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Planning for a Scuba Diving Vacation

Wherever you have been, you have never been anywhere until you have experienced scuba diving. "Divers explore an alien environment on a life support system," says Jed Livingstone of the National Association of Underwater Instructors. So unless your day job is being an astronaut and careening around the solar system, scuba diving is the closest thing you can get to orbiting the planet without need of a boost.

Our earth, made up of 70% water, is a smorgasbord of scuba diving spots. Here are some tips on  planning for a scuba diving vacation in order to maximize the fun but minimize the hassle.

 Scuba Diving Certification

Scuba diving is a fun sport and almost anyone can enjoy it. However, although scuba diving is a sport that is open to anyone, it is highly standardized. Training and certification are essential requirements. In fact, a full service dive shop will often require you to show your scuba certification card before arranging a chartered diving excursion for you. So before you go on your scuba diving vacation, you should already have undergone training and gotten your certification card from a recognized scuba association.

The two most popular certification courses for scuba diving today are the PADI Scuba Diver certification and the NAUI Scuba Diver certification. Both of these certification programs offer beginner courses that teach you enough skills to allow you to enjoy scuba diving as a recreational sport while on vacation. Once you have finished the beginner course, you have the option to advance to the next higher level.

 Planning Your Trip

First thing’s first, you need to research your diving destination. Sure, there are a number of places to choose from. Hundreds, actually, which makes the process of settling on one choice even harder.

But once you have made your choice for a diving destination, don’t stop there. You need to do more research - flight schedules, connections, possible stopover locations, airlines, health concerns, the whole works.

Because most popular dive destinations are located in tropical countries, certain diseases like malaria can be considered as existential risks that you must prepare yourself for.

Another important thing to consider while researching your dive destination is whether there are other options besides scuba diving available. If your trip is long, you can’t expect to be in the water all the time. In fact, even if your trip is short, you would still probably have some time to kill between your boat ride off-coast and your trip home.

The bottom line is you need other options. Note that the thing with options is that only about one or two operations are going to be advertised while the rest remain largely unadvertised. This is not unusual since some operations simply cannot afford to advertise. However, it does not mean that because one option is not advertised it is inferior to the rest. So keep your eyes open to these unadvertised options. If you are wondering how you are going to find this kind of information,  travel guides and special dive guides may come in handy. They will provide you with useful information for basic research.

Time Frames to Consider…Avoiding Bad Weather

After researching your destination, you may now determine the rough time frame for your trip. Not only because you have a busy schedule, but also because you need to time your trip perfectly in order to avoid bad weather.

Admittedly, most scuba diving destinations in the world are found in the tropics. As such, you will be facing a slightly more different weather pattern compared to what you may have been used to.

For one thing, tropical places have only two kinds of seasons - rainy and dry. And dry does not often mean constantly sunny. In fact, you will most likely experience rain, though not as much as in the rainy season.

Therefore, you need to go on your scuba diving trip when the season is dry and when the rain is less pronounced so as not to interfere with your vacation. This is especially true if you chose a resort based dive operation.

However, if you chose a live aboard trip, then you need not concern yourself too much with the weather. Many live aboard scuba diving trips move around to operate in the best possible conditions all year round.

Budget and Prioritize

Live aboard dive trips have only one general rule of thumb when it comes to costs. The expenses incurred are inversely proportional to the number of passengers aboard. Thus, if there are more people booking the same trip with you, the cost is less. But if the number of passengers goes down, then the cost for the trip increases.

There are also other factors to consider, including the busy time of year and the remoteness of the dive location. When the season for scuba diving is at its peak, then you can probably save some of your travel expenses for your live aboard trip. On the other hand, if you chose a remote location for your dive spot, less people may know about it, which results in less number of people in your trip.

You can keep to your travel budget if you can prioritize among these factors.

How to Decide on a Dive Operator

You have two options. You can either book direct with many different operators who each can take care of a particular area of need in your scuba diving vacation. Or you can use an experienced dive travel agent as your one-stop shop.

Each one of these options provides you with benefits, not often found in the other. Booking with several different operators, for instance, gives you a greater amount of flexibility and may even cost you less.

However, there are also a couple of considerations that make a dive travel agent a worthy choice when you go on a scuba diving vacation. For one, most dive travel agencies operate in a small number of destinations. This means that their expertise and knowledge about scuba diving vacation are specific to these areas. In other words, they can provide you with firsthand knowledge and experience to help you find out what the best option is available for you.

Another consideration is that while dive operators offer discounts for return clients, dive travel agencies do offer discounts as well. In addition, they also offer very good deals on airfares, special deals on check-in luggage for divers, accommodation, and other activities.

Finally, there is the added perk that only a dive travel agency experienced in the business can offer you. That is, they take care of everything single detail so you do not have to spend a big deal of your spare time doing your own research and negotiations.

Choosing the Dive Shop

Rest assured that there will be more than one of these once you get to your destination. The question is which one? Which one can best provide you with everything you need? Which one can mean the difference between a wonderful fun-filled scuba diving trip to a disastrous disappointment?

Here are some ways for you to tell:

  Check out the competition

This is always the first step in shopping. All wise buyers know this. You can apply the same principle when looking for the right dive shop that can provide you with everything you need.

Once you arrive at your destination and before you book your scuba diving excursion, go around the various dive shops. Compare prices, features, and any offered perks. Then note the difference.

  Cheap is not always best

It is natural for consumers to look for the cheapest deals. If you find yourself having to travel on a tight budget, you might have no other choice but to go with the cheaper one.

However, note that when it comes to dive shops, cheap does not always mean that you are getting the best offer. In fact, cheap could mean you will be shoveled into a spare wet suit, crammed into a boat and thrown into the water in groups of ten or more.

So unless you are thrilled by this kind of diving accommodation, don’t get swindled. It is better to let a few dollars sway your decision than end up feeling disappointed.

  Walk away from the hard-sell

Scuba dive operators are always eager to do business with you. However, this should not be an excuse for them to give you a hard-sell. The operator should also understand that you are trying to make a cautious decision. They should not put any undue pressure by offering you an "all or nothing" package. If they still insist, then walk away.