Your Favorite Repeat Travel Destination?

[Dirty-Dog]

Cozumel.
Our pattern is Cozumel, go someplace else. Go back to Cozumel. Go someplace else. Go back to Cozumel...
We've been to Cozumel probably a dozen times so far and it's always wonderful. The only other place to which we return at all regularly is Cancun (which we mostly do when I want to hit the cenotes).
Hell, even though after the last trip I landed in the hospital, septic, with campylobacter AND dengue fever, the trip itself was wonderful.
Yes, we have done all the regular sites multiple times. We don't care. Hell, we don't care if we dive the same site twice on the same day. It'll still be different. Your path along the reef will be slightly different, which means different structures. And different critters. And things you overlooked on your last pass.
For the "how many dives a day" crowd, we usually do two tanks with Aldora in the mornings. Our dives on this last trip were 80-90 minutes each, so 2.5-3 hours of bottom time daily. If you want more, you can the afternoon dive from the Aldora Villa, or do a twilight and night dive, which we did one day this trip. Two in the morning, two in the evening.. That's going to be 5-6 hours of bottom time for the day. And you gotta eat sometime...

It doesn't hurt that Cozumel and Cancun are less than a 4 hour flight, or that they're considerably cheaper than most other destinations.
Our last trip to Cozumel cost about $5000 for flight, AI resort, and diving for the three of us.
The trip prior to that was to Nassau. It cost nearly $9000, and although the diving was wonderful, the short times allowed by the shops schedule meant we got maybe 90 minutes of bottom time per day (compared to per dive...), and spent two hours on a bus every day to get that.
My youngest daughter is getting married in June 2016. We're sending them to Cancun for a week as a wedding gift. Flight and AI resort, plus a DSD class and a couple days of diving - $3500.
We're poor nurses, not rich Doctors, so the price is certainly a factor.

 

[robint]

Robint:

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

Your daily dive package includes 2 morning boat dives, and unlimited shore dives HOWEVER they have a clipboard at the dive shop every day for additional afternoon dive boats, either 1 tank or 2 tank or even 3 tank... you just need to get a certain number of people to sign up to go out. Ditto diving the wreck or night dives. Minimum number and the boat will go. Otherwise, shore dives are free, just have to put tanks in your locker before dive shop closes for night. We always get in 3 dives per day minimum, sometimes 4 or 5.

 

[DavidFL]

West Palm Beach and Upper Keys (but I live in Orlando so no air fare involved);
Repeats involving air fare:
Cayman Islands;
Belize live aboard.

 

[South4Scuba]

We prefer Little Cayman Beach Resort as our default diving destination. The resort is all about divers and is very nice. The dive operation is perfect and have the best dive masters and boats in the business.

 

[Fin Finder]

Da Boyz jet down to Key Largo via Ft Lauderdale almost every year for warm water wreck diving and a little generalized debauchery. It’s been going on for about a dozen years now. We’re hooked up with an operator down there who sets us up with doubles and sling bottles of 02 so we can do those long leisurely deco dives (we’re all tech cert’ed). They know us, and trust us, and the feeling is mutual.

Gotta love the Keys. We also dive the Carib and Pacific, but we keep going back to KL for the laughs. American money, American language, warm clear water, and lot’s of wrecks.

 

[Rich Keller]

I prefer shallow and long dives in crystal clear water so I spend a lot of time in the keys. The first couple of trips I went with the charters to get the lay of the land and to see the common spots. After that I rented my own boat to see the places few ever go to by charter.

 

[KathyV]

Our current favorite destination is the Cayman Islands, we recently returned from our 7th trip there. We like all 3 of the islands and usually plan a 2-island trip, spending time on Grand Cayman before traveling to Brac or Little or getting on the aggressor.

Below is our list of repeat destinations over the years, both land-based and liveaboards:
Caymans - GC, CB, LC (7)
Bahamas - Nassau, Exumas, Cay Sal, Bimini, Freeport, San Salvador (7)
Bonaire (6)
Florida Keys (4)
Cozumel (4)
Turks & Caicos (2)
Belize (2)

Places we have visited only once are:
Caribbean: Jamaica - Negril, St. Lucia, Saba/St. Kitts, Dominica, and Curacao
Pacific: Hawaii - Big Island
Sea of Cortez: Cabo
Red Sea: Egypt

 

[DjDiverDan]

For me, there is really only one repeat dive destination - Cozumel. I started going when I first got certified in 1989, and I've gone back pretty much every year for 25 years. I absolutely love the diving, the food, and the people. And from Dallas, it's both economical and quick to get there. On the diving, I adore drift diving - it's the easiest, most relaxing kind of diving there is. Cozumel visability is outstanding, and the coral structure and sea life is great. And tons of options for excellent Dive Ops. Cozumel has a lot of options for lodging and dining, in pretty much any budget. I don't think there is another destination in the Caribbean that can match Cozumel for overal value. Cozumel is also a very safe destination, and the people are genuinely warm and friendly - I keep going back to places year after year, and even when they haven't seen me in a year, the restaurant owners and hotel staff still remember my name and treat me as a friend.

 

[unregistered19]

I have been to both Sipadan and Layang Layang twice each when I lived in Hong Kong.

Now that I'm in Canada, trying to find somewhere to match that kind of diving that is relatively close is proving difficult...

 

[oly5050user]

It may be worthwhile to quantify the responses so far. 11 North American respondents (1 didn't indicate a history of repeat business yet so count as 10), 1 Australian. I figure we can group Canada with the U.S. for point of origin.

Destination answers suggest options chosen include Cozumel, Bonaire (will count all resorts as one place; dive experience similar), south Florida (I lump Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Ft. Lauderdale & Blue Heron Bridge together as they're geographically close, & I figure most people dive BHB a day or two as an add on to another destination), the Florida Keys (a different kind of diving than further north), Indonesia (overly broad, with many places to dive, but what we've got so far), Belize via live-aboard (I'll lump Sun Dancer 2 & Belize Aggressor III together), Turks & Caicos via live-aboard (I'll group Explorer & Aggressor together), God's Pocket Resort near Ft. Hardy (British Columbia).

People who hit more than one place repeatedly can 'vote' more than once. I only counted Bonaire for myself, as it's the one place I've hit repeatedly as a primary dive destination.

Of the North American folks, the destination vote so far:

Cozumel 3.

Bonaire 4.

Belize via Live-aboard 2.

Turks & Caicos via live-aboard 1.

South Florida 2 (maybe 2 1/2; Lorenzoid was on the fence on this one).

Little Cayman Island 1.

God's Pocket Resort 1.

Indonesia 2.

Be mindful 'Indonesia' is a large conglomeration of destinations.

Only one location, & one vote, for a cold water destination (far as I know) from our North American divers, and he does a lot of local cold water diving in California.

Easy, convenient & cheap diving are motivators, although 'great' diving also came up - sending DirtFarmer to Indonesia and one factor sending CNYMAC to Little Cayman.

Wingy posted about choices from Australia, and point-of-origin has a big impact on what options are practical.

Interesting so far. Surprised we didn't see another vote or two for Cozumel, or at least one for the Florida Keys.

Richard.

P.S.: I know the thread's not a poll, but it functions somewhat like one.

I have about 30 trips to Bonaire, 20 Florida keys, 8 roatan, 8 grand Cayman, 4 Cayman Brac/lil cayman, 4 Cozumel, 1 Costa Rica. Some of these trips were personel, some I led a group out of LDS out of New York.