Best island for SCUBA

[Capt. JC]

We will be visiting St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten (Carnival Victory - March 2011). If we only dive one island, which island (and dive operator) would be best?

[w&k]

Wow - only one.

 

If I had to pick only one it would be St. Kitts with Kenneth's Dive Center. We've been diving with Kenneth, Vajai, Gail and the crew for years. http://www.kennethsdivecenter.com

 

St. Lucia - Great reefs, but ranks low with me for typically having odd port times, and the diving is difficult to get to. The ship's dive is typically done with Scuba St. Lucia, and is very expensive for a follow-the-leader time limited dive. Most folks that can book outside the ship have a much better dive experience, but it's still quite spendy, and the good diving appears to be far away from the cruise ship. We take a tour.

 

Barbados - We have had some fantastic reef diving (and a good shallow wreck) with John of Dive Barbados. Great vis! http://www.divebarbados.net

 

St. Thomas - we will be there twice (we're doing a B2B with Adventure of the Seas), and will be diving both times.

 

First visit, we are going to go out with just the 2 of us and do a boat dive with Pete at the Coki Beach Dive Club http://www.cokidive.com.

 

Second visit, we are going with a group of divers from our ship with Blue Island Divers http://www.blueislanddivers.com We got smacked around a few years ago diving the WIT Concrete a few years ago, but they have had a management change, and we thought we would try them again.

 

I have no experience with St. Maarten as far as diving goes, but the general opinion is that the good dive sites are located in open water, which can get quite rough.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Wendy

 

dive pix

http://community.webshots.com/user/wendyandkeith

 

dive reviews

http://wendyandkeith.webs.com/

[Laurie S.]

I have dived St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Thomas. St. Lucia wins hands down, the beauty is incredible. Do the Superman's Flight dive at the base of the Pitons. Go with Irwin ("Papa"), who has a booth at the small cruise terminal. He is great!

 

Second best was St. Thomas. I dove with Blue Island Divers there.