Best Spring Break Dive Trips for Families

If you’re a parent, you’ve heard these words: “But I want ....” That’s why, when planning a family dive vacation, it’s all about options: The best destinations are those offering tons of activities on and under the water, plus on dry land. Of course, it helps to avoid places with raging night life and hotels with 2 a.m. hallway parades.

Says Pat Miller, shop manager at Dive Maui, of his island, “The sidewalks clear out by 10 p.m. because everybody is getting ready for the next day outside.” It’s a place where friends and families bond over playing on the beach, hiking, surfing, zip lining, and engaging with local culture and history.

As for what to expect underwater, Miller says, “We don’t do extreme.” Dive Maui’s boats provide down lines with underwater buoys, making descents easier for those without ocean-diving experience. One of Miller’s favorite shore dives is the Mala Boat Ramp. At this former pineapple-cannery big-ship pier, the depth averages 30 feet. “You can sight whitetip sharks, eagle rays, a good amount of morays, and all our Hawaiian fish."

The endemic fish tend to captivate all mainlanders — and if your junior divers or snorkelers need a nudge, Miller recommends investing in a laminated ID card illustrating the Hawaiian endemics.

Another tip when planning a family vacation, says Dan Dawson, owner of Horizon Divers in Key Largo, is to remember that you’ve come to spend time together. He suggests divers book only a couple of days on the boat prior to arrival, not a full week.

"It's like going to your favorite restaurant," says Dawson. "Your appetite is bigger than your stomach."

He says some divers aren't ready physically for so much repetitive diving and can get worn out. "Start with just a day or two, then adjust."

Groups can also plan to spend time together, even if some members don’t hold certification cards yet.

“If mom and dad dive, and the kids want to do Discover Scuba Diving, aka DSD, to try the sport, then they are all on the boat in the afternoon,” says Dawson, adding that the minimum age for DSD is 10.

Overall, Key Largo works well as a destination for a family of divers — or divers and snorkelers — because most sites are shallow, within 25 to 45 feet.

One of the best parts about diving the sites off Ambergris Caye, Belize, is that travel times to the reef are only five to 10 minutes from the island’s dive shops.

Dive boats depart from the island around 9 a.m. and return between dives so you can relax for an hour. Family waiting for you? You can usually make two dives by 1 p.m. So if your loved ones aren’t certified, you can still spend the afternoons together, kayaking, paddle boarding or lounging beach-side.

Ambergris Caye is also a good jumping-off point for day trips: Groups can head to the Belize mainland to explore Mayan ruins, go cave tubing, or venture farther offshore to dive Turneffe or Lighthouse atolls.

Best Spring Break Dive Trips for Night Owls

When you’re single and fun-loving, the appeal of the ultra remote dive locale bursting with you-haven’t-been-here-yet bragging rights fades quickly come happy hour — namely the moment when you raise a cold one with the resort’s salty expat owner and no one else. It’s a myth that fish-packed reefs and singles-packed beach bars are mutually exclusive holiday finds. You just need the right airport codes.

Mexico’s international beach town of Playa del Carmen, located about an hour south of Cancun by car, the Bahamas’ capital city of Nassau on the island of New Providence, and Thailand’s backpacker island hub Koh Lanta keep the party going round the clock. Post-dive, you can have a Dos Equis, Kalik or Singha or two, provided you’re smart about timing. (Just because you have dive insurance doesn’t mean you want to try a pick-up line on a chamber technician.)

Related Reading: Diving Grenada: A Sea of Ships

Gabriel Uribesalgo Croda, owner of Tank-Ha Dive Center in Playa del Carmen, says spring is his favorite season because “it’s a little bit crazy here.” To keep partying in check, Croda stresses the importance of hatching a game plan before indulging in your first cocktail of the day.

“Our dives finish at 12 p.m., then you can go to the beach clubs in the afternoon,” says Croda. The Tank-Ha shop is on Fifth Avenue, the town’s main thoroughfare. Bars right on the water, like Wah Wah Beach Bar or Zenzi, start shaking cocktails around 10 a.m., closing at 2 a.m. Around six in the evening, the pace slows for dinner service with dishes like ceviche and tuna tostadas.

Nightclubs, like Coco Bongo and Mandala, keep music pumping until 6 a.m. But those planning to join the morning dive boat will need to exercise discretion, calling it early. After all, you’ve come to see sites like Turtle Reef, home to loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley and green sea turtles. If the night proves too much fun, either delay diving until the afternoon or spend the day on the beach. It’s vacation: Don’t risk an injury.

