7 day southern Caribbean scuba questions

[edgar72]

My daughter and I would like to do two days of diving.  We are on Voyager of the seas on March 5th.  My daughter is a beginner diver, but I am a former instructor.  She needs a tune up dive and I will get her one before we leave.  That said, her buoyancy needs work, so ideally, I'd like a shore dive with a sandy bottom for the first day where she can just swim around and practice.  I do not want a guided dive on this day. 

The second day, we are open to more options (hopefully her buoyancy will be improved) and would prefer a guided dive here.  Any recommendations on which places to dive that meet the above criteria?  

Ports (in order)

San Juan

St. Thomas

St. Croix

St. Maarten

St. Lucia

Barbados

St. Kitts & Nevis

[ARandomTraveler]

Barbados has some beaches you can easily swim out to dive/snorkel spots from shore. The water is really calm and clear. 
 

I wouldn't recommend San Juan, the water is a little rough and visibility is low.

 

 

 

[dunedinmaiden]

Coki Beach in St Thomas offers easy beach dives!

[Fouremco]

I'd go with St. Thomas for her first dive and St. Lucia for the second. I've done multiple dives at all of the sites mentioned here, but if she's not done a drift dive yet, I'd suggest Superman's Flight: https://blog.padi.com/5-must-dive-sites-st-lucia/

[edgar72]

Perfect!  Thanks so much!  She'd love a drift....I just hope I don't have to keep chasing her...

[Russ Lomas]

I second the recommendation for diving without an instructor at Coki Beach in St. Thomas from the Coki Dive Center.  Very simple and shallow dive.  Took my daughters to Roger's Scuba Shack in Barbados (have dove with him a few times) to do two of their open water dives a couple of years back.  They are located right on the beach on Carlisle Bay (gorgeous).  They have 5 or 6 wrecks right in the bay with very calm water that they frequently dive.  When I return to Barbados, Roger is who I will be contacting.

[kenny]

Cane Bay St Croix is a shore dive, and a good shop right there. Starts sandy and shallow then gets to some good coral about 20' deep then on to 50' and to the deepest wall in the Caribbean about 200 yards out.

 

[akb5k]

Sint Maarten has a lot of shallower dives (40-60ish). It's been a while but when I lived in SXM I dove with Pelican, I think they're now called Dive Adventures. 

[suometar]

On 1/30/2023 at 7:06 PM, kenny said:

Cane Bay St Croix is a shore dive, and a good shop right there. Starts sandy and shallow then gets to some good coral about 20' deep then on to 50' and to the deepest wall in the Caribbean about 200 yards out.

 

 

After Bonaire  Cane Bay in St. Croix is our favorite beach dive. Beautiful beach, easy entry, dive shop right across the road with great dive guides. (Tip:check out the carousel horse which sits at a depth of appr. 20 feet. It makes for a great photo opp.)