Recommend places in Key Largo for jr. divers and families

[hlsabine]

We're planning to make our first dive trip to Key Largo next year. We'll have 3 or 4 families, adults and kids, about 18 people total. I'd really appreciate advice on where to stay and dive! Ideally we'd like to stay someplace not too big (not a huge resort) but a place that still has activities for kids, junior diver programs, and a dive operator on site or really close. I've only dived in Cozumel and Roatan before, so I don't know what's available in the keys. Any recommendations? Thanks so much for the help!
Melissa

[downunder]

We did a lot of research and there are some postings in the history about this - but we settled on Ocean Pointe Suites for our stay. It was in a nice location, had a huge pool and basic beach (Not many good beaches anywhere). As for the diving, we went with Captain Slate - Atlantis Dive Center. The big reason I chose them was that they do the "Creature Feature" which is a shark, barracudas and incredible eels dive (see website). My 11 year was completely amazed by the sea life and thrilled to be able to kiss the belly of a shark (even if it was just a nurse shark)! The dive shop was about 15 minutes up the road from the Ocean Pointe condos. The people were very kind at both places. Capt Slate's group was very open to the jr. OW cert. I found in calling around that some dive shops were not. The prices were all inline with the going rates.

[Doug B]

Dive with "Island Ventures". They are located in the heart of Key Largo. Good folks. Call ahead to book the entire boat with your group.

[Capt Hook]

Amy Slates Amoray Resort might be a good place to look.

[adv_diver1]

John Pennekamp State Park is very nice.

Have fun!

[fisherdvm]

If you've got junior divers, or newbies, be prepared to do shoredives if the waves are rough. Pennekamp park has a scuba center that will rent the tanks/weights for your shore dive. Walk from the scuba center or drive the gears to the beach and dive in the lagoon. The vis was terrriebbbly bad this winter, but you will see tonnes of monster size lobsters in the wall just to the right of the beach area.

Don't rent gears from Atlantis dive center, as they are old and in bad repair. The equipment guy is cranky and not helpful. Their dive captain and first mate were nice, though. We had good luck with Bluewaterdiver, but they have a small boat - which is nice.

The captain of the boat at the pennekamp park was nice too, he turned the boat around and refunded our dives when it was too rough to enter the water.

[Kokomo]

I have to second Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort. You walk out of your room and onto the boat. Nice rooms. Not too big. There's a pool and you can take kayaks into the bay. We've been there twice. We were upset with them the second time because they cancelled prearranged deep dives to take boat loads of school kids snorkeling. So I think they kind of cater to kids. Great place for a big group like you. They have a write up in the February issue of Scuba Diving magazine.

[hlsabine]

Thanks for the help! Ocean Pointe looked sort of big, but that may be what we have to go with. I thought that Amoray looked perfect, but then I did a search on here and started reading all the negative comments! Has anyone had a recent experience with Amoray?

Melissa

[ladyfish]

I took a group of Boy Scouts to Conch Republic Divers. They were great, and I would recommend them to anyone! Check them out. We stayed at Ocean Pointe Suites, which worked out great. Conch Republic can help you arrange your stay at Ocean Ponte, too. Talk to Brenda at Conch Republic, she'll take good care of you!

[texarkandy]

Not much in the way of "kids activities" or beaches in Key Largo - went there thanksgiving with my JOW & the wind was pretty rough on her (& me too) - wouldn't advise boat diving windy conditions in the fall for new divers or JOW's - Dove with Conch Republic, but we had to drive there about 8 miles everyday - we stayed at The Suites in Key Largo so we could have more room & a kitchen - not fancy, but it was clean, quiet, & very value-priced, lots of dive operators within walking distance (Ocean Divers, Rainbow Reef, Blue Water, Horizon) I visited with Ocean Divers & Rainbow Reef while there & will probably give both a try next time I'm there - I heard good things about Ocean Pointe Suites from some other divers who were staying there -