Where to go in the Caribean for Scuba Diving?

[noodleoo]

My H and I just finished a SCUBA referral course. We enjoyed it and now we'd like to find a nice island for SCUBA diving to do 4 open water dives (to get certified). Has anyone done this before and have a good place to recommend? Not too expensive would be great, good EASY diving, and if you can recommend a scuba outfit you used too that would be awesome!

We'd appreciate any and all advice! Flying out of Boston.

[egishere]

I don't dive but we stayed at Ti Kaye in St.Lucia and they had a great dive shop on site that we used for some snorkeling excursions.

[steamboat185]

Belize and Honduras have great diving. Cozumel has nice diving too, but maybe a bit more advanced since it is primarily drift diving. Parts of the Bahamas (not Freeport or Nassau) are good easy dives we stayed on Andros last year and it's pretty easy to get to from Boston.

[lauree1183]

We are getting scuba certified this summer and our taking our first scuba vacation to Rincon, Puerto Rico this January. We will be meeting up with another couple we know that dives and there is supposed to be great diving there!

[Norticprincess]

St. Lucia has wonderful diving, but it a bit more than some of the other islands, Scuba St. Lucia (Anse Chastanet resort) Superman's flight has to be one of my favorite's. If you get Victor, he's been under water for some absurd total hours/days
Blue Island Divers on St. Thomas www.blueislanddivers.com

Grand Cayman. Eden Rock www.edenrockdive.com/.
Roatan www.cocoviewresort.com/
Bahamas Stuart's cove www.stuartcove.com/divemain.aspx?id=2 www.stuartcove.com/DiveBahamasMgmt.aspx?id=2&pageId=62

The Southern Caribbean is nice, I'd have to double check with DH for which outfits we used on that trip which ones he has booked for December.

We haven't done Tortola yet (feb, but friends did and that was their favorite)


We've been other places, but the diving was deeper, less to see, or the boat ride was a pita.
I didn't like St. Maarten.

Cozumel, depends on the weather was actually our first dive after full certification. Drift diving takes some getting use to if the current is fast. Dive Paradise www.diveparadise.com/ or Scuba with Alison... www.scubawithalison.com/ I'd use Alison if she'll do referral dives


What did your dive shop recommend for you? They've at least seen you in the pool.

[basilosaurus]

I had friends who did exactly what you're doing (at my suggestion who finished the check outs in cozumel. I went with them, and we had a wonderful week of 2-3 dives a day. It is drift diving, but we were with a great boat that picked us up wherever we surfaced so it was pretty easy. I'll try to find who we used. I remember it was owned by a woman from houston, so no problem with language. I got my advanced cert while they were busy with their open water, so we used a few instructors, all good.

I remember roatan having easy but still great shallow dives. Same with grand cayman.

[jem6]

We haven't been yet, but H and I are going to Roatan in September for diving. The reef off of Roatan/Belize is the second largest barrier reef in the world, so it should be fantastic. :-)

[MommaK]

I am a complete novice so I can only recommend www.akumaldiveshop.com/ in Akumal (Maya Riviera).

[preppy]

Belize or Roatan!

[lishie]

We're certified divers, but still pretty novice. I really enjoyed a few dives we did off of curacao. We also had a cool dive through some small caves between cozumel/riviera maya in mexico.

[nikki25]

Turks and Caicos is known for their diving and is just amazing. I would also recommend Cozumel.