Scuba--Barbados or Aruba?

[ellenh]

We leave next week on the Galaxy with stops in Tortola, St. Martin, St Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Curacao and Aruba. It's a divers dream cruise I think. After poring through all the information here I've scheduled dives for Tortola, St. Lucia and Curacao as they seem to get the best reviews. We've decided to just beach it in St. Martin and Grenada. That leaves one more choice: dive Barbados or Aruba? And with whom? We are AOW and have done a lot of our diving in Cozumel so not afraid of drift dives if that is a factor. I'm more into reefs than wrecks, but don't mind a combination. Mostly looking for lots of sea life and a good operator to get us there. Also, best likelihood of good viz and so on.

 

And where we don't dive we'd like to snorkel and maybe tour a bit so that kind of suggestion would be very appreciated as well.

 

TIA!

 

--Ellen

[TheVegasMan]

I dove in Aruba in August 2007. The diversity of the coral and critters was amazing. The water clarity, especially around the 100' level left quite a bit to be desired. Not sure if it was the time of year or if it's always like that, but there was a lot of particulates in the water.

 

In Barbados we snorkeled off Payne's Beach to see the turtles. It was less than 20 feet deep there and quite clear. Besides the turtles I saw a flying gurnard aka flying batfish. Photos below are of turtles and batfish.

 

You can see videos

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[w&k]

Ellen-

 

there is quite a bit of information for those two ports on these threads. Hope it helps!

 

Wendy

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=915650

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=917545

[Tn Travelers]

Aruba's signature dives are wrecks - fairly typical Caribbean seascape and viz is a little low. Been there twice and not really impressed.

 

Barbados is more volcanic, clearer water, lots of fish and a little different. Don't get sucked into diving the STAV - a local wreck - it is deep with chance of current and is usually a short dive. The PAMIR is another wreck that is at 60 ft and a really good dive - lots of open swim-throughs.

 

My personal preference is Barbados - if you like small six-packs try Dive Barbados LTD.

 

St. Lucia and Curacao are my two favorites - by a wide margin.

[ellenh]

Thank you all for your observations. From what you are all saying it would seem that Barbados would be a better bet than Aruba for my preferred type of diving. That's what I needed to know! :) I will give the Dive Shop a try. I wish I could afford to dive everywhere--it's painful to have to choose among good dives but maybe I'll get the chance to dive Aruba some other time.

 

So I will dive in Tortola, St. Lucia, Curacao and Barbados. Sounds great to me! I'll let you know how it all works out.

 

Are we there yet? :D

 

--Ellen