BootsnAll Travel Community

hello,

looking for info on scuba.. good places but without the price attached to it.. i know its a pricey activity but it can be reasonable.. i have been to Utila, Honduras.. and that was great and price is right.. looking into belize but don't know.. if anyone has any info about belize or other places.. would be greatly appreciated.. thanks

I went scuba diving in Glover's Reef atoll about, about 35 miles from the mainland. It was gorgeous! Of course, that's the only reef I've dived, so I can't compare it to anything else

I did a packaged tour thingie with Slickrock, which combined snorkelling, kayaking, wind surfing, surf kayaking, diving (diving is extra - you go through Off The Wall dive shop). It's a bit expensive, but worth it.

Slickrock and Off the Wall are great companies. Great guides, staff, food, etc. I get a bit nervous when it comes to diving, and their divemaster, Elmer, took good care of me and made me feel fine.

However, there are "live on" boats that do diving around Glovers Reef as well.

But if you're deep diving, shark, and cave diving, there's the famous Blue Hole in Lighthouse reef atoll. There's also Shark Ray alley in the Hol Chan area, and of course, the barrier reef.

There is soooo much diving around Belize! It's a bit pricey around there because it's a divers destination, and Belize itself is one of the more expensive (if not the most expensive?) countries in Central America to travel around.

Apparently there is good reef diving out of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. I went there a couple of weeks ago to check it out, but it had been raining for weeks on end and the visibility was zero. A Canadian guy purchased the diveshop one month before we arrived, but he hadn´t been able to go on a single dive, poor guy... He is the only outfit in the area, so it isn´t exactly overrun with divers like Utila :-)

Kath

hey another Utilian! i also did my divemaster there and loved it. as for places as cheap and beautiful, they are hard to find.

one amazing place to dive, although not very inexpensive would be the cenotes between Tulum and Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. i got the pleaure of diving at Dos Ojos and Damn was it an amazing experience! Grande Cenote is great as well i hear and in the same vicinty although i personally never dove there. again this dive aint cheap but soooo worth it just to dive in an underground cenote. just for clarification a cenote is not a cave. technically a cenote is an enclosed underground area where light penetrates throughout the whole area, whereas a cave has areas where the light becomes absolutely lost. this is why you only need an advanced diving certificate for cenote diving but a whole other specifi cave diving certification for the caves 'cause their much more dangerous.

of course the Blue Hole in Belize is world famous but also expensive so perhaps:

another more plausible place, if money is an issue would be in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. a wonderful beachside, surfing town with cheap diving.

hope any of this helps.

peace.
jessecarl

Cozumel is my favorite. You can't go wrong there unless you go out with a large outfit with too many divers or inexperienced ones. The island is loaded with operators, most offering 2 tank dives leaving in the morning. I go every year and use the same dive operation, "Manta Raya". Prices are pretty standard (US$65 w/ your own gear). If you don't dive don't go to Coz.