San Salvadore, the Bahamas. A dive heaven. dives from 30 foot fish dives to bottomless wall dives with large sharks and rare corals. Night dives are spectacular. There is not a lot of beach diving but the great diving is only minutes from the dock. This is the ideal "take classes in cold USA and open-water dives in paradise. Just great diving.
The Riding Rock Inn is a bit old but exceptionally comfortable. Great bar and restaurant. You must try their Bahama Mama, best drink in the Caribbean. Not a lot else to do on the island. I guided group trips here in the 70's and still in the 2010's it is a dive paradise. when on the east coast it is my go-to dive site.

I'm a 40 year diver and extremely picky about the dive shop I deal with. The shop needs a very solid balance of services, gear, & training choices along with knowledge and experience with local diving and a balance of personal & business inter-action. When I walk in a shop I measure the "I love diving and I need to make a living" feel for the place first. Dive Alaska rates a 5 star ranking.

I spent time and money at all 5 of the Anchorage area dive shops and after about a year I chose Dive Alaska, even though I drive by 3 other shops and over 50 miles to get there.

Dive Alaska offers PADI, TDI (only one in Alaska), GUE (only one in Alaska) and ERDI training. They also offer Nitrox and Tri-mix. They are also the only shop in Alaska with their own dive boat.

The shop runs trips on Resurrection Bay, Prince William Sound and the waters around the islands of the pan handle (Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka). They sell ScubaPro, Atomic and Halcyon gear primarily. They also have knowledgeable staff on underwater photography, tech diving, cave diving and wreck diving. The shop organizes at least one international trip each year.

I'm not a paid employee or have any financial interest in Dive Alaska. It's just where I go when I need gear, a dive buddy or just want to talk diving. If you are a local or visitor to Alaska, Dive Alaska is really the only shop I would deal with.

Manta is a PADI Dive Resort. I'm not sure what that means exactly but this is strictly a gear rental, dive trip shop. This would be an ideal dive resort for someone who took the classroom/pool portion somewhere cold and wanted to do open water work somewhere the diving was phenomenal.

Staff is extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. They helped me recover some photos and video I ham-handed trying to save. Very attentive in or above the water, maybe a bit overbearing for an experienced diver. Explained the dive sites very well and allowed for excellent dive planning.

The boats are a bit on the small size for my liking, but I'm 60 years old and not as spry as I was a few years ago. Excellent dive sites were just minutes from the marina. DO take their whale shark trip. Absolutely do their whale shark trip. You can add a dive with really friendly sea lions which was absolutely great. The sea lion portion is a long boat ride (sea above).

I checked out 5 or 6 Cabo dive sites and this is my favorite by far. I will be back to Cabo and I will dive with Manta again.

WHALE SHARK EXCURSION, LA PAZ

Whale shark trip out of La Paz. WOW! what can I say but WOW!. 5 minute boat ride from the beach to the nearest site. There we found "baby" whale sharks, only 25' long. The animals were very approachable and seemed completely unaware of our presence. Very calm water and easy to approach the animals. The only down was that these were in very shallow water near the beach so visibility was limited. This made things exciting because all of a sudden this behemoth would appear out of the silty water.

Bigger whale sharks were available further offshore. You could SCUBA with these. Clear water allowed photo/video from many angles. Animals were easy to approach but shunned contact.

Did I mention WOW! Diving with whale sharks must be on every diver's bucket list. I can't believe I waited 40 years to do it.

SEA LION ADVENTURE, LA PAZ

Wonderful dive for beginners or someone who has never been up close and personal with friendly sea lions. 40ft - 80ft sand bottom with a rounded rock wall barrier. Excellent visibility, slight current on surface and shortie dive most of year. Broad range of sea life on wall and various rocks. Excellent photo and video opportunity of sea lion pups and young adults. These animals will nuzzle with you if you let them. No snorkels, the sea lions try to steal them.

The sea lion colony was an add on to a whale shark snorkel. This trip did not get 5 stars solely because of the long, small boat ride from La Paz to the colony. I'm too old for that kind of excitement. But even so the scenery is breathtaking on the way. La Paz is a beautiful town with lots of things to do and access to a broad range of diving.

Highly recommend visiting the sea lion colony.