cruising in the Southern caribbean

[clochette]

we are going to: San Juan, St Martin, St John Antigua, Castries St Lucia, Bridgetown Barbados, Basseterre St Kitts.

 

San Juan we are there from 3-11 so no plans to dive, how would you rank the other ports in terms of diving?

 

I have found the following dive center that seem to get great ratings any other ideas?

 

In Castries St Lucia Iyanola Dive Ventures has great ratings

 

In Bridgetown Barbados West Side Scuba Center http://www.westsidescuba.com/ good reviews

 

Basseterre St Kitts http://www.prodiversstkitts.com/pages/cruise.html

 

It is our fist time on this itinerary and would love to hear any suggestions as to the best diving locations.

[omeinv]

We've been to the ports, so I may be able to help.

 

For Barbados, you've found the answer. Peter at West Side Scuba will take good care of you. They pick you up and return you to the port. You'll have a good day there.

 

For St. Kitts, I strongly recommend Dive St. Kitts (http://www.divestkitts.com). They do a great job, and again provide port pick-up and return.

 

For St. Maarten, we used Octopus Diving (http://www.octopusdiving.com). When we were there that meant a long cab ride to the French side. Now they have a location right at the port on the Dutch side. I'm sure they'll be good.

 

For Antigua, the scuba is not in St. John's. We dove with Dive Carib Ltd. (http://www.divecarib.com). They had told us to take the public bus from St. John's to English Harbor. This worked, but barely. They had to wait for us, as the buses run on no apparent schedule. The diving was OK. It's a tough call there. In one sense it really wasn't worth the hassle of going down to English Harbour. On the other hand, St. John's is a port that begs for you to go someplace else on the island. If you decide to dive there, plan on factoring in the extra cost for a taxi each way to English Harbour.

 

The one time we were in St. Lucia we didn't dive, but I wish we had. We snorkeled briefly during our shore tour, and I suspect the diving there will be fantastic. Alas, I have no recommendation for a dive op there.

 

Harris,

Denver, CO

[NemoCrownie]

I will second Dive St Kitts. Wonderful crew and really good diving.

 

The diving in St Lucia was wonderful but we dove with Dive Fair Helen and, while the Dive Master was very good, I wouldn't recommend them for a variety of reasons. Scuba Steve's gets the best reviews but I did not like their no-refund policy for things out of your control, like if the ship doesn't port for some reason. I will be interested in your review of Iyanola Dive Ventures as we will be back there in 2018.

[booknerd2011]

We've dove with dive st Kitts and octupus diving as well. Great companies. Would use both again.

[booknerd2011]

We also used iyanola because the cruise ship used them. Despite great reviews, we weren't impressed. Maybe it was just an off day for them.