Bahamas (shore based trip)

[j1j2j38]

Hi,
After asking about Bahamas liveaboards, now it's looking like a land based trip will work better for us. Does anyone have any suggestions for hotel/dive resorts? A package hotel dive package would be nice, perhaps all inclusive if that's an option. It would be somewhat of an overlap trip with my brother coming the first half of the week, me coming the second half and my parents there the whole time. So a place with a 2 or 3 bedroom suite would be nice. Thanks for any suggestions on places to look!

[j1j2j38]

...and since it looks like most of the dive packages I've seen are two morning dives, it would be nice if there was shore diving offered by the resort in the afternoon. Thanks!

[DevilDiver]

That's a lot of area, any particular island?

[diversteve]

Are the parents divers?
And are you set on the Bahamas?

Most of the AI's are either very dive-centric or Club Med type places. Non-divers would be pretty bored at the first, divers won't likely find much in the way of shore diving on the more populated islands.

If you're looking to shore dive - Nassau should be very low on your list.

[chinacat46]

When I dove the Bahamas I did a live aboard but the island I thought that had the best diving was Long Island. Saw lots of hammerheads there as well. Here is an AI on Long Island I've never stayed there so I can only share the link and no recommendation.
Bahamas Hotel | Bahamas Resort | Stella Maris Resort

[j1j2j38]

Yeah, after posting that I looked around a bit more and it seems that Bahamas are pretty bad for what we have in mind. Whole family is divers, but we only have like 5 days so going to an outer island is not feasible, so we'd be probably limited to Nassau. The whole family is divers but we're all in different places and getting to Nassau was cheaper than other places. We've talked about doing a liveaboard in Bahamas, but don't have the time right now. Now we're looking at Cozumel because it's harder for us to get to but cheaper once there and will have better diving than Nassau and is feasible for a 5 day trip.

[diversteve]

Two other options you might look at are St. Croix and Curacao.

Both are generally easy to get to from the east coast. You could probably be on St. Croix by early afternoon - friends from NYC are able to - or Curacao by late afternoon. There's a direct flight from Newark to Curacao but it's only certain days of the week afaik and an early departure. Insel Air flies there direct from Miami now. Expedia will show it.

There's the Divi dive resort at Carina Bay and nice wall diving off the north side of the island according to my friends. I've personally never been there.

There's at least 6-7 AI's on Curacao in all price ranges and more shore diving than you can do in 4-5 days. Just about every resort also has a diveop onsite or nearby. And the Divebus for escorted shore dives.

Piscadera Bay is a good area, there's a mix of resorts, condos, private villas for rent. Surprisingly affordable, we rented nice, clean 2BR duplexes 1 block from the water for under $500/wk. There's also AI's in town - Lions Dive, Breezes and farther west - the more remote part of the island - Habitat Curacao or Lodge Kura Hulanda. I've dove off Habitat and LKH, both were among the better dives. The Marriott in Piscadera Bay is a nice option also, onsite diveop, good beach, casino, nice pool area. One of the better Marriott resorts I've seen. Better shore diving is a 20-30 min drive from there. It's basically the same diving as Bonaire on a bigger island with more people.

We did a week there and only one boat trip. A couple of the best dives - Watamula and Mushroom Forest are boat only - just about everything else is shore accessible beach entries - there's about 60 dive sites.

[j1j2j38]

Thanks,
I'd like to go to Curacao sometime, I don't think it really works for this trip. The flight out of Newark works decently but is a bit more expensive than flights out of LGA to Cozumel that take slightly less time. But others will be coming from elsewhere and there aren't good flights to Curacao out of there at those times while Cozumel is pretty easy. I can get hotel allinclusive + airfare out of NY to cozumel at the Allegro Cozumel for $700 for 4 nights, and then 2 or 2.5 days of diving should be another couple hundred, so the whole trip is under a thousand, and even cheaper for the others as they're traveling in pairs while my wife has to work (boo work) and so can't come. They've also been to Cozumel before, so I think it will work better for a short trip. Has anyone stayed at the Allegro? It doesn't get amazing reviews, but it seems to be okay and is pretty far southwest so should be close to the dive sites, right? We'd be diving with either Dive with Martin or Living Underwater, so the house dive shop isn't too relevant. Family previously stayed at Fiesta Americana but their all inclusive rate is very expensive; I think they must have gotten a better deal before.

[divebunny13]

With five days, you're not limited from going to an out island, especially an out island that is only a ten minute flight from Nassau.

Check out Bahamas All Inclusive - Andros Bahamas Hotel - Bahamas Vacation. We are an all inclusive resort with dive packages. We do three dives a day (2 tanks in the AM and one in the afternoon) and there is plenty for the whole family to do.

Plus, you get to hang out with me and I'm awesome.

[dkh6070]

Originally Posted by divebunny13

Plus, you get to hang out with me and I'm awesome.

Way to jump right in!