Scuba divers: recommendations and planning help for liveaboard in W Hemisphere?

[Zona]

Last year, DH and I did our first (brief) liveaboard diving - 3 nights on the Reef Encounter in Cairns Australia - and we loved the experience! We are looking to do it again, maybe for 7 nights this time, and someplace closer to home...maybe Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, or Belize? (But we are open to other suggestions as we don't really know where the good liveaboard diving is.) We are looking for recommendations, as we've never done a proper liveaboard dive vacation prior to our Australia trip. About 15 years ago we did quite a bit of diving -- in Cozumel, BVIs, and throughout the Eastern Caribbean when we lived on our boat and owned our own gear. But most of these were either guided 2-tank dives from a small boat or shore dives. We are PADI Open Water Certified, but not divemaster level or anything, so we tend to prefer having a dive guide especially for locations that are new to us.

After our 3 nights in Australia we have found that we really prefer diving where you just jump right in from the ship without having to ride through choppy water in a dinghy or deal with the surf on a shore dive. Our priorities are safety/reputation and having guided dives available during each session, but we are also hoping for some nice creature comforts aboard (nice staterooms or good food). Hoping to avoid spots that have a lot of mosquitos (they seem to love DH!). We are okay with blowing some dough and not trying to skimp with the budget when it comes to safety.

When I do an internet search for "liveaboard diving" I get all kinds of hits for different companies, boats, locations, etc. But it's hard to tell which are good or bad operations. I know there are quite a few more experienced divers on the board. Is anyone familiar with some liveaboard dive companies that they would recommend? Or even some good websites (like scubaboard) where I can comparison shop and read reviews? Would love to hear suggestions from you all, thanks in advance!

 

[wingfooted]

Liveaboard.com has 40,000 liveaboard trips to choose from. That’s a good start.

And I wouldn’t be shy to consider locations outside the Western Hemisphere. I’ve personally been on liveaboards to Thailand, Egypt and Myanmar. A lot depends on your skill level and how hard you want to dive. Gallapagos and Socorro are on my western hemisphere bucket list , I’m a little hesitant to pull the trigger as I’m not so good in rough seas.

 

[Zona]

Thanks Wingfooted - liveaboard.com is a good site. I have browsed there a bit but I was a little overwhelmed with all the choices. I will spend a little more time on the site once I narrow down the location.

The reason I am focused more on western hemisphere for this trip is that we just returned from a monthlong trip in Europe and were hoping to just do a quick 1 week-ish trip with a shorter flight sometime in early Jan/Feb. For those other destinations you suggested we would consider that too far to travel for just a week.

 

[USGrant1962]

We've been on 5 Aggressor Fleet trips (4 diving and the Nile Queen) and can recommend them. They tend to be little more expensive than a lot of operators, but look for sales or dive shop bookings with discounts. The staterooms are OK - it's a dive boat not a cruise - but the service and food are usually great.

Of the places you mentioned:
Turks and Caicos - we did T&Cs Aggressor last year, and have been doing land-based diving at Provo every year or two for over a decade. The Aggressor was great but coral bleaching was bad off Provo and not terrible but noticeable off West and South Caicos.
Grand Cayman - we haven't done a liveaboard there but there is an issue. The best diving is generally considered to be Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. While liveaboards might have those on the itinerary, they are a long way away (half way to Cuba) and any kind of bad weather means you are just diving Grand. I think that Aggressor, for example, only gets away from Grand about 1/3 of the time. We did Brac and Little with land-based Reef Divers.
Belize - we last dove Belize 30+ years ago and have it on our list to do with Aggressor. We have done CoCo View in Roatan, Honduras a number of times and the diving is good. Honduras/Belize are the same barrier reef system.

So off the top of my head I would recommend you take a look at Honduras/Belize. And google the status of coral bleaching and SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease) for each area you are looking at. Also, I'm not clear on your cert level but for any of these boats you really should have Advanced Open Water certification.

 

[Zona]

Thank you very much for all those details, USGrant1962. It's helpful to know about the bleaching in T&C and I will do some research on the bleaching situation for wherever we decide. Very useful info about the Caymans and where the best diving is. Belize (and now Honduras) are now frontrunners for location.

I especially appreciate your comment about Advanced OW cert. -- we are only PADI Open Water. The dives we did in Australia did not exceed those limits. But I'm thinking that it might be better to delay our liveaboard trip and do the advanced course here at home beforehand just to stay on the safe side. Thank you again for your comment.

 

[folivier]

If it's available on the liveaboard get Nitrox certified. "Geezer gas" does make a difference.

 

[fosterscik]

I know this is an old thread but I thought I'd add to it...
Our last two liveaboards have been Raja Ampat and the Banda Sea. Both have been exceptional. We were on the Mermaid II in RA in 2023 (Mermaid II Liveaboard - Official Website) a steel hull very safe vessel. Great food and very comfortable. Great guides and what wonderful diving!
This year we booked a trip on Pindito (Pindito – Diving Adventures in Indonesia) around the ring of fire. It's a wooden boat built by the owner (all ironwood and teak). They take safety very seriously and again a great trip. Either one would be a great way to expand your diving horizons. We liked the Pindito (and the group we were diving with) so much that we've booked their Komodo trip early next year (May 12 - 23). I believe they still have 1 double cabin left for that trip... We're with a group that booked out the ship and have a 4-night flight recovery/relaxation stay at a villa in Ubud on Bali before the liveaboard.
We're also diving Galapagos this February on the Galaxy Diver II (Galaxy Diver II - Galapagos Islands)

 

[USGrant1962]

Now that we are talking diving again. Today we were notified that the Mexican government has just this week over doubled the park fees for the Socorro Islands, effective January 1. We are sailing to Socorro in 4 weeks (Jan. 6) on the Solmar V. This is not a trivial increase - it adds over $900 to our trip for two. It is not the dive operator's fault, but they have offered some compensation. This really sucks for everyone (divers, dive operator, shop that organized the trip), except for the Mexican government, I guess.

So Zona, if you happened to be looking at Socorro as a western hemisphere destination, I would recommend against it.

Friends of ours were on the Turks and Caicos Aggressor a couple of months ago and said the bleaching wasn't bad, so it may already be recovering.

Fosterclick, we're doing Galapagos in August on the Humboldt Explorer. Interested in hearing about your experience in February. Our BTD diving itinerary for the year is:
January - Socorro Islands, Solmar V
April - Bimini Bahamas, The Juliet out of Miami
May - Honolulu, DS2 lives there, will prob do a couple of dives
August - Galapagos, Humboldt Explorer
October - Turks and Caicos, Beaches resort, might add on a week on the Ts&Cs Aggressor

 

[fosterscik]

Nice list USGrant! Even though we are a short drive from Atlanta, we'll be flying out of DC on our Komodo trip. We've found IAD has the lowest prices to Europe (and onward) of anywhere on the eastern seaboard. Must be all the foreign politicians flying in...