Diving in Belize

[DXHippie]

Hi Everyone,

Been a long time since I posted on RC, but wanted to stop by here, and see if anyone had experience diving in Belize. I'm getting married soon, and we are going to honeymoon down there in late September. I heard that it is a great time of year, but did not know what to expect from the diving.

Any suggestions and expertise on the whole thing would be great. We already have booked accomodations, and will be staying in San Pedro area.

Looking forward to reading your all's responses.

Thanks,

DXHippie

[DivingTheWorld]

The diving is good, very similar to other parts of the Caribbean such as the Cayman Islands or Roatan. If you're an avid diver and have been around the world, you might find it a bit boring. But if you've dove mostly around the US and Caribbean, you'll like it. If they have options for "adventure" dives such as sharks or lionfish hunting, do it.

We stayed in Hopkins on the mainland which in retrospect was a bad location for diving due to wind and the boats not going out. Where you are going looks like you have more options due to wind so it should make for great diving.

Here's my thread if you want to see some pictures of what it looks like under the water there. Have fun and post pics when you get back!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2506149

[ace_92101]

Originally Posted by divingtheworld

the diving is good, very similar to other parts of the caribbean such as the cayman islands or roatan. If you're an avid diver and have been around the world, you might find it a bit boring. But if you've dove mostly around the us and caribbean, you'll like it. If they have options for "adventure" dives such as sharks or lionfish hunting, do it.

We stayed in hopkins on the mainland which in retrospect was a bad location for diving due to wind and the boats not going out. Where you are going looks like you have more options due to wind so it should make for great diving.

Here's my thread if you want to see some pictures of what it looks like under the water there. Have fun and post pics when you get back!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?
T=2506149

+1.

[liverock]

http://huracandiving.com/

[hogfanreefer]

We were not too impressed with the diving around Ambergris Caye. Visibility was not great and the topography was very monotonous. Hol Chan had lots of fish, sting rays and nurse sharks but it's a very shallow dive (29 foot max) and there seemed to always be a very strong current. Made for a tough dive some days we dove it.

If you get a chance to take the trip over to Lighthouse Reef/Half Moon Wall, those dives were great. Good vis, several reef sharks, lots of fish. Most places include a couple of dives there as a part of an all day package that includes The Blue Hole as the first dive of the day. Not a super interesting dive but it is a cool thing to see and check off your bucket list. 130-140' dive, 37 minutes total for us. Only dive I've ever done where they had extra tanks with regulators hanging from the ascent line at safety stop depth.

This dive was on the Blue Hole trip.

[WLachnit]

Originally Posted by hogfanreefer

We were not too impressed with the diving around Ambergris Caye. Visibility was not great and the topography was very monotonous. Hol Chan had lots of fish, sting rays and nurse sharks but it's a very shallow dive (29 foot max) and there seemed to always be a very strong current. Made for a tough dive some days we dove it.

If you get a chance to take the trip over to Lighthouse Reef/Half Moon Wall, those dives were great. Good vis, several reef sharks, lots of fish. Most places include a couple of dives there as a part of an all day package that includes The Blue Hole as the first dive of the day. Not a super interesting dive but it is a cool thing to see and check off your bucket list. 130-140' dive, 37 minutes total for us. Only dive I've ever done where they had extra tanks with regulators hanging from the ascent line at safety stop depth.

This dive was on the Blue Hole trip.

Is that a lion fish that he speared at the 4' mark?

[hogfanreefer]

Originally Posted by WLachnit

Is that a lion fish that he speared at the 4' mark?

Yes, he speared several on that dive. The same two groupers followed us the whole dive and ate every one. I also think that was the reason all the green morays we saw were out swimming in the open in broad daylight. I think they're getting fed too.

[WLachnit]

Very cool. Been diving a number of times in the Caribbean with dive masters who have their spear ready for lion fish, but have never seen one.

[hogfanreefer]

Originally Posted by WLachnit

Very cool. Been diving a number of times in the Caribbean with dive masters who have their spear ready for lion fish, but have never seen one.

Slip on down to Curacao. You'll see them on almost every dive. There's a great restaurant in Westpunt that will cook 'em for you.

[Devaji108]

I loved diving in Belize check out glovers atoll.