St. Lucia or Barbados?

[Cap'n Jack]

I can do a discover dive on only one cruise stop and have narrowed it down to either St. Lucia or Barbados. I'm leaning towards St. Lucia, but would love to get comments from anyone who has done both. I'm planning on going with snorkelers, so if that makes a difference, let me know.

 

Also, any opinions or experience with Dive Fair Helen on St. Lucia?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

P.S. My first post!

[10X]

I've never done "discover scuba" but I am a scuba diver. From what I've been able to determine, Barbados isn't the diving mecca of the world. Diving is reportedly very spotty there and is best in the fall.

 

I've done some diving in St. Lucia with Island Divers and I've been very happy.

 

You might want to search here and see what you find about Dive Fair Helen. It seems to me that there was a recent post where someone did not like their operation due to over-crowded boats and too many snorkelers. I could be wrong but it's probably worth doing a search.

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks 10X! I think I read the post you are referring to.

 

I have done several discover (or resort) scuba dives over the years; I've never found the time to get certified. I am going with my 14 y.o. daughter who has done it once in very poor conditions. I want her to experience what a good dive can be like. My other daughter and wife are not willing to try diving so they will snorkel.

 

In addition to my other research, I just read another post by the wife of a diver who said that St. Lucia is definitely the better choice over Barbados, so I am going with St. Lucia. I contacted Dive Fair Helen, Island Divers and Scuba St. Lucia. Just have to pick one. I am leaning towards Island Divers. I assume your experience with Island Divers was good, right?

 

Anyone else with an opinion?

[10X]

I have dove with Island Divers for two consecutive years. I have enjoyed my dives with them and would not hesitate to go back.

[robtulipe]

Actually Barbados is a coral island geographically and has an excellent reef surrounding the island which I have SCUBA dived many times. Dove there two weeks ago with West Side Scuba Center while on a Serenade of the Seas port stop and that's where I saw a humpback whale I posted about. They were going out for a resort course dive with cruise passengers after we had done our two certified diver dives.

I also have done dives in St.Lucia and the wall and seamount dives below the Pitons in Soufriere Bay are awesome dives but aren't in the resort dive category. Fairyland reef at Anse Chastanet, just north of Soufriere Bay is one of the best reef dives I have done and I didn't go deeper than 25 feet.

So both locations are good so pick the one that fits your schedule the best.

Sorry, no experience with Dive Fair Helen there.

[stingraynz]

St Lucia - We did a shore dive from the Anse Chastenet beach and then a boat/drift dive at the base of the pitons. Awesome!!

 

If you can do a resort dive from the Anse Chastenet beach I would absolutely go for it!

 

St Lucia was my favourite dive destination in the Southern Caribbean.

 

I liked it 100% more than Barbados. Incomparison I would not even dive in Barbados next time visiting there. I thought it was just OK! However, we did not see whales like the OP did. If fact we did not see much. St Lucia in comparison was very rich in life especially huge coral formations.

 

I do not have experience with the dive ops you mentioned for St Lucia. We used the Anse Chastenet Resort dive shop. We really liked them.

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

Stingraynz, I thought that Scuba St. Lucia promotes themselves as the dive shop for the Anse Chastenet resort. Was it a different company name you used?

[robtulipe]

The thing I liked about Barbados is that its reef is almost continuous or completely surrounds the island so you can do drift dives but without the very strong currents of say Cozumel. At the end of your underwater travel in one direction you surface to a waiting dive boat. I've vacationed on Barbados three times from 10 to 14 days and always enjoyed the diving there. The reefs I've dove on have been top notch and I have seen sealife there I haven't seen elsewhere underwater like the humpback whale (although not the norm), sea robin fish and seahorses as well as other more common ones. I agree it doesn't have the walls and seamounts of a volcanic island like St. Lucia.

[stingraynz]

Cap 'n Jack

 

You are absolutely right, Scuba St Lucia is located right on the beach at Anse Chastenet Resort. As soon as you mentioned it I recognized the name. That shore dive from the beach was excellent for small animals and large corals.

 

Robtulipe - thanks for poasting back. You may have convinced me reconsider and try Barbados and west end scuba again. Because on my last southern cruise it really was a disappointment after St Lucia.

[TPCRUISER2]

Thanks For The Input On St.lucia And Barbados!

You Have Not Made It Easy To Pick One, Going To Both In November.