Going to Providenciales, Turks

[clownchic]

What are the best places to dive? We are going the last week in July.

[agilis]

Flamingo Divers, about mid-island, near Flamingo salt pond, in a nice little boat basin, runs trips out to the drops offs: nice people. very nice diving, small groups, but the really good reefs are at least an hour away. they do two tank dives only, takes most of the day out and back. computer required.

Inshore around Provo is mostly flat and sandy, and the amount of new construction is staggering. Grand Turk is much closer to the best diving, quieter, nicer. Provo has those resort beaches for lounging around, but they are idicative of long sandy shallow bottoms. Most corals on north side, where the only inshore snorkeling is, have been damaged by construction connected pollution and silt, plus great numbers of people.

[maxima k2]

I am going to North Caicos next week, I will let you know. I was in grand Turk a few years ago, it was ok for coral but the other sealife was great. I got ill on the second to last day and couldn't equalize so I hung out on the boat. Even on the boat I got to sea a turtle hanging out near by. When I asked any of the divers about it they said they didnt see it. Kind of lucky, I suppose.....

[clownchic]

Please do, thanks!

[maxima k2]

I found that the islands are changing quite a bit. Not for the better I am sad to say. As far as Provo goes there are a ton of sites to visit within an hour boat ride, just depends what you want to dive. My first day I dove Grouper Point it was nice, between 60 and 90 feet. There is alot of damage to the coral heads there, dont know why. My wife was having trouble with bouyancy so we headed to another place, dont know the name but the entire dive didnt hit 30'. that area was busy with fish and coral. If I were to go back today I would go to Grand Turk before they put the cruise ship dock in.:mad2: I thought that area was the best for diving for the time being.

[clownchic]

I have heard that there is some damage to the reefs from a couple of friends. So you would recommend Grand Turk as a good place to dive? I've been to the site by a local dive shop on the island (www.diveprovo.com) and looked at some of their suggested dive spots. I appreciated what you shared now I know to check things out more.

[maxima k2]

Yes I would reccomend Grand Turk! If you can get there, go! We stayed there and dove with http://www.oasisdivers.com/ . These people were great. The wife and I overslept one day and they came to our hotel room to wake us up. They held the boat and off we went. Diving over the drop off is unreal.

[maxima k2]

Almost forgot, if you can take the trip to Gibbs cay it is alot of fun.

[NowasReef]

How was the Turks trip?

[clownchic]

It was great! We went on 9 dives (one was a night dive - highly recommend that). The reefs consisted of many plating corals, gorgonians, sponges and SPS. There weren't many soft corals (leathers etc.). Wide variety of fish. We went in July so we saw many schools of juvenille fish. Rays, garden eels and turtles on every dive. We saw three sharks (2 reef and one nurse). Baracudas on every dive. They liked to hang out around 20 feet and watch us as we leveled off for 5 minutes at the end of our dives.

We dove with a company called diveprovo (www.diveprovo.com). They were absolutely wonderful. Dives in turks are all boat dives. Snorkeling really isn't an option there. We only heard of 2 spots to snorkel and tried both - marginal. I wore a shorty wet suit on every dive. I would have been too cold without it. Most dives lasted 55-65 minutes. "The Aquarium" was a great dive site for looking at fish.

Overall I would say it was great but I think Grand Cayman had more colorful corals and fish.

[NowasReef]

Excellent!!! I'm surprised you said the water was cold...I was there a few years ago in May and had no problem....I just snorkeled tho....I thought the snorkeling was pretty good....went to coral gardens every day...and went on one trip out to the reef where was a lot of fish, turtles, shark...even saw a HUGE ray....also stopped by I think it was called pine cay...snorkeled in like 6 feet of water with thousands of white sand dollars below...where did u stay? want to go back at some point....any pics?