Scuba diving in St Lucia

[Sarosh]

Hi all,

Wife and I are going this June to Sandals Grande St Lucia Resort and was wondering if any of you had any experience of scuba diving here or in general?

It would be our first time scuba diving and therefore I’m told we do need to take part in a course whilst there. Is it worth it and also worth the time as I believe its a half day for the course.

We’ll be there for just 6 days.

It’s something we really would like to try,

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you!


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[teqp]

I can’t speak to St. Lucia, other than I have heard it is a very nice place to visit. I did do the same intro to diving course in Jamaica. As I remember it, it was about half day with it broken up in classroom and pool time. After you complete the course, you can do only 1 dive per day (as I recall) and it was a max depth of 30’. It wasn’t the best diving but it was fun to experience and pushed me to getting certified back home.

[TheVTCGuy]

Take me with you

[Cryten]

There's not much else to do, so missing out on doing some diving would be a shame. The water is warm and you don't need to go very deep to see the wildlife.

I've done a lot of diving in the Caribbean, but not in St Lucia.

I say do it. One thing I learned when travelling is the best time to do something is now. Lying on a beach sipping rum punch is a great way to unwind, but your fist experience diving will be something you'll never forget.

[tyler1980]

i would get certified before leaving. My wife did a course in the UK in october before our honeymoon several years ago. Her open water dives in the late fall and in the UK were brutal

[Sarosh]

Originally Posted by TheVTCGuy

Take me with you

Paul you’re welcome to come, im sure they’ll supply a roll away bed, can wheel you out on the balcony at night and you can sleep under the stars!

I might have a look at seeing where to get certified in the UK, if all else fails I will do it there along with the wife too. Would be nice to experience scuba diving, we both enjoyed snorkelling on our honeymoon in the Maldives. So this will be even better I expect

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by Sarosh

Paul you’re welcome to come, im sure they’ll supply a roll away bed, can wheel you out on the balcony at night and you can sleep under the stars!

Woo Hoo!

[Baco Noir]

You need to ask some more questions. Are they talking full “certification” as an open water diver or just some resort course that allows you to do shallow dives while there? If it’s full certification, you can do the study, coursework and paper test at home before you leave and do your open water certification dives the first day at the resort. I would not do the full certification at the resort - it will take up too much of your vacation time.

[Thatguy]

Sounds like they are offering a discover scuba course. It’s an intro course to try diving to see if you like it but you won’t be certified to dive elsewhere after the course. It’s a good course to see if you would like to pursue Scuba.
I don’t know what agency they teach through but this sounds similar:
https://www.padi.com/courses/discover-scuba-diving
If you know you would like to dive elsewhere in the future I would get the certification at home before you go as mentioned earlier.
I am a DM and have taught these courses so let me know if you have any questions.


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[cm10005]

I did this years and years ago at a Sandals in Jamaica. It’s a resort course and as someone posted before you can dive to approx 30ft. They teach you in a pool how to work the equipment, hand signals and mask clearing. The next day is when you go out on the dive. I’d recommend it cause at the Sandals resorts it’s free to do

[Thatguy]

This thread needs pics too!



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[run23]

Get certified before you go if you have time. When I first dove I did one of those types of dives you are doing. It’s fun, but it’s more of just a glimpse of what actual diving is like than the real thing.

So, if you want to see if you’ll like diving, doing the one day quick thing is pretty cool and fun. But, for the actual experience of being in the water etc, snorkeling is actually better until you’re certified because you have more freedom to roam around and you’re not just worried about the basics of getting down and up for a scuba dive. Again, the one day thing is fun, but if you can get certified beforehand you’ll have an even better experience.

[James K]

I'll counter on the get certified before you leave argument. I did the discover scuba course at Beaches Negril way back in 2007 (same parent company as Sandals) the course was easy and quick and allowed me to still enjoy my vacation in between the course and dives. Not to mention at just under $100 (still about the same price) it's reasonably priced. No one else is going to offer an intro course that cheap and give you free equipment rentals on tip of that. Do it early when you go so you can enjoy/ have the option to do more dives if you like it while you're there.

Now if you were going to do a full certification then I'd consider doing it at home if the price is right. The full course can take a few days to complete and it eats into your vacation. I did my scuba and then my open water and eventually my advanced OW on subsequent visits to different Sandals.