Where can one go to vacation on A budget
 

I was thinking it would fun to vacation somewhere we could dive and enjoy the beach but not looking to spend 7k any ideas? Biggest bang for the buck?

cozumel.

The florida keys, but dont stay in key west it will be twice as expensive.

Check out St. Vincent. Various options from inexpensive to expensive.

Philippines. The expensive part is the flight; $1K to 1.5K and 24 hours of flight, but the diving is fantastic, inexpensive, cool things to do and the people are great.
Moalboal, Bohol, Mactan, Siquijor; just a few of the places I've been that are fantastic and cheap.

Mexico - Playa del Carmen or Puerto Morelos.

Egypt! The reef is just outiside the hotel.The red sea is spectacular.

+1. find a not all-inclusive hotel, there are a few of them on the south side of town. No beaches there, but plenty of beach everywhere else. and good diving and snorkeling also.

take a cruise through the caribbean and buy the scuba or snorkel tours

I totally agree. By far, the best bang for the buck. Add Batangas to the locations above.

guam or palau. palau is amazing

On a budget, Cozumel. Offers some very nice package deals.

My wife and I went to Cozumel over Thanksgiving. It was very affordable. We stayed at Casa del Mar. They have a dive shop, and the divemasters are great. Totally different diving than what you will find in other areas. Its what they call drift diving, so once you are at depth you just scoot along at a pretty good pace. You do have to swim to stop and look at stuff, but it was great diving.

Cuba! I just got back a few weeks ago myself. Awesome prices, people, beaches and reefs.

has anyone done puerto rico?? heard some grumblings recently about diving there......its close to US.

Check the prices to Aruba. Its fairly cheap anymore (I wonder why?) and I believe there are non-stop flights from Chicago. Cozumel is always good as well.

Culebra, Puerto Rico. It is one of my favorite places on the planet; I hesitate to tell people to go there sometimes because its so nice without all the crowds...
Its pretty inexpensive to fly to San Juan. From there you can take a 20 minute $60 flight to Culebra, or you can drive 40 minutes to Fajardo then take the $4 ferry to the island. Its a gorgeous little island, not touristy (just avoid it during easter and spring break), lots of reef around it, and you can have entire beaches to yourself if you're willing to walk a short bit from the main roads. Rooms and good food are cheap, people are friendly, and you don't need a passport.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...hdriftwood.jpg

Hormigaquatica,

looks BEAUTIFUL. i know the day will come when i cant readily step out my front door and be in the water in 5 minutes.........im gonna need my scuba fix when i get back stateside. this looks reasonable.

do you have any underwater shots?


c

Im afraid I don't have anything worth posting. Most of my underwater cameras were ruined on my last trip there, and the ones that werent wound up getting messed up by the photo processing place here. I was So aggravated about it.... I'll go back and get more ;)

I'm from Puerto Rico, yes we are us territory... no passports needed here, reef's and beaches are from the best all around

here a couple of pictures around the island, enjoy

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...68128176_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...16675248_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...07_59801_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2187627_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4516882_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...82966338_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4976343_n.jpg

some upper water pics from reef's no underwater cam

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...35594998_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...45451883_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...44733839_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...73802058_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...45394575_n.jpg

Thanks for sharing xavi! Very nice pics,must be nice to have that in your backyard.

you're welcome, yeah makes u never wan't to leave =)

Have you thought about bon air?? its in mexico and my local dive shop makes annual trips because it is very inexpensive, low key, and almost all of the diving is done off shore