LAleslie

lbj, don't want to hijack this thread, but my husband wants to get recertified in scuba somewhere good, and would consider a liveaboard. Any recent dive destinations that won you over?

SandraJoy

LAleslie:
For scuba certification and a great experience diving: Watersports Adventures, Kauai, Hawaii. Gregg Winston owner and Master diver. They also provide snorkle reef tours which benefit the "Save our Seas" organization.

Read about him in Lonely Planet Hawaii:

lbj2

LAleslie,

When are you planning on going? Is this for your trip to Asia?

The liveaboards that I looked at and went on were mainly seasonal.

A number of liveabroads will not offer basic certification, though will offer more advanced courses.

To get the most out of the experience, it is advisable that you are able to do night and deep dives.

In Thailand, I would only go back to the Similan and surrounding Islands - about 100km west of Phuket. It can be busy at certain times of year.

Philippines, Palawan, great diving. Check out El Nido, wreck diving in Coron and the liveaboards to Tubbataha reef.

Highly recommended, though have not visited;

1) Borneo Liveaboards that incoporate Sipidan (GF highly recommends)

2) Micronesia

3) Indonesian Liveaboards - incredibly remote.

Kavey

The economy per se hasn't affected our travel this year as much as I thought it might at one point. Both of us are self-employed and both our contracts have been renewed. Mine to the end of the year with good chance of extending into next year (I've been here over 2.5 years already on what was initially a 3-4 month contract). Husband's contract is similarly likely to be extended. No guarantees but, equally, no cause for concern.

Our main reason for keeping the spending low this year is to balance last year. We went to Islay with friends, had 3.5 weeks in Kenya/ Tanzania (not a budget trip, that's for sure) and then spent 4 weeks away for the Antarctic trip with Buenos Aires bolted to end.

The numbers we spent were shocking even for me so felt we really needed to spend much less this year to balance. So we've had one week in Brittany staying at friend's parents' house (accommodation free, main costs = car crossing, petrol, road tolls and food). We'll soon be spending a week in Dorset - we always do one week in UK every year for which we and huge group of friends hire a massive self-catering property. Works out very cheap between so many. And we'll be spending a week in Germany attending a friend's photography workshop in a 13th abbey. We'll be paying only 25% of the course fees each plus the accommodation costs plus return flights. I've also bolted on a couple days before and after the course to make it a week long but spending overall won't be that high.

Oh actually, we do have one vaguely more expensive trip - 4 days in Lapland with friends and their kids just before Christmas.

Next year I want to do a longer trip again. Am thinking on what / where so I can get started planning.

Madagascar is high on the list. Or maybe Costa Rica/ Belize.

Or, of course, a return to mainland Africa safari destinations...

Patty

We definitely won't be traveling as much in 2010 but that's partly because 2008 and 2009 were/are big travel years for us. Even without a downturn, I hadn't intended to keep traveling like that annually. We also spend comparatively less on our Africa trips than most Fodorites (based on what I read here) so for us it's not a question of whether we'd forgo Africa to go some place less expensive as we've spent the same or more on other destinations. We're leaving next month for Kenya and are still considering Africa for 2010 (possibly Madagascar) but if we don't choose to go to Africa next year it will be because of interest in other destinations (blasphemy ).

LAleslie

lbj, thanks so much, really appreciate the suggestions. We've already been to Asia, but want to go back (we only went snorkeling off Phuket, a disappointment--not the further Similans--and also snorkeled in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt), maybe to tack on a dive destination to a Burma trip. My husband was thinking about doing a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef but, liveaboard or no, it sounds like a zoo. Phillipines sounds great, and I'll check out all the other places. As I said, the economy is making us put off a big trip, but we were thinking he could get recertified in Cozumel, Mexico, which wouldn't cost as much, then maybe do Asia later. Or Mozambique. I don't dive, so it has to be attractive to me too.
Kavey, I want your life!

lbj2

LAleslie,

I didn't realise that you were a non-diver. The liveaboards vary in appeal to the non-diver depending on the destination and the type of vessel.

Some destinations will have you close to land, with the opportunity to be dropped of at a remote beach by the dingy. This would probably be ok for a non-diver.

The other type of liveaboard, like over the Great Barrier Reef may not have surrounding islands. Just ocean and reefs. This would mean you are stuck on the boat with no where to go.

Imagine going on safari and just game viewing from camp as you are not very interested in game drives.

Everyone else will be diving 4/5 times a day, talking not only about fish, but gear.

As for the the Great Barrier Reef being a zoo, I would say yes to the parts I have dived. It is more related to the promixity to day divers. This would apply to most places that I have been.

I think the Phillipines could suit you both. Not sure on the budget, though this place is great. It is day diving but the resort is quite remote.

http://www.elnidoresorts.com

Leely2

My finger is on the trigger for another Africa trip (Uganda and Kenya, most likely) but I am hesitating b/c I want to see how the company I work for performs this next quarter. I do have some layoff anxieties and a safari is something I would need to cancel if I were unemployed in this economy, even with savings, etc.

I am trying to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

LAleslie

lbj2, thanks. I'm remarkably patient as long as I can read, maybe snorkel and swim. The idea is to find a place where we can tack the diving part onto somewhere else we'll both enjoy: adding Mozambique, where the reefs are still being mapped, onto a Tanzania mobile, f.e. Or diving in Indonesia/ Phillippines/Thailand onto a river trip in Myanmar, maybe. We were also thinking a few days on a livaboard on the Great Barrier Reef so it wouldn't be day dives, tho we still fear crowds. But all this is at least a year off, with a lot of knocking wood that our retirement accounts beef up a bit. I'm not optimistic, which seems to be the prevailing attitude here, eh Leely?