Belize or Hawaii??

I'm trying to decide between a trip this summer to Belize or Hawaii; mostly for diving, but also interested in topside scenery. I've never been to either place.

If Belize, I'm thinking of staying on Turneffe Island. Any suggestions on where to stay and who to dive with? What was your experience?

I tend to like the bigger stuff more than the little stuff; Galapagos and Yap have been a couple of my favorites.

Thanks for any advice!

I would go Belize if you are going primarily for diving. I would also recommend that you head further out from shore and dive Lighthouse reef. The vis on Lighthouse is dramatically better. This January, almost every day on Lighthouse was 100'+ with deep blue water.

I only dove on a few sites on Turneffe so I don't know if we were simply in a bad area, of it was at a bad time. Turneffe(East side) averaged ~20-40 with green tinted water.

Topside, if you go on a liveaboard to Lighthouse reef, there will prbably be a stopover on Halfmoon Caye, which is a bird sanctuary. You can also catch tours to the jungle and local Mayan ruins. out of Belize city before and after the cruise.

Hawaii is great for topside sights, but aside from the indemic fish species (which are great), therei is not a lot to be seen on Hawaiian reefs.

It really depends on what you like. Both are great.

If you are into remote destinations, don't care about shopping restaraunts and tourist conveniences go to Belize. The boat rides are shorter there and the soft corals are spectacular. I stayed in Ambergris Cay and dove locally as well as Turniffe/Lighthouse and all are spectacular. Ambergris Cay doesn't have much. The resorts/restaraunts are nice but everything else was third world. The dive operator we took Bradleys from Victoria House is excellent. Very safety concious and accomidating. Often it was just three divers, a divemaster and a captain. There are no beaches on Ambergris Cay, just sand brought in and seaweed past knee deep. Every day some poor souls have to rake the beach. I don't recall on Turniffe.

Hawaii is different. Its everything you expect from the USA. The diving is great for me I like the hard corals and colorful sea urchins/star fish eels etc. The money, language, traffic rules are all familur. I like the polynesian culture. The boat rides are longer and everything is more expensive.

I've been lucky enough to dive both Hawaii and Belize. I was in Hawaii in 2003. I was a bit disappointed with Ohau. The reefs were fairly beat up although there were many turtles, eagle rays and morays to be seen. Also good wreck dives.

I also dove Maui which is excellent. Molokini Crater is a wonderful dive with reef sharks, mantas, etc. It's alot of fun.

I stayed in San Pedro on Ambergris Cay in Belize over New Years 2006. The town is alot of fun, but the beaches are not that great. I dove with Amigos Del Mar which was right outside the Mayan Princess Hotel where we stayed. They were very professional and gave us alot of options to dive each day. The local diving was good, but not exceptional the local night dives were very good though. Lighthouse Reef and the Blue Hole are exceptional dives. The color, life and sea scapes are awesome. Vis is great and is overall highly reccomended. For a great surface interval, I highly reccomend the cave tubing trip through the rainforest.

Take care,

John

I have also dived both places (Oahu and Ambergris Caye) although only 2 dives in Hawaii. One on the mine sweeper Mahi wreck (good) and Turtle reef (no turtles, mediocre dive).

On AC the reefs are very close to shore so quick boat rides! spur and groove reefs, decent fish life (lots of nurse sharks and grouper), 75ft vis. Next time would probably go out to one of the atolls or liveaboard.

Definately much cheaper to dive Belize BTW.

Good luck on your choice,

Doug

Hello!

I would say that Hawaii and Belize are both very different then Yap. For big animal life, Belieze would be the place. We stayed on Tobacco Key and AC in Belize. The diving on Tobacco was pretty great, saw some nice Tarpon...and out of AC we dove the regular sites...Blue Hole (lots of big sharks there) and Shark Ray alley (that one is pretty self explanitory! ) We lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for a year and did 100+ dives there....most all from shore. My husband would rather go back to Belize..better reef life, soft corals, easier diving. But I would rather go back to Hawaii. We saw TONS of turtles, flying gurnard, lots of frog fish, mantas, great nudibranchs and cowries, heard humpbacks....but this is probably because we dove it so much. I think that a lot depends on where in Hawaii you are thinking of going. If the Big island, check with Jacks Diving Locker and they can hook you up with where to go shore diving, and you are much more free to do what you want. I think that you can find great stuff in both places.