Your list of lesser known dive destinations

[Steve_C]

7. Adriatic / Croatia: I could be wrong but from the reviews it seems like this place is up there with the Red Sea in terms of marine life and also has some wrecks. Yet most European divers prefer to go to Egypt and far east instead of this supposedly awesome dive destination which is dirt-cheap and in their immediate backyard. Whats up guys?

I did some snorkeling along the coast of the former yugoslavia. (Still yugo when I did it). Also some along Crete and Sardinia. Some diving along the coast of Greece up near Thesolnakia.

Generally speaking there was a lot less life and color then in more tropical sestting.

Did some dives along a Fiord north of Vancouver. Given a choice of that or Adriatic I would take the Vancouver diving. Lots of interesting life. Now if I was along the north east med coast for another reason and could work some dives in I definitely would. Greece was interesting but life not as abundant as the warmer waters.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Bold emphasis mine, & on content that may be hard to specifically define but would benefit from it.

For example,

I have no desire to dive near icebergs! Are these whale bones in recreational depths, & easy to find & see? What are your odds of seeing a whale on your dives, as opposed to just from a boat & hearing them?

There are somewhat warmer places in the world where you can see whales. What would make someone go to this one?



What is it about these sites that's appealing? Are they wrecks? You can get wrecks elsewhere.

What I'm saying is, there are many scuba diving destinations, and probably none of us will hit all of them (most of us won't hit 10% in our lives, I'd guess). So we must prioritize to get the maximum bang for our buck/time. A lot of places would be far more popular if their nearest competitor(s) didn't exist - imagine how much more popular Curacao would be for shore diving if Bonaire didn't exist! If not for Little Cayman, I wonder how many people would post on SB claiming Cayman Brac had the best diving in the Caribbean (instead of 'almost as good')?

This is an interesting thread & I'm glad it was started. I'm just approaching the content skeptically. After all, if a destination has great diving, and it's nearly unknown, you've got to ask yourself…there's gotta be a reason. So, why?

Richard.

We are thinking along the same lines Richard. I am listing some reasons why a truly awesome diving destination may not attract tourists:

1. Political Situation: Sudan and Saudi Arabia fall in this category. Sudan has less than appealing political environment for booming tourist industry and Saudi Arabia has strict laws that prevent tourism. Both countries may offer access to much better diving than Egypt but Egypt takes the lead over Saudi Arabia and Sudan because it is better at managing tourism. If someone could get around the political and legal hurdles in SA and Sudan then they may experience better diving than the more popular Egypt.

2. Cold Water: Destinations like Alaska and British Columbia take a beating not because they are less interesting than Caribbean but because the percentage of people certified to dive drysuits are so low than they can not sustain an industry big enough to compete with Caribbean.

3. Lack of Access: Some places may have really nice diving but you can not reach them. I believe James Bay / Hudson Bay happens to be one of those. There is only one road that takes you there and if your car breaks down there is no towing. Once you arrive there, there is no dive shop or fill station so you have to bring filled tanks.

4. Long boat rides and unpredictable weather: You must have experienced the inconvenience of this in North Carolina. The sharks and wrecks in NC are beyond amazing but the boat ride is 2 -3 hours. It is also possible that you get blown out for 2 days straight so if you go there for 2 days then you have to keep your fingers crossed.

These are some of the factors that prevent some really world class diving destinations from being up there on the list.

 

[drrich2]

Lack of Access: Some places may have really nice diving but you can not reach them.

Access is a big factor. In the Caribbean, I see Dominica posted of more over time on ScubaBoard, for fine diving (anywhere from good to best in the Caribbean, depending on who you believe) with an excitingly lush topside for natural hiking/exploration. Sounds great, right? Well, from what I understand, it takes 2 days to get to & 2 days to get back, and I imagine the most common duration Caribbean dive trip is a week. Especially for employed people, who find getting away with (or from) family & from job, plus paying for it, limits the trips. You need to take 5 days vacation to take a week off, basically. Often giving maybe 5 1/2 days diving? Make it a Dominica trip, and that's maybe 3 1/2?

Fear of getting blown out a substantial portion of my NC trip led me to consider a report by Tortuga James on the forum about conditions so as to time my trip for August, 5 days diving, to give me the best odds for 'return on investment.' Oddly, NC seems to draw some 'quickie' dive trips, as I see Panama City doing; 3 days or so? I can't wrap my head around a 3 day trip, with maybe 1 1/2 - 2 days diving, knowing bad weather could knock out a day or two.

Anybody mentioned Cuba yet? That's the one where the political situation has been changing and there's guarded optimism of a large island, close to the U.S., with diving that might be quite good in places, yet perhaps poor enough that the U.S. dollar might have some fine buying power?

I'm not wishing poverty on people so we can enjoy sweat shop labor costs.

 

[Bob DBF]

Sonoma and Mendocino coast of California. Cold water but I've always dove it in a wet suit. Kelp forests and all manor of sea creatures. Unless you know someone with a boat, it will be a shore dive, but the shore dives are brilliant.


Bob
----------------------
Gives his two cents.

