Beginners Diving Course - Location Advice

[Alexander]

Hi, I'm considering doing a beginners course in diving, such as the PADI Open Water course, however could do with some advice. I have done a lot of searching on the internet for dive packages but am having trouble distinguishing between them. I would be extremely grateful for any suggestions of where to go and what hotel/dive school to use.

How important are seasons in choosing a location? I see a lot of packages to the Red Sea area, is this a good choice, or are there better locations.

I'm looking to spend £500-£600 in total, and preferably flying out on the 23-24th June from a London airport. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards

Alexander

[Mike Halligan]

Red Sea's good and getting quite hot.

You could also look at Calypso on Gozo and consider the BSAC Ocean Diver course. Do this and you can watch the group dynamics of a BSAC Branch on holiday as we will be there - in numbers.

[TerryH]

Hi, I'm considering doing a beginners course in diving, such as the PADI Open Water course, however could do with some advice. I have done a lot of searching on the internet for dive packages but am having trouble distinguishing between them. I would be extremely grateful for any suggestions of where to go and what hotel/dive school to use.

How important are seasons in choosing a location? I see a lot of packages to the Red Sea area, is this a good choice, or are there better locations.

I'm looking to spend £500-£600 in total, and preferably flying out on the 23-24th June from a London airport. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards

Alexander


Another vote for Calipso, but this time Calipso, Lanzarote.
Absolutely guaranteed good weather and loads of nice easy sand/shore
entries, ideal for training.

BSAC Center of Excellence, so you cant get better training, very easy
flights and loads of accommodation from hotels to apartments.

Checkout the website below or bang out an email or PM if you want more
details.

Tel.

[Steve in Sharm]

Hi, I'm considering doing a beginners course in diving, such as the PADI Open Water course, however could do with some advice. I have done a lot of searching on the internet for dive packages but am having trouble distinguishing between them. I would be extremely grateful for any suggestions of where to go and what hotel/dive school to use.

How important are seasons in choosing a location? I see a lot of packages to the Red Sea area, is this a good choice, or are there better locations.

I'm looking to spend £500-£600 in total, and preferably flying out on the 23-24th June from a London airport. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards

Alexander

Check out:

www.explorers.co.uk

and

http://www.explorers.co.uk/DiveBeginner.aspx?DivingID=1

its all within your price range and you fly out from Gatwick. Its a BSAC School and PADI so there is plenty of choice.

Regards

Steve

[David Walker]

Ahhh, so many options!

Red Sea is a good choice, the amount and variety of life you'll see there will far exceed anything you'd see in the majority of the Med or around the Canaries. The down side is that if you're combining it with a family holiday there's not quite so much other stuff to do (depending on what you like, of course). But travelling anywhere from the Red Sea is a fairly major expedition if you like to get out of the resort and see other bits of the country - obviously much easier in the more common tourist resorts like the Med or Canaries. But of course, if you're happy to spend the rest of your time around the pool, playing in the sea, in pubs, a bit of shopping, whatever, then the Red Sea resorts have plenty to keep you entertained.

If you look at somewhere like Lanzarote or Gozo (both already mentioned) then they are both fairly common diving destinations too. However, the life you get there isn't anything like as good as the Red Sea, although instead you'll find a bit more interest maybe in the rock formations, small caves, that sort of thing. Not something you'd do in your first few dives, but by the end of the week you should be able to go and see some really nice underwater scenery... and they're not devoid of life by any means, just isn't quite the same variety and density.

Any resort in Greece and Turkey for example will also have a load of schools, some good some not-so-good, though the marine life there is another step down from the Canaries and Malta / Gozo - the Eastern Med in general seems a bit more dead than a lot of other places.

You might also want to consider doing the lectures and stuff in the UK before you go, and just do the dives when you're on holiday - saves spending your holiday sat in a classroom.

So, summary... pretty much any resort you pick will have dive schools. The balance you've got to make is between the diving and the other non-diving entertainment. The Red Sea is great diving, but resorts can be a bit isolated, if that bothers you? Malta / Gozo and the Canaries are good diving, and the Canaries are obviously very lively - though Malta has a bit of a reputation for being a bit of a retirement place... In the rest of the Med you won't see so much marine life, but again the tourist resorts are very well developed so you can easily keep yourself entertained for as long as you're there.

David