Nassau is another on-the-beach city where you’ll need to make smart choices given the amount of diving and partying to choose from. Underwater, Caribbean reef sharks and purpose-sunk wrecks prove the biggest attractions, and as we went to press, island operator Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas planned sinking three brand-new vessels — a 200-foot tanker and two tugboats — in prime shark waters.

As for what to do after you’ve hung up the wetsuit for the day, Cove recommends chatting to his dive staff — or asking to tag along.

“A lot of our instructors are in their 20s and 30s, and they know the clubs pretty good,” he says. “They can guide you in the right direction.”

Count on spring-break crowds on Nassau thanks to low on-island costs. The flights are the most expensive piece of the dive-vacation puzzle. Cheap accommodations can be found easily in the Long Wharf area. Plus, Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas offers deep discounts on diving during this season.

“If you have a student ID, you get 20 to 30 percent off,” Cove says.

Travelers richer in time than money might want to try Thailand, one of the world’s most affordable places to dive. At PADI IDC Scubafish, the two-day Scuba Diver course costs $330, which attracts Australian, Japanese and European twenty-somethings looking to take advantage of the wildly favorable exchange rates. Deals like this persuade many backpackers to stay indefinitely — and thus the international party atmosphere stays thriving. Come night, tiki torches light a bar-lined beach where rugs have been laid across the sand, inviting visitors to lounge with a cocktail, a dish of pad Thai, and one another.

Best Spring Break Dive Trips for Relaxation

The word “nightclub” is polarizing. There comes a milestone along the path to a certain kind of maturity when the mention of one makes you crave the sanctuary of bed — ideally one where you hear waves lapping ashore and perhaps a few tree frogs. If this describes you — regardless of age — there are several destinations where, come spring, life moves at a pace that allows for enjoying the small things.

Take Fiji. Nobody goes to Fiji for the night life. They go for beach-side bungalows straddling turquoise water, and jungle-covered hillsides and reefs where soft corals fight for real estate.

“Spring is the tail end of our quiet season — there aren’t as many people around, so service is more personalized,” says Sally Cooper, director of events for Fiji Tourism.

Underwater, the soft-coral capital of the world isn’t without big thrills, and spring is prime time for a few occurrences.

“Bull sharks are coming back after mating and giving birth through Fiji summer — your winter,” says Cooper, of Beqa, a satellite island to the main landmass, Viti Levu.

In the Yasawa Island chain off the northwest side of Viti Levu, Manta Ray Island Resort sees its namesake pelagic winging in late March through September. Big animals aside, this island nation is also known for sheer walls where hot pink, orange and white soft corals provide curtains for troupes of anthias and fusiliers.

If you spend les vacances de printemps in French Polynesia, a country of atolls and islands east of Fiji that’s legendary for over-water bungalows, you’ll find waters teeming with sharks — nearly every island offers a different predator experience. Off Tahiti proper, you can drift dive sites such as the White Valley, where you’ll likely encounter blacktips, lemon and gray sharks.

The bigger thrill is pass diving, found on islands including Fakarava, Rangiroa and Moorea. It’s not your quad muscles that power you along this dive, but rather a changing tide. While it carries you, it also carries fish into the maws of dolphins, sharks, shoals of big-eye jacks, and any other nearby opportunists.

Related Reading: The Vibrant Visayas: Scuba Diving in the Philippines

Like Fiji, in Tahiti, you get your kicks during the day, then content yourself with stargazing, conversation and perhaps a nightcap come day’s end.

Same with Roatan, one of the Honduras Bay Islands. There’s some action in the town of West End, but even the bands and small crowds call it a night by 10 p.m., says Pasquale Paonessa, owner of Las Rocas Resort.

Same with Roatan, one of the Honduras Bay Islands. There’s some action in the town of West End, but even the bands and small crowds call it a night by 10 p.m., says Pasquale Paonessa, owner of Las Rocas Resort.

It’s mainly a one-sport island, with most dive boats casting off close to sunrise. According to the island’s Franko map, there are 174 named sites spanning every coast. It’s no wonder most travelers come to spend daylight swimming alongside turtles and green moray eels.

“The busiest hour for night life here is around 6 p.m.,” says Paonessa. “Everyone likes to have a couple of drinks while watching the sunset, and then they’re done — it’s time for sleep.”