Scuba Forum
 
#378
 Can you recommend a new (to us) econmical/great value place to dive (list below)
RodneyKim - 10/04/2015 7:20 PM
Category: Travel
Replies: 2
We are looking for someplace to dive that we haven’t been to that is pretty economical or great value to travel to, stay and dive that we haven’t been to. (good diving has to be a criteria, which posting on this site should be obvious). Travel time period would be sometime this winter of 2016. So far we have been diving at:

Florida
Bahamas (Andros, Small Hope Bay Lodge)
Bonaire (vrbo)
Utila, Hondorus (Laguna Beach Resort)
Grand Cayman (vrbo)
Cayman Brac (Cayman Brac Beach Resort)
Play Del Carmin (vrbo and Hard Rock Resort further south)

Traveling from South Dakota, USA, we generally fly to MSP>ATL or new york with overnights and on to destinations from there.

Places we are considering that seem to have lower airfares (not sure about quality of diving) include Cozumel, Belize, Aruba and St. Croix (or other Virgin Islands).

Thanks for any ideas or recomendations.
#20573
Smithsgold - 10/05/2015 10:53 AM
Cozumel is my favorite !!!!
#5828
Subscribed
Agojo - 10/05/2015 2:01 PM
Cozumel used to be my favorite other than Philippines but found the new Caribbean favorite this year (12 days in July and went back for 7 more in September). Fly to STX (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands). Passport not required but makes travel easy. Money is already US dollars. Only difference is you can easily rent a car and it is still a left hand drive but they drive on the left side of the road. St. Croix is more sparsely populated than most Caribbean Islands know for diving so less crowded. Recommend diving with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures (SCUBA) in Christensted or N2TheBlue in Fredericksted. American & JetBlue fly to STX. More variety of marine life in one dive under the Fredericksted Pier (easy shore dive) than any other place I’ve been. Next trip will do a night bioluminescence dive. The wall goes to 13,000’ deep!