Dive Review of Turneffe Island Resort in
Belize/Offshore island

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Turneffe Island Resort: "Belize Barrier Reef Island", May, 2016, by Jeffrey D Hubbard MD, NY, US ( Top Contributor 33 reports with 18 Helpful votes). Report 8985 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Turneffe Island is a small resort (perhaps 20 rooms) on a private island about 35 miles off Belize City. Most guests are divers or fisherpeople. We arrived in Belize early and the resort had their driver meet us @ airport and take us to a hotel at which we stayed two nights until leaving for resort. Boat usually runs Sat. & Wed. Other days & helicopter available at extra cost. The accommodations are luxurious, spacious and air-conditioned. The big outside shower is fully screened - no bites! Also an indoor shower, if you like. NO phone, NO TV, but good wi-fi. Screened porch also has a screened floor. Most of the diving is on small boats with racks for 12 tanks and about 8 divers, though we never had more than 6. There is no sun cover, no head, and no shower, but the runs to the dive sites are short, usually less than 15 minutes. Surface intervals are usually long and always back on the island. Blue Hole day is on a bigger boat with cover, head, and plenty of room. All day on the boat, except for lunch on Halfmoon Cay; a dive on Halfmoon Cay wall and another excellent sand chute-wall dive, so the trip is well worth it, even if you don’t fancy the Hole. After the first day’s tank set-up by each diver, the staff handles all the gear for the rest of the stay. We are much accustomed (1800 dives) to handling our own gear, but rapidly came to like the excellent service. Gear is rinsed and hung in the shed each night, and there is a thorough terminal rinsing at trip’s end. There is no dive shop, though simple repairs might be possible. Although most divers here have computers, are pretty experienced and tanks are filled past 3000 psi, dives are limited without apparent reason. On several dives, limits of 50 – 60 feet make it difficult to explore beyond the tops of the Belize barrier reef walls, which are available on some dives. The tops of the walls, though, are excellent diving. The single night dive of the entire week is limited to 50 feet, 35 minutes! No reason. We didn’t push the requested limits, because we usually don’t, but they do limit the excellent diving unnecessarily. I didn’t see actual enforcement, though the staff does log max depth & bottom time for all dives. Whether on computer or tables, you will never approach no-decompression limits. We dove nitrox 32 (US$149/week/diver = $10/dive) except in the Hole, but it isn’t really necessary because dives are short and surface intervals long. Average bottom time was 52 minutes. The night dive offered the unusual benefit of seeing the Big Dipper, Polaris, and Southern Cross after the dive. The food is excellent and the staff made an effort to accommodate requests and idiosyncrasies, though a vegan (=eats no animal products) did challenge them, I think because of limited preparation of staff and understanding. The food isn’t very spicy, though a large collection of Belizean hot sauces is available on every table (be careful.) Alcohol is à la carte or pay US$300/week for all you can drink. The setting is lovely and the organization is superb, so one isn’t aware of how much work goes into making the place so special. We’ll be back next year.
Websites	Turneffe Island Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Bahamas, Fernando de Noronha, Australia, Fiji, PNG, Micronesia, Hawai'i
Closest Airport	Belize	Getting There	Through ATL or IAH. MIA if you're desperate.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	81-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	25-50 Ft/ 8-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Arbitrary depth & time limits. Within those, dive your own profile.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Turneffe Island Resort in Belize/Offshore island

Turneffe Island Resort: "Belize Barrier Reef Island", May, 2016,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Turneffe Island Resort in
Belize/Offshore island