Scuba / Honeymoon destinations

[Guest beatle]

My fiancee and I are going to be married next May (2008) and we're trying to find some places for our honeymoon. We've almost settled on Sandals Ocho Rios in Jamaica, as it seems like a nice all-inclusive place, is somewhat affordable, and includes SCUBA. Neither of us is certified (yet). I'm not sure if I'll be getting certified prior to the trip or not.

 

I posted a thread on RC about diving in Jamaica and I got no replies, but one person PMed me and said that Ocho Rios does not have very good diving. He said that there was too much freshwater pouring in from the Dunns River, and that has caused barren reefs. He also said that Jamaica has also been overfished.

 

We're trying to keep things under $5k including airfare, but there might be a bit of wiggle room depending on how much better another place is.

[Caribbean Jake]

St. Johns Virgin Island http://www.virginislandsmap.com/

Bahamas / Nassau or Paradise Island http://www.bahamasgo.com/diving.htm

Belize http://www.scubadivingbelize.com/

 

also, check this out

http://stjohnlinks.com/

 

sorry, I did not ment to omit Cozumel, Playa Carmen, Mallas beach, and other exquisite places in Mexico, there are some nice places there too, I just have not been there yet. On another note, my favorite places are Puerto Rico and Grand Cayman, but they are both expensive, although interesting and full of night life.

[BeltwayBandit]

If you want absolutely the best SCUBA in the Carribbean (the islands not including central america) I would say hands down Bonaire is the way to go. But, if you aren't into diving, there isn't much else to do. A nice compromise is Aruba or Curacao both neighbors of Bonaire with a bit more to do other than diving and almost as good diving.

 

Of all the diving I did in the Carribbean (Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Tortola, Bonaire, Guantanamo Bay and Key West) Jamaica was by far the worst of the lot. It was still pretty, but lots of dead coral and overall pretty boring in comparison to the other places.

 

BB

[cabrerad]

My fiancee and I are going to be married next May (2008) and we're trying to find some places for our honeymoon. We've almost settled on Sandals Ocho Rios in Jamaica, as it seems like a nice all-inclusive place, is somewhat affordable, and includes SCUBA. Neither of us is certified (yet). I'm not sure if I'll be getting certified prior to the trip or not.

 

I posted a thread on RC about diving in Jamaica and I got no replies, but one person PMed me and said that Ocho Rios does not have very good diving. He said that there was too much freshwater pouring in from the Dunns River, and that has caused barren reefs. He also said that Jamaica has also been overfished.

 

We're trying to keep things under $5k including airfare, but there might be a bit of wiggle room depending on how much better another place is.

 

Matt,

 

I would not recommend Jamaica for diving. It is far from the best. The person giving advice on RC is right on the money. If you can swing it, I would strongly recommend getting certified before your honeymoon. The reason I say this is twofold. First, I don't think you will want to be taking class and studying books on your honeymoon. Even a compressed resort style open water course is going to take a big chunk of time to complete (think 2.5 to 3 days all day). Second, I am not a big fan of the quick compressed resort courses you would have to take on your honeymoon (and I'm an Instructor). You will get a better experience and end up a better diver taking a course at home that last several weeks. One thing you can do is take all the course work and confined water (pool) before you go and get your instructor to certify what you have completed. You can then do your open water checkout dives (usually 4 dives) on vacation with another instructor (you will need to contact the dive shop in the honeymoon destination ahead of time). There is also the possibility of doing a resort course (not a complete cert and you have to dive under supervision) where you get to experience scuba diving in shallow water. If you have questions on the different possibilities just ask me.

 

 

What are you looking for topside ( good food, night life or not so much night life, lots of activities, good beaches)? If you give me the answers to some of those questions I can give you better advice on where to go. Some places have great diving and are more laid back, some are more fast pace. It depends on what you are into. I'll list some additional places (In addition to those Jake mentioned, but if you give some details on what you are looking for I can narrow it down for you):

 

British Virgin Islands (located very close and in ferry range to St. John's (one of the US Virgin Islands)- I used to work there so I know it pretty well.:

 

St Martin/St. Maarten

 

Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, turks and Caicos, St Lucia/St Vincent/Grenadines

 

And there is always Key Largo/Keys/Miami

 

There are some others, but they may be cost prohibitive

 

David

Edited March 20, 2007 by cabrerad

[Mystical Lady]

I have been to Ocho Rios in Jamaica... and several other places in Jamaica.... and I will NOT go back to Jamaica.... ever....... I never went Scuba there but the water certainly didn't look good.... as far as a fun place and wonderful diving.... I would have to say around Cozumel(great party town ), grand caymen(beautiful place!), Nassau,.... lots of other places far nicer and cleaner than Jamaica... IMO...

[Rascal]

Disclaimer: I have only been to 2 places and only snorkelled - not SCUBA yet -- but I'll share my experiences and recommendations if they will help.

 

1) My wife and I honeymooned in Costa Rica. We stayed here: http://www.piratecovecostarica.com/index.html - an eco-resort on Drake Bay. They are a PADI affiliated resort, with multi-day dive and/or scuba packages available. We also took a guided tour in the rainforest for a day. Very primitive (although they now have hot showers, I see). No nightlife other than hanging out with the other guests on the deck/dining area. We absolutely loved it and will almost certainly go back again. I don't remember much about the coral (but this was pre-reefkeeping for me so I wouldn't have even known what I was looking at) but the water was crystal clear and there was an abundance of fish.

