Bahamas

Aruba	The Bahama Islands are composed of hundreds of separate islands of varying sizes. Tourists from the United States flock to the Bahamas to enjoy its lay back atmosphere, gambling, and beaches, lots of beaches. Because of Bahamas' close proximity, travelers take short vacations (3-4 days) to "get away from work and stress" returning home rested. Daily, short duration flights allow for these quick getaways. There are two main cities Freeport and Nassau that comprise the bulk of the tourist business. There is a natural competition between the two cities for tourist dollars, however, the culture and life styles presents a different approach to pampering the tourists. Freeport tends to be more money motivated, in that as long as you are spending money the locals are willing to help. In Nassau the locals are generally friendlier and willing to provide excellent service to earn the tourist's dollars. Even the Nassau taxi drivers act as "tour guides" willing to show you a good time and the natural beauty of the island (Get price of cab fare 1st!). If you chose too rent a car,watch out, traffic and drivers are nuts! Research suggests that Nassau should be your first try, then Freeport. If a complete getaway is desired then go to Little Abaco Island, 50 minute flight from Miami to Walker's Caye Resort and start your no hustle,no bustle, no nightlife, do what you want to do, complete relaxation.... (Thanks to co-editor Ken Silman)
Belize
Bonaire
Cayman Islands
Cozumel
Curacao
Florida Keys
Puerto Rico
Roatan
St. Lucia
Tobago
Trinadad
Turks & Caicos

Good diving with the standard Caribbean underwater fish life found throughout most Freeport dive sites. Barracuda, shark, turtles, rays and other larger fish can be seen. Most of the dive sites are on a constant bottom depth with only a few wall dive locations.

In one word -- Shark Dives -- Stuart Cove is world renown for shark feeding dives that allow dives to don chain mesh suits and hand feed Caribbean reef sharks. There are a number of dive shops that provide guided shark feeding dives with either barreled fish parts, or a frozen "Fishsicle" that send sharks into a feeding frenzy.

There are different dive sites to chose from: Wall diving off the southwall with the bottom starting at 50' and dropping to 5000' or the northwall that has 45 degree tiered sloping walls. The east and west sides provide a constant depth dive sites with lots of sea life, corals, and sponges.

There are a number of dive operations to chose from, small boats where a backroll entry is required, others larger boats (35'+) where a giant stride is the appropriate entry. Full arrangement dive operations are available with "cattle boat (20+)" to 6 person boats. Safety is always first, two professionally trained divers escort the dive group to allow everyone an enjoyable and safe diving experience.

There are some wreck dive sites, Tugboat wreck is OK, with its deck resting at 70' in open water. The best wrecks are a series of three ships that are intact and sheltered in a cove, providing a deep dive (90') with a resident 400 pound jewfish that often presents himself to divers. Worth the dive!