Budgeting Your Bottom Time

After our Roatan Aggressor travel writer returned, he wrote to Undercurrent saying that Caribbean liveaboard dive trips, especially when coming from the U.S., can be the least expensive form of international dive travel when measured as cost per dive. It's especially true if you make as many dives per week as possible and book discounted weeks offered when the sailing date is approaching and bunks are unfilled.

"With this approach, the cost per dive can be in the low $100 range. Resorts generally cost more than a liveaboard because they typically offer three dives daily in their packages. My estimated cost per dive for the Roatan Aggressor was about $120. Since airfare is a significant factor, more remote dive trips can run upwards of $400 or more per tank when airfare for a 12,000-mile trip is counted. Think about that!"

When I got certified in the 1980s, the choices were slim for liveaboards. I dived from a renovated fishing boat in Belize, a little more comfortable one in the Sea of Cortez, and functional ships with rows of bunk beds to Southern California's Channel Islands. But today, the choice of boats varies from true luxury to less than luxe, though most have excellent meals and plenty of room to work on your camera. Many have staterooms, and some even have hot tubs.

So, most don't seem interested in seeing the country they visit or absorbing much of its culture. These are passionate, highly motivated divers. Many tote thousands of dollars' worth of photographic equipment, snapping as many images as possible. To the shooters, the number of dives is even more of a factor.

CPT and Deciding On Your Dive Destination

Let's look at some prices. For a $2,000 liveaboard trip in the Caribbean, add $1,000 airfare and another $500 for incidentals such as tips, overnight at a hotel, etc. That's $3,500. If you get four tanks daily for five-and-a-half days, you're paying $159/dive; five tanks per day and your Cost Per Tank (CPT) drops to $130/dive.

You can just about match that at all-inclusive dive resorts like CoCo View in Honduras, where food and unlimited free beach diving are included. But, for those resorts where you pay separately for rooms, meals, and diving, your CPT shoots upward.

For example, a Hawaiian land-based resort and a two-tank boat dive can set you back more than $150 daily, then factor in your airfare, accommodations, food, fancy rum drinks with umbrellas, etc. (Rooms in Kona range, depending on the hotel, from $300 - $700 nightly, and dinners for two out take you north of $100 quite quickly.) If CPT is important to you, don't even think about Hawaii unless you get an Airbnb and eat in poke shops.

Is CPT a Valid Measure?

Undoubtedly, for some. But because I don't want to dive every afternoon and evening, I'm not one of them.

I've taken several dive vacations with my wife and daughter to Maui and the Florida Keys resorts, and after a two-tank morning boat dive, we had the rest of the days and evenings to ourselves. I've steered a mountain bike down the slopes of Maui's Haleakala National Park, explored Belize's jungles, and enjoyed the bars, restaurants, and shops in Cozumel and other destinations. I even made a pre-arranged dip at DiveQuest, the EPCOT Sea Adventure, where you can get wet in one of the world's largest aquariums. I choose a blend of the best diving I can get in the best place for a broader, memorable experience.

On land, of course, you have far greater mobility, more spacious accommodations, and a range of diverse activities. You can get luxurious hospitality with overwater bungalows in the Maldives, private Indonesian islands, and glamping with loggerhead turtles in Australia. On a liveaboard, you're in close quarters with the same people for as long as you're aboard, and you're at sea, with the benefit of the wind in your hair, or, on the downside, a rocking boat and mal de mer. And to many serious divers and photographers, that's worth far more than spending an afternoon driving around an island, and liveaboards come with a very low CPT.

Real-Life Examples With Comparable Air Fares

Indonesia's luxury liveaboard, the Arenui, runs about $7,500 for an 11-night trip with 40 dives possible. That's $188/dive. The highly popular Wakatobi resort runs $3,775 for a week, and with a dozen dives on the excellent reef out front, you can get wet about 24 times for $157 a tank, a CPT bargain.

In the Philippines, the Aggressor will get you about 24 dives (if lucky) in Tubbataha Park for $4,195 a week or a CPT of $175. Compare that with El Galleon Resort, where 7 nights will run about $1,500; you'll get 12 boat dives and 12 beach dives for about $1500, a dirt cheap $63/tank.

In Fiji, aboard the legendary Nai'a for 7 days and about 20 dives at about $4,800, you'll average $240 a dive; Volivoli, at $3,235 for a week with 12 boat dives and 12 shore dives, gets you down to $134/dive.

If you were to pay full price for the Belize Aggressors in May (about $3,600), the 26 dives you might make would run you about $138 each. If you went to Blackbird Caye for the same week, at $3,899, and got in 18 tanks, your CPT would be $216.

The Bottom Line on Bottom Time

So, if cost per tank is important to, you'll see that many resorts with good beachfront diving can match many liveaboards. In cost, that is, but not variety. You'll never make a dozen dives on a liveaboard at the same site.

I'll always keep CPT in mind. It's an interesting way to view the cost of a dive trip. But I'm also going to keep in mind the view from my room, where I might dive on a trip, what I might see, the quality of the reefs, the variety of diving, as well as how I might spend a unique afternoon on land exploring the local culture.

-- Gil Zeimer

P.S. I wrote a recent travel review for Undercurrent, and my cost per tank was through the roof, maybe $400 or more. So maybe I should do more than just keep CPT in mind.