Group Trip Advisor

Scuba Dive Grid

While summer ended with the quiet dawn of fall, winter vacations in sunny destinations are coming soon, including trips to Maui, Cancun, the Bahamas, and anywhere else you can still get a tan and splash around.

Scuba diving is one of those activities you can still do in the winter - in sunny destinations. I've heard Grand Cayman is a diver's mecca, and the Great Barrier Reef and Red Sea also rank high. Since I'm terrified of being masked and submerged for extended periods of time, my water activity consists of snorkeling in shallow bays near shore.

However, divers take note: Scubaratings.com is a site that allows you to find dive packages and rate dive trips to various destinations. It looks like a divers' community site, complete with a new "Dive Grid" where you enter in trip criteria (number of divers, travelers, dates, number of rooms needed, etc.) and see results of vacations that are specific to divers.

In doing a basic search for 6 nights, scuba diving 5 days, and traveling solo, I got results ranging from $463 to $8,011 across 11 countries (from Trinidad to Tanzania). Quite the range of budget to luxury packages. Dig around and see if the dive grid or site works for you. Summer may be over, but sun worshippers and adventurers who gear their travel around warm-weather activities can start planning now for winter getaways.