Travel
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Scuba Diving
I've just became interested in Scuba Diving. I'm looking into a nice tropical place to dive. I've only traveled out of the U.S once so I don't know much about the tropics. I hate westernized islands, I like a more natural feeling and less buildings. Where should I go and not spend a whole lot of money.
Re: Scuba Diving
My H and I just went to Roatan, Honduras in September and it was amazing. It's on the same reef as Belize (the MesoAmerican reef, second largest reef in the world right behind the Great Barrier Reef), and it's some of the best diving we've done. I've heard good things about Belize also, we just happened to get a great deal in Roatan, so that's where we went.
As for the Caribbean, I've heard good things about the diving in Grand Cayman and Bonaire as well, but we haven't been there yet. I'm not sure how westernized they are though.
Belize and Roatan are great suggestions. I would recommend both for the feel you are looking for and diving. Grand Cayman is westernized and expensive.
Belize- Stay on a Caye. Ambergris Caye will give you more to do when you aren't diving than Caye Caulker.
Roatan- Stay in West End. You will find West Bay is more expensive and more of a resort area. The real authentic experience is in West End. Eat at Rotisserie Chicken every chance you get!
If you want to get PADI open water certified, you should look into doing the classroom work and pool dives at home, so when you get there you only have to do your open water dives. When you get to Belize or Roatan you will take the "referral class" to finish your cert. No one wants to spend their vaca in a classroom. Be prepared to freak out a little- it is all worth it in the end. I've seen people give up, and they are missing out on so much!! Stick with it.
I'm so bummed we didn't get to eat there! We went into West End the last night we were there and we were low on cash, and they didn't accept credit (and the only ATM we saw was out of service). So also remember to bring enough cash with you!
Galapagos (in Ecuador) is very popular and scientifically historic.
Colombia has a lot of diving. I'm going to Santa Marta this spring to dive. San Andres (a tiny island located closer to Nicaragua but owned by Colombia) is also great, I hear. My friends have been.
None of those would be westernized out.