Pampered land based dive trip in Caribbean

[Scuba]

DW is in your camp; she loves the integrated weights. Me, I still prefer the belt, but I'm definitely in a shrinking minority!

I like the belt better too. The newer belts with the zippered pockets are much nicer, especially if the dive operation has the lead pellet weight pockets.

 

[Scuba]

The new way (I'm hearing) is to not back it off like we were all taught in the early 90's.

Wow! Didn’t know that. Got certified in 1991 so I’m kinda old school.

 

[Scuba]

We've been to Roatan several times. But only at Turquoise bay resort (north shore) and CoCoView (south shore). We're big fans and will be at Cocoview in May. Cocoview is essentially fairly basic with very little to do other than dive but food is good and cabins are very comfortable. Willy the bartender mixes really good drinks . Turquoise Bay is a bit more upscale, has a small, but nice pool. Good food and bar. Good dive lockers.

We prefer the family atmosphere at cocoview. They have fabulous dive boats (with center of the bottom ladder through a trapdoor access so you can easily dive when the weather is quite rough). They run a concierge service - tanks are loaded on the boats and regs attached for you for each dive. Equipment is rinsed and stored for you in the dive lockers overnight. So very little effort unless you want to shore dive.

FYI - I've yet to be bothered by no-see-ums there. Maybe I've just been lucky but there's always been nice breezes when we've been there and perhaps that's dispersed them for us.

You are very lucky. The no-see-um’s on Utila were the worst we’ve ever experienced. And the mosquitoes on Belize were bad too. DH is a mosquito magnet. I would go back to Belize or Honduras but it would be difficult to convince him to do it.

 

[Scuba]

DGF and I have been to most of the same destinations although our annual treat is spending time on Bonaire. The most pristine dive location we have seen in the Caribbean is Dominica. They were just starting to build up some dive operations there after the notoriety they received from first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies when hurricane Maria (I believe it was Maria) knocked most out of the area. Compared to Dominica, most of the other dive locations we have been to in the Caribbean are noticeably dive worn. We have not stayed on the island but we have dove there multiple times via cruise ship only.

Our favorite dive resorts are Scuba Club Cozumel and Buddy Dive Bonaire. Neither offer a real beach experience.

Interesting about Dominica. We have not done any diving there, but we did some hiking when we stopped on a cruise and loved the island. Not as touristy as many other Caribbean islands, and beautiful terrain.