Dive travel is exciting. Sometimes, planning it – whittling down the shortlist, choosing dives,  and places to stay – is also a bit of fun. On the other hand, the “wrong” holiday or a bad choice can be an expensive hassle. In the first part of this series, we look at some of the planning involved in finding a great diving holiday.

Budget

We don’t want cost to dictate everything but the fact is, if you haven’t got the money, you can’t buy your object of desire.

Cheap, luxury or in-between

Consider the cost of flight/transportation, accommodation, dives and other necessities. Generally speaking, places like Cozumel are considered accessible and cheap for North Americans while Egypt is a good one for Western Europeans and Bali/Indonesia for Australians.

Time

Consider the time required for travel, diving and non-diving activities. You will always find there is never enough time on a good holiday.

Remember the mandatory no-fly time between your last dive of the holiday and your flight. Plan the last day as your non-diving day.  Make sure you plan this into your itinerary.

Where do you want to go?

Location should be easy to decide – or so you would think. You have a place in mind half way around the world but you only have ten days for your holiday? Cross it off your list.

Do you want to holiday somewhere and get in some diving on the side or do you want to prioritise your diving? If you are planning on doing three or four dives daily, there will be precious little time left for other activities. Friends of mine who did two weeks of diving in Costa Rica were kicking themselves because they didn’t plan in enough days to take in the spectacular wildlife on land (they’d thought they’d have enough time on their afternoons off from diving).

Research your location:

• Is it a place where you’ll feel safe?
• Will you be happy spending your hard-earned holiday time and money there?
• Is it relatively easy to get there?
• Can you get the required travel visas or permits? There are many dive sites in the world where it is not possible to just turn up because it is protected or the numbers are controlled for conservation reasons.

Non-diving companions

This is one of the necessary compromises in life. You may want to accommodate for family and friends with interests and priorities different from yours. You want a place that will accommodate and entertain people who don’t dive and aren’t interested in keeping up with the divers. If this is the case, rule out the liveaboard. You can also rule out the dive resort in the middle of nowhere with nothing else to do other than dive.

Type of diving

Wrecks or reef, liveaboard or land-based? If seasickness is a problem, consider the liveaboard carefully.

Do you have the necessary equipment? If you’re planning on Arctic ice diving, you will not be able to use your tropical regulator.

Do you have the adequate training and experience? Diving on an aircraft carrier at 40 metres may sound very exciting but you’ll need proper training and certification.

In part 2, we’ll take a look at the important things to sort as your departure date nears.

Happy holiday diving!

Lou

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