We are planning a trip in July to either St. Lucia, Cayman Islands or Turks/Caicos. Some of our plans will include diving. Any recommendations on which island is the best? We are also in looking at beach dives as well as boat dive trips as one of the divers tends to sea sick so we don't want to be limited to just dives via a boat trip (just in case).

Hi klr,<BR>I did shore dives in St. Lucia from the beach at Anse Chastanet.<BR>The water in TCI is extremely calm, and we did only boat dives there. Most of the reef systems are offshore, but there are a couple of small ones close in where you could do shore dives - but they'd be kinda short as they're not very extensive. (At least the ones I saw were, there may be others close in that I don't know about.)<BR>

KLR, Have you considered Curacao? Per Rodale's it is the best location in the Caribbean if you are looking for shore diving. There are supposedly more shore accessible diving locations there than anywhere else in the Carib. Just a thought....

If you want an island with excellent shore diving, check into Bonaire. The whole island is marked along the roads with dive sites. You'd never have to get on a boat!

Here's another vote for Bonaire for beach diving.<BR>

Caymans, water is generally flat and the rides to dive spots depending on your location is short.<BR><BR>Not sure about CI shore dives