Diving in St. Martin???

[gcphil]

We are taking a cruise in April and one of our ports is St. Martin. How is the diving in St. Martin? Who do you recommend to go with? Thanks for the advice.

[bruce-r]

What are your other choices? I found St. Maarten diving to be pretty disapointing compared to some of the other, well known, Caribbean diving destinations.

[gcphil]

My other options would be St. Thomas (we do plan to dive here also), Tortola, and Bermuda. We are getting certified before the cruise and will be new divers. We are more interested in reefs than ship wrecks.

[bruce-r]

My other options would be St. Thomas (we do plan to dive here also), Tortola, and Bermuda. We are getting certified before the cruise and will be new divers. We are more interested in reefs than ship wrecks.

St. Thomas is a good choice.

 

I'd definitely pick Tortola over St. Maarten. The wreck of the Rhone is the signature dive there, but there would still be plenty of other sites worth visiting.

 

Bermuda is also known for it's wreck diving, but the water temp there will be cooler, perhaps quite a bit cooler depending on the time of year you are there. It is likely that you'd want additional thermal protection if you dive there.

 

On St. Maarten, I'd go to Orient beach. :cool:

[gmcrow]

We've got a trip report on St. Maarten on our blog. http://www.cruisedivers.blogspot.com and some video at http://www.youtube.com/cruisedivers . I wouldn't NOT recommend St. Maarten. It's not the best place we've ever dove, but certainly not the worst. We saw a nice sized seahorse, an octopus, a HUGE nurse shark, and some rays. Vis wasn't great, but the dive wasn't a disapointment.