Which port for diving - southern Caribbean

Will be headed to southern Caribbean on RC cruise in late August. Going with family and I usually get to pick one port to go off diving.

My port options are: St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados.

Looking for advice as to which port is best for diving. I'm a newer diver, certified in August 2016. Probably won't do Barbados as we will most likely end up doing an excursion to swim with the turtles.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Will be headed to southern Caribbean on RC cruise in late August. Going with family and I usually get to pick one port to go off diving.

 

My port options are: St Maarten, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados.

 

Looking for advice as to which port is best for diving. I'm a newer diver, certified in August 2016. Probably won't do Barbados as we will most likely end up doing an excursion to swim with the turtles.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Not Antigua.

St Maarten - OK.

St. Kitts & St Lucia - IMO are the best of the list. Google for shops. I do not recall shops.

John

All but Antigua have good options.

Antigua the problem is the diving is down by English Harbor, a good trek from where the ship docks; and the diving is not worth the hassle or expense.

Barbados is nice diving, and there's a great operator there: West Side Scuba Centre (http://www.westsidescuba.com). Peter and Heather there make diving simple, by meeting you at the port. However, it sounds like that might be a no go for you.

St. Lucia is nice if you get out by the Pitons. I've used Scuba Steve's there. If you dive there they make it super easy. The dive boat picks you up at the ship's pier. By all means pay the upcharge for whatever they all the extra package to go out by the Pitons. If you don't you won't get the nice experience, as you'll be close to the river outlet, and visibility can be poor. (http://www.scubastevesdiving.com/)

St. Kitts is nice diving, and one of my favorite dive operators is there, Dive St. Kitts. They also provide port pick up and return, and just do a nice job all the way around. One caveat, the port pick up service is notoriously disorganized. They've always been there, but it's never quite as simple as it could be. Nonetheless, it's less than a 10 minute ride from the port to the shop,a nd there are lots of nice dive sites. (http://www.divestkitts.com)

St. Maarten has Octopus Diving. They have operations on both the Dutch side, where the ships dock; and the French side. I've dove both with them, and there is NO benefit to going to the extra hassle and expense of going to the French side. On the dutch side, you can either take the water taxi to their shop at Bobby's Marina, or walk. It's probably 10 minutes from the ship's exit to walk to the shop. The dive boat will return you to the water taxi dock in the port area, so that's even more convenient. Angie at the shop on the Dutch side is a doll to deal with. (http://www.octopusdivingsxm.com)

With your itinerary I'd rank the ports like this (honestly the first three are so close they could be a tie):

#1, Barbados: Great diving (including the Stavron Ikita wreck dive), a great dive operator, and convenient port pick-up/drop off. However, your other commitments may knock this out. If that's the case, no problem. Lots of good options left.

#2, St. Kitts: Great diving again, especially for the newer diver as there are lots of interesting shallower sites; with several good small wreck dives. The operator is super, and the port pick-up/drop off is convenient enough.

#3, St. Lucia: Probably the better reputation for diving than my first two pics, and that reputation isn't wrong; but it's not as nice as my first two in my opinion. Also the diving here is a little more pricey. However, the pick-up drop off at the ship's pier is super nice.

#4, St. Maarten: While this is nice diving, and well worth it, it just loses out when compared to the others. Please don't take this as advice not to dive there. We're dealing with four places that would probably all make my worldwide top 25 list.

Distant 5, Antigua: Not worth trying to get to the diving, which is expensive, and nothing outstanding.

Harris

Denver, CO

PS: I typed my post while J&K above posted his. You can see there's a lot of agreement on your good bets. You really can't miss.

Awesome info. Thanks John and Harris. I have been to St Maarten and St Kitts before, but not diving, so I was probably leaning towards one of those places since I have already seen those islands.

I have friends that have recommended Dive St Kitts and Octopus, so comforting to hear it from other sources!

I'll second two points from Harris's post.

Dive St. Kitts is an awesome company. Great service and staff. We've dived with them twice and would love to again.

In St. Lucia pay the extra to go to the Pitons. The preserve is amazing. The locations closer in are so-so.

Van

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Ditto St Lucia...but the ship's operator there routinely goes to the Pistons and our group on our one day was only 5 compared to 15 on Scuba Steve ( I didn't like their no refund if the ship doesn't dock policy).

Dive St Kitts were outstanding!

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I absolutely agree with St.Kitts and St Lucia.

We dove with Dive St Kitts, and I just sent off an email to them to see if we can dive with them again next month. I was not expecting the diving to be as good as it was there, since it is not really known to be a dive destination. I hope the secret doesn't get out! LOL

In St. Lucia we dove with the ship excursion. Carnival uses Iyanola, not sure about other cruise lines. We have never had more than 6-7 on our boat and no extra to go to Pitons. If dives are called due to weather, full refund.