Barbados??

[scubagirlj]

Was speaking with my TA re vacation arangements and she mentioned that Barbados has unbelieveable deals right now-travel not required to be completed until 12/09-up to 300 pp refund on airfare and other perks like one free night and meal comps-never considered going there but price is about third less of what I was expecting to spend-afraid of "you get what you pay for" and "if it sounds too good to be true it usually is"-did some research and there seem to be numerous sites to dive-any input on DOs/sites there? Had just about decided on either St John or Roatan, but now I don't know-if I save $$ on this trip it gives me something left to spend on extra short trip in Jan to GC

[JCAT]

I can't answer your question about diving, but I can tell you it is a beautiful Island. We spent time exploring the surface there.

[scubadiver888]

I've been to Barbados twice. My dream now is to get rich, retire to Barbados and work at a dive shop.

I've been to better dive locations but the combination of the island, the people and things to see when not diving make it the best all round island I've been to (most the eastern and southern islands; never been west of Jamaica).

It is the most eastern island. It is actually in the Atlantic Ocean and not part of the Caribbean. This means that the best diving is on the west side of the island. The island is incredibly small. You can go all the way around it in an hour or two. It is cheaper to stay on the east side of the island but because it is so small that is fine.

There are dozens of good dives sites. Some are shallow, some are deep, some are reefs, some are wrecks. What site is a don't miss site depends on what you like. The Stavronikita is a fairly famous wreck but it is 130' deep.

The Dive Shop Ltd. was written up in a local paper for antique bottle dives in Carisle Bay. The dive site is called Bottle Ground.

If you like marine life you want to dive Dottins.

Also, if you want something better you can catch a island hopper to St. Lucia (100 miles) or Dominica (190 miles). Dominica is incredible and still quite pristine. There are no direct flights from any of the major airlines. They all fly to Bridgetown Barbados then to Dominica.

[scubadiver888]

I'd also like to add, the first time I went there the dive op I ended up at was not very impressive. The staff were nice and the equipment was good.

However, the dive shop and the place the boat anchored had a hotel between them. We were told we could not go through the hotel property.

The waterfront was large jagged rocks and water crashed right up to the break wall. We had to carry all our own gear to the dive boat (I'm normally okay with that but not over jagged, slippery rocks in pounding surf).

They had no dock so we had to wade out to 5' deep water. They wouldn't put the ladder down so you had to get over a 3' boat wall from 5' deep water in pounding surf. When we got back we reversed this process.

I couldn't take it again so I walked along the shore away from the dive shop, cut through the fried chicken restaurant, out to the road and walked back along the road.

Finally, when I was getting a drive back the guy complained about me getting the seat wet. I didn't remember the name of the dive shop.

The second time I want to Barbados I asked the people on the 'other' scuba board who they recommended. Everyone said West Side Scuba so I booked with West Side Scuba.

When I got there I found out West Side Scuba was the dive op I used the first time I was there.

[scubagirlj]

that doesn't sound very vacation-like, don't mind schlepping own gear but draw the line at having to perform like a Navy SEAL to get into the dive boat-sounds like i need to do more research, Thanx for the warning re West Side Scuba

[scubadiver888]

The two trips where two and a half years apart. When I got there the second time I thought, "This looks familar." Wasn't until we got our gear and he pointed out the route to the boat that I realized where I was.

I'll probably go back there next year (off to Europe this year). I'm going to give The Dive Shop Ltd. a try (see previous message for a link). If you go, let us know who you dove with and whether you liked it or not.