 

[tomfcrist]

Jade Cove was one of my favorite dive sites when I was a kid. All of the central to Northern California dive sites were amazing back then, regardless of how much asspain was involved in accessing them. I think a person could make a great nomadic dive vacation by driving the entire CA coast and hitting the more remote dive sites...but take that with a grain of salt, it's been many moons since I last dive most of those spots.

 

[Bob DBF]

Jade Cove was one of my favorite dive sites when I was a kid. All of the central to Northern California dive sites were amazing back then, regardless of how much asspain was involved in accessing them. I think a person could make a great nomadic dive vacation by driving the entire CA coast and hitting the more remote dive sites...but take that with a grain of salt, it's been many moons since I last dive most of those spots.

Above San Francisco you don't many non-locals in the water, except Ab divers during the season. Actually you don't run across many divers unless you set something beforehand.


Bob

 

[tomfcrist]

So you are saying nothing has changed? Lmao.
It always seemed as if we had the ocean to ourselves back in those days.

 

[KathyV]

Access is a big factor. In the Caribbean, I see Dominica posted of more over time on ScubaBoard, for fine diving (anywhere from good to best in the Caribbean, depending on who you believe) with an excitingly lush topside for natural hiking/exploration. Sounds great, right? Well, from what I understand, it takes 2 days to get to & 2 days to get back, and I imagine the most common duration Caribbean dive trip is a week. Especially for employed people, who find getting away with (or from) family & from job, plus paying for it, limits the trips. You need to take 5 days vacation to take a week off, basically. Often giving maybe 5 1/2 days diving? Make it a Dominica trip, and that's maybe 3 1/2?....

I agree, the travel expense and time are major factors in making a decision about a dive destination, but sometimes difficult access is worth it because it improves the destination since the reefs get less human traffic and may be healthier and more pristine - unless they've been overfished by the local population.

San Salvador in the Bahamas is one example of an island with less convenient access but good diving.

The Cayman sister islands are somewhat protected by their distance from Grand Cayman. You have to pay for and take interisland flights to get there (and often on small planes which are less popular). Plus there are fewer accommodations and topside attractions when you get there, and that all helps to protect the reefs.

So even when you are traveling to a "tropical and touristy" part of the world, the best option may be to add extra travel time/money (and some inconvenience) to your vacation and then look for out of the way places with reliable reports of good diving - or a nice liveaboard.

 

[drrich2]

Thought of another one; not exactly requiring a trip to the ends of the earth or a hike through rainforest or the tundra, but since trips to the Channel Islands out of California made the list, I think this one qualifies, too.

The Flower Garden Banks, such as out of Freeport, TX, aboard the M/V Fling live-aboard (and notice this free review report at Undercurrent). For some locals it may be a no-brainer, but for those of us who'd have a ridiculously long drive or need a plane to get there, it's pretty thought provoking. I've checked into it a number of times and it's sort of one of those bucket list dreams I've got. Here's what I've thought:

1.) Sounds like a neat 'American' place to dive (if home country offerings have any special appeal to some). Flower Garden, Stetson Bank, an oil rig maybe?

2.) Conditions vary by time of year, so you can get warm water.

3.) It's the Gulf of Mexico, not the Caribbean, so there's potential for rough weather. It's a live-aboard; you're on it, you're on it.

4.) It's what I think of as an intermediate live-aboard; bunk bedding, no free guide service, etc… (as opposed to 7 day $2,500 Caribbean live-aboards on smoother seas, 2 to a room with private bathroom, often a free guide, more 'TLC' I suspect, etc&#8230. Some of it's significantly deep diving, so you can run up some nitrogen loading.

5.) You run the risk of getting blown out of your trip, wasting whatever vacation time to used up at work, money on airfare, etc… And, and your return flight isn't until 3 days or so later? Sorry about that...

6.) The trips aren't very long. If I'm taking a week off to go dive, I'm not after just 3 days! At least in coastal California you can do a live-aboard trip, then 'fill in your week' with day boat trips or shore dives, depending on where you are & your resources/experience.

7.) Freeport, TX doesn't have its own airport, so you either rent a car or pay a fairly expensive cab fare to & from?

Understand; I hope to give the Fling a go someday. I've seen their trips spoken highly enough of that I'd like to add it to my lifetime experience. It's just that, not living close, it's hard not to say 'Well, yeah, but I could fly down to West Palm Beach, or maybe St. Croix,' or a # of other places on my bucket list.

Richard.

---------- Post added October 5th, 2015 at 08:47 PM ----------

One more thing on the Fling; from what I hear, they don't do open seating. You have to book through a dive shop or similar who chartered the boat for that trip. You don't just phone Fling, book, pay and done. At least, that's my understanding of how it works.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

The Flower Garden Banks, such as out of Freeport, TX, aboard the M/V Fling live-aboard (and notice this free review report at Undercurrent). For some locals it may be a no-brainer, but for those of us who'd have a ridiculously long drive or need a plane to get there, it's pretty thought provoking. I've checked into it a number of times and it's sort of one of those bucket list dreams I've got.

I heard good things about the dive itself but the risk of trip not happening due to bad weather makes it very unpredictable. The problem is that there are no alternative sites where you can go to in case you are blown out. I had it on my list for sometime but the unpredictability of it all made it a difficult target to aim for.

If anyone has more information on the dive itself then please share. How does it compare to the Caribbean destinations?