometimes, my wife doesn't want to go, even though it would be "free" to go to Maldives, Red Sea, Indonesia, all that holy grail type stuff.

Each and every year, she calls up CoCoView of Roatan and plunks down the full price and schedules an annual 1 or 2 week trip to "home away from home". This will be our 35th (?) trip. Not uncommon, there are an incredible number of repeat/return visitors.

The ease of diving, the lack of noise and distraction, the proximity of the house reef and placed wreck, the simple access for night diving, the intense concentration of macro/micro...right there, the character and design of the perfect boats, the gear storage areas, the long term staff, the clockwork simplicity of the airport transfer... It's just easy. Bing-bang-boom, 27 dives in a week, even I can hobble through that in my dodderage.

The only place I have ever found to compare? Hotel Atlantis in the Philippines (Sabang, near Puerto Galera). Been there bunches. Same deal, simple dive process, easy to stay wet for 7 days straight.

In reference to the omnipresent whining comments about "the Caribbean sucks", I just look at this as rambunctious, spirited, and more than a bit inexperienced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect There are many wonders remaining, some hide in plain sight before the unknowing.

My brain fogs when I hear a diver complaining "that's the same dive site we did Monday". You really think you saw everything there, Skippy?

Some Caribbean treasures are located in places that are not advertised in SCUBA magazines "advertorials" or are just too hard to get to- for someone bent on using frequent flier miles and needing terrestrial diversions (Casinos, Bars, Beach Massages). If it were easy to return to the Caribbean's islets of Los Roques, Cisne, NE Grenada, and a few other rocks, I would do it tomorrow. But then again, if it were easy, they'd build a Club Dread (and a Senor Frog's) there and that would be the new bestest ever place for diving, so says TwitAdvisa.

THIS is SCUBABoard.

We go for the diving.

 

[drmwc]

My favourite repeat dives are:
1) Plymouth (UK). For example, the JEL is a superb wreck.
2) Porthkerris, Cornwall (UK). Superb reef diving.
3) St Abbs, Scotland (UK). Also great reef diving.

I've been to all of these 4 times. I've been to Portland (UK) many, many times, but it's a bit too close to home to count as a travel destination.

 

[robint]

Cozumel... been there at least a dozen times and our next dive trip will probably be there. I have only been disappointed once in 15 years and that was a few years after that horrible hurricane... coral was beat up and fishlife down dramatically. But even one year later it was coming back strong. Our last trip there it was impossible to tell the hurricane had even happened... coral formations, fishlife, this place wins hands down in the Caribbean. It is just fantastic diving, every dive. No dive site there that I don't enjoy! We are guaranteed a good time and good value... so we keep going back.
Plus... we have found our perfect hotel... Scuba club Cozumel. It is homey and cozy, feel like you are in Mexico and not a Holiday Inn like most hotels. Dive op is great, boats are excellent, big camera tables for our gear, and a bathroom bonus. DMs great... can't complain about anything there. My husband and I probably have 200+ dives there, still can't get enough, its that good.

Bonus... can get there in 4-5 hours with only a short stop over in Dallas or Houston. Less stress, more diving, great people, safe. Love Cozumel.

 

[ronscuba]

We go off diving between 5 and 7 extended trips (five to fourteen day) per year. We chaperone families who want to go diving. We manage the dive process and the local dive Sherpas. All over the world. We go for free.

Sometimes, my wife doesn't want to go, even though it would be "free" to go to Maldives, Red Sea, Indonesia, all that holy grail type stuff.

Each and every year, she calls up CoCoView of Roatan and plunks down the full price and schedules an annual 1 or 2 week trip to "home away from home". This will be our 35th (?) trip. Not uncommon, there are an incredible number of repeat/return visitors.

The ease of diving, the lack of noise and distraction, the proximity of the house reef and placed wreck, the simple access for night diving, the intense concentration of macro/micro...right there, the character and design of the perfect boats, the gear storage areas, the long term staff, the clockwork simplicity of the airport transfer... It's just easy. Bing-bang-boom, 27 dives in a week, even I can hobble through that in my dodderage.

The only place I have ever found to compare? Hotel Atlantis in the Philippines (Sabang, near Puerto Galera). Been there bunches. Same deal, simple dive process, easy to stay wet for 7 days straight.

In reference to the omnipresent whining comments about "the Caribbean sucks", I just look at this as rambunctious, spirited, and more than a bit inexperienced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect There are many wonders remaining, some hide in plain sight before the unknowing.

My brain fogs when I hear a diver complaining "that's the same dive site we did Monday". You really think you saw everything there, Skippy?

Some Caribbean treasures are located in places that are not advertised in SCUBA magazines "advertorials" or are just too hard to get to- for someone bent on using frequent flier miles and needing terrestrial diversions (Casinos, Bars, Beach Massages). If it were easy to return to the Caribbean's islets of Los Roques, Cisne, NE Grenada, and a few other rocks, I would do it tomorrow. But then again, if it were easy, they'd build a Club Dread (and a Senor Frog's) there and that would be the new bestest ever place for diving, so says TwitAdvisa.

THIS is SCUBABoard.

We go for the diving.

Hey Doc,

I like Cocoview. However, for ease of diving, travel and quality diving, I choose Belize Liveaboard over Cocoview. Just my preference.

I also like diving in the Caribbean and have dove many different Caribbean destinations. But, it is more out of travel convenience from NY, than diving quality.

I happily spent many dive vacations all over the Caribbean exploring and searching for the colorful coral and marine life filled diving I dreamed of. I had fun, but the diving never really met the high standard I was looking for. It wasn't until I went to Indonesia, Galapagos, Maldives that I experienced diving like in my dreams.

I don't recall seeing anyone say Caribbean diving sucks, but there is a general consensus that the quality of diving in the Caribbean is lower than Asia, Pacific, Galapagos, Indo, etc..

 

[drrich2]

Robint:

How many boat dives/day can you get at SCC?

 

[Freewillow]

For Europeans the best quality for the money is a liveaboard in Egypt or a week in safaga.. Have been there more than half a dozen times.

 

[Doc]

I like Cocoview. However, for ease of diving, travel and quality diving, I choose Belize Liveaboard over Cocoview. Just my preference.

I did liveaboard diving in Belize many, many times. Several times, was aboard a ship that is gone, the Nekton. I thought it was a toss up as to which was a better experience...CCV or Nekton. The extant mono hull liveaboard choices remaining don't come close to that Nekton experience.