 

Our family is about to take our 2nd trip to Culebra, PR. We are staying here again: http://www.tamarindoestates.com/. Waters are crystal clear. The island is literally surrounded by reefs. There is a town with necessary amenities and at least 1 decent restaurant (Mamacita's). Not very expensive, especially if you just get groceries and cook in. I don't know if the scuba is as good as places like Cozumel, Belize, or Grand Cayman, but I seem to remember those places being a little more costly.

[Guest beatle]

The responses have been great, thanks.

 

We're not much into partying at bars, clubs, etc. but the soon-to-be wife wants to do some other water activites like sailing, paddle boat, etc. and have a comfortable place to relax. Good food is important to me, and I think she'd agree. Since it's a honeymoon, we'll be doing more than just diving so the accommodations would have to take priority over good diving.

 

The only diving we have done previously was off Oahu to see turtles. I did not see many reef fish (lots of convict and yellow tangs, however) and some eels. Coral was pretty sparse there as well. We still had a load of fun.

 

Getting certified prior to the trip would be the ticket, but I'm not sure if my fiancee really cares so much about getting her card. She'd be content to just get in the water and see a few things without having to go deeper.

 

I've read about several good places that you all have mentioned (Bonaire, Cozumel, Belize, Cayman) but I've found it's difficult to budget for things aside from the room, airfare, and possibly food. With an all-inclusive, that's easy. Any ideas here on specific places to stay at these places and how much this would set us back for a week? Is $5k a reasonable budget?

[Grav]

I got hitched and honeymoon in Aruba.

 

We were there for 13 days and it rained for about 8 min total.

 

We had a blast with the snorkling, (we are not scuba certified yet) and the island had TONS of stuff to do. All very nice, clean upscale... Again we were there for nearly 2 weeks and didn't get it all done.

[Caribbean Jake]

All inclusive and under 5K .... this sounds like one of those ORBIT commercial..

 

now seiorusly, try Turk and Caicos... good food, good snorkling, relax and pretty, all inclusive and affordable.

 

or you can also check Atlantis in Bahamas... a little pricy but lots of stuff to do in the resort without the need to head out of town

[Guest beatle]

Aruba has a couple all-inclusives (Divi and Tamarijn) that are below budget including airfare. There are also several promising looking hotels with nice digs that would fit in the budget. We could squeeze in a few dive trips into the budget (it's not included at the all-inclusive) and still leave without a big pain in the credit card. Where did you stay, Phil? Recommendations on stuff to do / things to see? Is the whole island nice enough to explore on your own?

 

Turks and Caicos has a Club Med that would also fit under $5k, even with the dive packages, though their website lacks some info at work (can't install latest version of flash). A coworker of mine said he had fun there with his wife, but the scheduling of meals and drinks is kind of disappointing.

[cabrerad]

Aruba has a couple all-inclusives (Divi and Tamarijn) that are below budget including airfare. There are also several promising looking hotels with nice digs that would fit in the budget. We could squeeze in a few dive trips into the budget (it's not included at the all-inclusive) and still leave without a big pain in the credit card. Where did you stay, Phil? Recommendations on stuff to do / things to see? Is the whole island nice enough to explore on your own?

 

Turks and Caicos has a Club Med that would also fit under $5k, even with the dive packages, though their website lacks some info at work (can't install latest version of flash). A coworker of mine said he had fun there with his wife, but the scheduling of meals and drinks is kind of disappointing.

 

 

I Imagine quite a few of the locations suggested have all inclusives, or you could put your own package together using hotwire, travelocity etc. They have hotel +flight packages also. I think you could go to most of these places on your budget except maybe the Caymans. I just looked at packages real quick on one of the sites and they seem plenty reasonable for flight +hotel. You could check out the island, activities and diving and choose a location you like, then worry about budgeting. St Maarten/St Martin, for example, is fantastic for top level food.

 

You can also go to scubaboard.com and do a search to get lists of all inclusives and additional info on these locations.

 

here's an all inclusive in Curacao:

 

Sunset Waters

 

 

 

David

[rooroo]

My husband and I went to St Lucia for our honeymoon. We stayed at the Sandals Regency there. Nice thing about St Lucia and Sandals is they have 3 Sandals resorts within 30 minutes of each other, so if you get bored with one you can visit the other during the day. We however only left the resort for a 30 minute snorkel trip and a shopping trip to Castries. There was more than enough to do at our Sandals so we didnt need to go to the others.

 

THe snorkeling trip we took was great! The reef looked really young so was really just a bunch of boulders with some polyps growing on them, but there were a lot of beautiful fish. It was only 30 minutes but by the end of 30 minutes the free snorkeling gear was squeezing the blood out of my face and feet so I was ready to get out of the water.

 

We went in October, and the whole reason we chose St Lucia is because its out of the hurricane belt AND I booked our trip while Sandals had their 50% off sale, which they seem to do every spring for the fall vacation season. Also, St Lucia is very tropical and lush, as the whole interior is covered with a rainforest. It was a lot of fun and I really look forward to going back anywhere in the Caribbean, but especially St Lucia.