Northwest Dive Club

Hey Folks,

My wife and I will be planning a dive trip some time in February likely to the Caribbean/Bahamas someplace. We've batted the idea of a liveaboard around, but would prefer some shore time this trip.

Any good suggestions on dive resorts to check out or places to avoid?

She's a 20+ year diver. I was certified in February but should have completed rescue diver by the end of November and have maybe 30 dives completed by then.

We'll be bringing most of our own gear except tanks and weight.

Any thoughts? TIA!

Shaun

I've not been there, but I here Bonaire is great. Buddy Dive a Resort dive resort there among others. Bimini road in the Bahamas might be nice also. If you want to stay in the States, we love Key Largo FL. Silent World is the dive Charters we use.

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My recommendation is Cozumel!! Great diving, food, shopping, and quiet island atmosphere. It has it all.
Many places to stay, Tres Pelicanos or Aldora are good dive shops.

A lot would depend on what you want to do on land. Bonaire, Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker in Belize, Cocoview Resort in Roatan/Honduras, Utila (also Honduras) are islands with great diving but not much else. You can do land based excursions but they involve travel time and money to get to them.

They Caymans have excellent diving but also cater to non-divers, so there are other activities.

Cozumel is also an island but is close to the shore, so again, ruins, caves, etc. are pretty easily accessible.

Agree with all the above. I think first of all decide how important topside activities are. If you are looking for plenty to do on dry land, cozumel is a great choice. A ton of great places to eat, great shopping, and a short ferry ride to the mainland to visit cenotes and ruins.
If you are mainly just interested in diving. Bonaire, roatan, little Cayman, and Belize fit the bill. For shore diving, hard to beat the shore diving capital of the world, Bonaire.

We did a dive to St. Eustatius this past Feb and really enjoyed the trip and the diving. It is off the beaten path and not very touristy. It has a lot of history and the diving was v. good, with short boat rides. Nice place to lay back and relax. We dove with ScubAqua - they did an excellent job.

We did the east side of Grand Cayman. There was a hotel/dive package for fairly cheap, and the dock was basically just outside our room. There was a kitchen in the room and a restaurant in the hotel. There wasn't much close to use. The resort is on the opposite side of the island from the airport, so a car rental came with the stay. We drove to see the blue iguana reserve, and the large turtle reserve. We also did Sting Ray City as part of our package. I think the place was called Compass Point. Hell, I'd go back there again every year. So many dive sites.

Hey everyone - thanks for the good thoughts!

The topside activities aren't critical - a beach, a change of scenery, maybe a restaurant or two would suffice. We just don't want to commit to 3 boat dives every day and want to be on land a bit to relax and kick back.

Shaun_Darragh wrote:Hey everyone - thanks for the good thoughts!

The topside activities aren't critical - a beach, a change of scenery, maybe a restaurant or two would suffice. We just don't want to commit to 3 boat dives every day and want to be on land a bit to relax and kick back.

Bonaire!

Any love for Turks and Caicos?

So - final answer is a week at Anthony's Key dive resort on Roatan Honduras in February - woo hoo!