Scuba: St. Maarten or St. Thomas?

[sandy l]

We are cruising to St. Thomas and St. Maarten in 2 weeks. There are 11 of us...only 3 certified divers. We would like to all go together and all would like to try scuba. Anyone have a recommendation of which island and a dive operation?

[afiremedic323]

St Thomas Blue Island Divers. http://www.buleislanddivers.com I have dove with them before and they were not bad, picked you right up at the dock and returned you. Im not sure about your group of non divers though. shoot them a e-mail if its a week day they usually get back to me within 12 hours.

[bruce-r]

We are cruising to St. Thomas and St. Maarten in 2 weeks.

Wouldn't recommend St. Maarten for diving, IMO

 

There are 11 of us...only 3 certified divers. We would like to all go together and all would like to try scuba. Anyone have a recommendation of which island and a dive operation?

 

I'd check out http://www.cokidive.com

[Nannerz]

Go to Coki Beach Dive Club. I can't say enough good things about them. If you have a lot of beginner divers, this is the best place to learn. I did a Discovery Scuba class with them a couple of weeks ago and felt more comfortable with the shore dive, rather than jumping off the boat my first time. The instructors were super nice and the reef right off the beach was full of fish and other wildlife. Great first dive experience!

Best part was they had a guy at the shop shooting the whole dive in high definition video, for only $60!! The crappy underwater cameras on the ship were over $30!! I got back to the boat, uploaded some clips to youtube, posted on Facebook, and sent it to my coworkers! Looks like something from Discovery Channel. haha!

Coki is next door to Coral World and has excellent snorkeling, food & drink vendors too. So if someone decided they didn't want to dive, they could find something else to occupy them.

[sandy l]

Thank you for your recommendations. We have booked a trip to coki beach....can't wait.