Many of the world’s best dive resorts are far longer on experiences than they are on amenities. It makes sense for hard-core divers who are mostly looking for a place to lay their head between dives. Three hundred thread count sheets and gourmet dining are secondary to multiple daily dive trips, day and night.
Not every luxury resort is limited to vanilla “resort dives,” however, and these Caribbean resorts offer a world-class dive experience alongside the kind of upscale rooms, activities, and service that will make your time out of the water (nearly) as great as the few precious hours you spend below:
St James’ Club, Antigua
Antigua is the world-class dive destination you may not have thought about. Long a best-kept secret for diving in the Caribbean, the country is filled with terrific dive sites, from Sunken Rock to Tarpon Alley to the famous Pillars of Hercules. While destinations like Bonaire, Cozumel and the Cayman Islands are rightly popular, Antigua is the region’s next great diving hotspot. And the epicenter is the island’s all-inclusive St James’s Club and its wonderful Mamora Bay Divers diving center, with programs for everyone from novices to experienced divers and a full PADI instruction program.
Harbour Village Resort, Bonaire
Set on a quiet peninsula, this resort boasts Bonaire’s only private beach and has a PADI five-star dive center, Great Adventures Bonaire, on-site — perfect for exploring the island’s 86 dive sites with excursions departing right from the resort dock. On the resort side there are beachfront villas, rooms and suites, a spa and marina, and seaside dining in a restaurant designed to look like a single-masted Spanish balandra. The dive center has a concierge dive program and offers interesting instructional classes like Digital Underwater Photographer, Lion Fish Tracker, and Rescue Diver in addition to leading chartered dive excursions to the Bonaire National Marine Park.
Turneffe Island Resort, Belize
Spitting into your mask to clean it has a rough allure, but this 14-acre island resort off the coast of Belize takes the work out of diving with a white-glove dive valet program where certified dive instructors not only lead trips to legendary destinations like the Great Blue Hole but also maintain, clean, and prepare your dive equipment for each day’s adventures. Other activities at this luxury private island resort include fishing and spa treatments, and the on-site dive center offers both beginner and advances PADI certification and training classes. All-inclusive packages includes scuba diving.
Courtyard by Marriott Bonaire Dive Resort, Bonaire
A Courtyard by Marriott in, say, Chicago, would not meet anyone’s definition of luxury. In Bonaire, however, this resort with its Antillean village decor, infinity pool and 24-hour fitness center is a step up from some of the other, more hardcore dive resorts on an island renowned for its protected marine park and fantastic diving. The resort has an onsite dive center called Dive Friends offering courses from beginner to dive master as well as day and night dives to the coral reefs of Bonaire National Marine Park and the Washington Slagbaai National Park eco-reserve.
Scrub Island Resort, British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands archipelago offers seemingly endless opportunities for diving, from wreck diving on the HMS Rhone and the newly sunk Kodiak Queen to the reefs and caverns surrounding Scrub Island and the various dive sites around “the Dogs,” the latter usually teeming with colorful fish. The Scrub Island resort has a marina and on-site dive center run by Dive BVI, luxury villas and spacious hotel rooms, a cliffside spa, and a trio of restaurants, plus multiple private beaches to explore.
Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort, Curacao
This top Curacao beach resort is located close to the underwater Eel Valley, the best dive destination on the island, and has a PADI-certified in-house dive shop run by Epsilon Dive Center. The all-inclusive resort, which has a spa, golf, tennis, and a kids’ club as well as diving, is a favorite of Torben Lonne, diver and co-founder of DIVE.in, which focuses on scuba diving, travel and how we can make a positive impact on the environment. “Even though I generally prefer to dive ‘off the beaten path,’ I like to indulge and take my family to a resort once a year,” he said, adding that at Santa Barbara, “I can dive in a more relaxed setting, and enjoy some vacation time without having to spend time sorting out the logistics of getting to and from diving spots.”
Petit St. Vincent, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
This private island resort is one of the most beautiful and exclusive getaways in the Caribbean, where guests retreat to private villas scattered across the 115-acre island and raise flags to attract the attention of roving staff members when they need food, drink, or other services. The resort’s Jean-Michel Cousteau Caribbean Diving Center runs charters to the nearby Tobago Cays and has a strong educational and conservation mission; guests can take part in a special dive to plant their own live coral as part of the resort’s coral restoration project.
True Blue Bay Resort, Grenada
True Blue Bay channels Grenada’s rich culture with a weekly buffet showcasing local food and performers and also offers a wide variety of programming including chocolate making and cooking classes. There’s no beach, but the resort is walking distance to the lively capital city of St. George’s and has an on-site spa, yoga studio, and yacht charters. The five-star PADI certified Aquanauts Grenada dive center offers daily trips to dozens of reefs and wrecks around Grenada as well as to the Tobago Keys.