Naples, Florida

My wife & I are heading to Naples, Florida next March for a week with her brother & sister-in-law. I am planning on getting some scuba diving in rather than sitting around drinking beer and playing boce. Looking for some recommendations on dive shops/charters and dive sites. Thanks.

Bob

There is some diving in Naples, but much better diving is on the east coast of Florida and down in the Florida keys. There are plenty of reefs and wrecks from Palm Beach south. Mostly dive charters, but there are some beach dives here and there.

Fort Lauderdale is about 1.5 hour drive east. My favorite dive operator there is American Dream II (no affiliation), but there are plenty of others too.

scubaboard.com has a section specific to Florida diving: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-conch-divers/

Enjoy your trip.

I did what you are planning to do, a couple of years ago and was basically told to go to the Keys for my diving.

As one dive store operator put it:

"You have to go about 30 miles out into the gulf to get anything interesting to dive on with decent viz. This means your trip will take about two hours out and two hours back with the average dive boat traveling at 15 miles an hour, and if conditions change on the way out, you will be doing a 2 hour boat trip for nothing. It is much easier to just drive for an hour and a half over to the keys where you are almost virtually guaranteed good diving every day."

As I was in disbelief about his reply, I further inquired as to where they train their new student divers. His answer was, he makes all his students drive to the Keys for their lessons.

Naples and Marco Island are really beautiful places to vacation. I was glad to have had the opportunity to vacation there, and was only disappointed by the lack of good diving.

Not sure what the diving is like north of Naples, but would be really pleased if there were some great sites to dive, as most of the family prefers to go to the gulf side of Florida around Naples, Clearwater, and\or Fort Meyers area for the winter.

I did what you are planning to do, a couple of years ago and was basically told to go to the Keys for my diving.

 

As one dive store operator put it:

 

"You have to go about 30 miles out into the gulf to get anything interesting to dive on with decent viz. This means your trip will take about two hours out and two hours back with the average dive boat traveling at 15 miles an hour, and if conditions change on the way out, you will be doing a 2 hour boat trip for nothing. It is much easier to just drive for an hour and a half over to the keys where you are almost virtually guaranteed good diving every day."

 

As I was in disbelief about his reply, I further inquired as to where they train their new student divers. His answer was, he makes all his students drive to the Keys for their lessons.

 

Naples and Marco Island are really beautiful places to vacation. I was glad to have had the opportunity to vacation there, and was only disappointed by the lack of good diving.

 

Not sure what the diving is like north of Naples, but would be really pleased if there were some great sites to dive, as most of the family prefers to go to the gulf side of Florida around Naples, Clearwater, and\or Fort Meyers area for the winter.

My family lives on Sanibel, and will be there soon. The responses above are the same as I have always received. Venice Beach nearer Tampa has fossil shark tooth diving- most recommend taking a boat trip instead of from the beach. Otherwise, head east young man....