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Jamaica
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Sea temperatures for scuba diving in Jamaica do not vary much from the 80 degree average, but the two main things to consider, when building your plan is tourist season and hurricane season. Off-season for tourists is roughly April to November but Cruise ships will be arriving all year round. For scuba diving in Jamaica this could mean off-season rates being reduced by as much as 60%!
Hurricanes are rare in Jamaica and although they are possible and the high season tends to be from July to November, they are highly unusual but not unheard of. Check your weather forecasts carefully.
Jamaica Scuba Diving: What's to see?
This lovely island has numerous diving locations and the coral reef is close to land, but although the situation seems ideal, there are few fish to observe and the word is that very experienced divers become bored very quickly. If on the other hand you are a beginner, a learner, then this may be an ideal spot for your Jamaica scuba diving adventure.
Jamaica's north coast has a very diverse coral reef structure. Located on the edge of the Cayman Trench, incredible reef walls begin at 60 ft. and drop down to over 150ft. These walls are covered in a large variety of hard and soft corals.
Beautiful elephant-ear, basket, tube, and rope sponge are found in beautiful colours of red, pink, yellow, and orange as well as enormous trees of black coral and gorgonia. The walls here have many overhangs and ledges for you to explore and see lobster, king crab, green and spotted moray eels, and a host of other marine creatures.
As you can see from this map, dive locations are everywhere and every cove, hotel and coastal town will have a dive shop. What you need to do is sort the qualified from the un-qualified to ensure the safety on your Jamaica scuba diving vacation!
As you can see from the map above, there are numerous diving locations. Each small red dot is a good diving site and the larger red dots represent a group of five diving locations. The black lines running around the coast are reef locations. This maybe difficult to see on such a small map but it does give you an idea.
First make sure the group you plan to go with is PADI certified and make sure you check out their insurance coverage. You should also ask questions at the Hotel or Resort about the dive group and their experience level. Always examine costs before you agree, and ask about pick up times: where and how often. How reliable are they with their pick up times is a question I would definately ask! Do they rent equipment? How big is the diving group? How deep do they go? How much experience do you need?
Check out some of the online resources available, before you leave for your vacation. We don't promote companies but you should at least look over these websites for ideas, and arm yourself with some facts before you make your important decisions.
Jamaica Scuba Diving Club
This is the Island diving group with membership, meetings and diving news. It's a little sketchy but might give you some connections.
3Routes
This is a North American group that covers the world of scuba diving. At the home page, scroll down and click on ""Central America/Caribbean" then choose "Jamaica" from the list (blue). This will take you to the Jamaica scuba diving listings of resorts and charters. Gives names and phone numbers of diving operations in Jamaica. Again, it's a bit "thin" but you could get a list of names and numbers.
Scuba Jamaica
This sites shows dive courses and rates. Reservations could be made from this site. It covers Runaway Bay, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Falmouth, Duncans and Discovery Bay.
Jamaqua Dive Centre
This is one of the full service diving facilities operating out of Runaway Bay. They will take you to one of eight centres and they are PADI certified for lessons.
Use these websites to get an idea of costs and locations so you are well prepared for your Jamaica scuba diving activity session.
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