• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Scuba Anyone? Who goes diving on vacation?

CPNY

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
7,508
Reaction score
4,392
Points
349
Resorts Owned
Harborside Resort at Atlantis
SVV - Key West/Bella
WKV
Regal Vista at Massanutten
Back in the good old days in the 1990s when diving was excellent in so many places, I went on many dive trips in the Bahamas. I went on a couple live aboard trips to the Southern Bahamas and to Bimini (different trips). The diving was really amazing esp in the Southern Bahamas, where visibility was 200’ everywhere we went. It was pristine and better than Grand Cayman IMHO.

As I told you before, I have been on over 300 dives in my lifetime. I saw my one and only tiger shark in the Southern Bahamas. Sharks are plentiful in the Bahamas, more than anywhere else I have ever been diving, but tiger sharks are rare.

When I was just in STT in June, I did 4 dives. The USVIs are not known for diving. I was actually somewhat impressed because I expected it to be worse. There was one dive site we went to that had 3 swim throughs back to back. I was impressed with the rock formations in STT. However, there were not many fish and the coral was not the best I have ever seen. I went diving with one of the best dive shops I have ever gone diving with named Red Hook Dive Center. We went snorkeing several times, including in St John, and I was not impressed at all.

I’ll be in Maui next spring. Just for fun, I am going to do a couple dives to see what it is like these days. In the past, I was not impressed with Hawaii diving. I think Hawaii snorkeling is pretty bad.

As a diver, snorkeling does not hold a candle to diving. To me, even in the worst dive conditions, diving is still one of the most relaxing activities. Just being down under breathing air in and out slowly is a meditative experience for me.

How did you do on air? We were talking about how to conserve air before your trips.
I’m hoping Maui diving is better than I expect.

I did better on air consumption on this dive trip than I did in my first trip in Bora Bora. I do want to do more dive trips, I’m sad to hear STT isn’t that great for for diving. I agree diving is much better than snorkeling!
 

CPNY

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
7,508
Reaction score
4,392
Points
349
Resorts Owned
Harborside Resort at Atlantis
SVV - Key West/Bella
WKV
Regal Vista at Massanutten
I agree that getting experience in rough diving conditions as well as low visibility conditions can make you a much better diver. My best dive training has been in pre-hurricane conditions with 10+ foot waves and trying to get in and out of the boat with a tank on!
I did get a bit sea sick on the boat. It was very rocky.
 

TravelTime

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
8,092
Reaction score
6,460
Points
499
Location
California
Resorts Owned
All Resale: MVC DPs, Marriott Ko Olina, Marriott Marbella, WKOVR-N, Four Seasons Aviara
I’m hoping Maui diving is better than I expect.

I did better on air consumption on this dive trip than I did in my first trip in Bora Bora. I do want to do more dive trips, I’m sad to hear STT isn’t that great for for diving. I agree diving is much better than snorkeling!

Personally, I enjoyed STT diving better than Hawaii diving. I do recommend trying it. I highly recommend Red Hook Divers. I love large rock formations and swim throughs and we went to some dive sites in STT that have these. Some of the soft coral was good. The hard coral was not good and the fish were not plentiful like in other parts of the Caribbean.

BTW, the diving closer to STT is known to be better than diving near STJ. However, my dive operator said the dive shop in STJ shares the same dive sites as STT. He said the STJ dive operator comes over to STT to dive. Right now, there is only one dive shop in STJ, Low Key Divers. The one on the other side of the island just went out of business. STT does have several dive operators so depending on where you are staying, there are several options.

Overall, my impression of both STT and STJ is that it has never fully recovered from the hurricane. They got hit by the hurricane in 2017, then started to rebuild. Right when things started to look up, Covid hit them. It is just a sad state of affairs on both islands compared to pre-hurricane. To me, both islands look run down compared to before. The Ritz Carlton has done an astonishing job at rebuilding but the rest of the USVIs seem like they are still very much struggling.
 
Top