Dive vacations should be all about fun, marine life, and new buddies! However, you may have had a negative experience in the past when trying to book a dive vacation. Maybe your non-diving significant other was bored out of their minds with no land-based activities. Or, you decided to only book accommodation and had trouble finding a good dive center on arrival. Sound familiar?
Below, we cover 9 mistakes to avoid when you are going to book a dive vacation so you don’t have to be in that position ever (or ever again!). Let’s get to it.
1. Not Having the Right Certification Level
Certain liveaboard itineraries can be more challenging than others, requiring minimum certification levels in order to board. Likewise, to experience the diving at a dive resort fully, you may need a certain certification. Make sure to check with your scuba travel agent what the minimum requirement is for the itinerary. And, if you don’t quite meet it, you can think about taking the certification before your trip!
Top Tip: Head to any “Itinerary” section of a PADI Travel liveaboard listing, and you’ll find the minimum certifications!
2. Forgetting Your Non-Diving Friends
As divers, our main focus of a diving holiday is, of course, scuba diving! However, unless you’re one of the lucky ones, your family or friends may not yet be divers. Many dive resorts worldwide offer exciting topside adventures for those who aren’t quite ready to take the plunge. Think Thai cooking courses, waterfall excursions or onboard spas. Alternatively, book non-divers a Discover Scuba Diving experience during your trip. Or, help them get started with eLearning in advance.
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3. Being Inflexible With Travel Plans
It’s safe to say that the thrill of diving is no secret anymore, and scuba diving trips book up particularly fast, especially the hot locations like the Galapagos, French Polynesia, and Socorro Island! Particularly if you’re looking for a liveaboard, you’ll want to keep your dates flexible, depending on the departure dates of the area’s liveaboards. The best solution is to get in touch with a scuba travel agent before booking your flights to confirm your spot on the trip first. Flights are generally more readily available with multiple departure dates than liveaboards are.
Top Tip: If you find a great airfare, book a flexible ticket. This means you can adjust your flight dates and times (provided the airline has availability) once your liveaboard spaces have been confirmed!
4. Waiting Until the Last-Minute
As mentioned above, dive resorts and liveaboards book up pretty fast (especially during their high seasons). Therefore, a space on a trip might be available one day and booked up the next. Once you’ve found where you want to go, try to have your friends or family agree as soon as possible to guarantee spaces.
5. Not Booking a Diving Package
A dive package, particularly one that’s customized to your requirements, is probably one of the most convenient ways to book a dive vacation. All you have to do is turn up, and your accommodation, your diving, and even your equipment has already been pre-arranged in the booking process. The alternative is possible difficulty on arrival with finding a local dive center, or even a lack of equipment at onsite dive centers. Save yourself the hassle and book your accommodation and diving all in one go beforehand. Plus – this option often works out cheaper than booking onsite!
Top Tip: Dive resorts on PADI Travel allow you to customize the number of dives you’d like to do, add your equipment sizes in advance, and pre-arrange dive courses and schedules!
6. Booking with a Travel Agent Who Doesn’t Specialize in Diving
While most travel agents have a wealth of knowledge on destinations, flights, travel routes, and accommodation styles, not all are scuba divers themselves and can advise you on the best locations for scuba diving first hand. PADI Travel scuba travel experts are just that, experts in scuba diving. Many of them have worked at dive centers across the globe, so they’re the ideal partners to help you book a dive vacation. Likewise, many of PADI Travel’s agents live around the world, and therefore, they can advise you of where to get your local sim card on arrival or at which dive sites you’ll most likely find your favorite species with ease!
7. Not Looking at Reviews
Reviews are one of the best ways to get a real feel for anything you’re about to do! While each experience will certainly be different and subjective, reviews can help you get a general sense of the dive resort or liveaboard in advance – from those who have actually been there. Make sure to check through both positive and negative reviews, as the positives may praise something that is important to you, and the negatives may be based on something that you’re not bothered about!
8. Not Buying Dive Insurance
Even if you are the most experienced diver in the world, dive insurance is still needed in an emergency. To remove the stress or worry of coverage in case of a diving accident, it’s always best to book dive insurance in advance. Both DAN and DiveAssure provide short-term packages for dive vacations at particularly affordable prices. In cases where you are unsure, it is always better safe than sorry. Bear in mind that many liveaboards and even some countries as a whole require divers carry insurance.
Top Tip: For bookings over USD $2500 USD per person, PADI Travel provides complimentary DAN dive insurance for the duration of your trip!
9. Not Getting a Medical Clearance – if needed!
If you’re a certified diver, or often take dive vacations, you are likely familiar with the PADI Medical Statement you have to complete before you began diving with the dive center. It can be devastating if you haven’t checked in advance and end up unable to dive due to lacking a physician’s clearance for your health condition.
To avoid this, ensure you’re in good health and, if necessary, have a dive physician check that you’re “fit to dive” beforehand. If you do have a chronic health condition, it’s always wise to keep an up-to-date medical clearance with you when traveling. If you’re not sure, check with your scuba travel agent if you’ll need one.
Feeling More Prepared?
Now the mistakes have been covered, you’ll hopefully be more confident when booking your next dive vacation! No medical mishaps or unhelpful travel agents in sight. And, you certainly won’t be the one without the proper scuba diving certifications for your trip. You can get back to the joy of scuba diving, with all your bases covered.
