Dive Review of Avalon/Tortuga in
Cuba/Jardines de la Reina

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Avalon/Tortuga: "Jardines de la Reina May 2018", May, 2018, by Rob Unruh, ON, CA ( Reviewer 6 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 10303 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	The diving here is still amazing and the reefs are in very good shape. More fish and coral cover here than in any other Caribbean location I have been. The diving highlights for us were the Caribbean reef sharks and silky sharks that are present on every dive except our first check out dive.....and on that dive there is a resident Goliath Grouper. Continuing with the hightlights are multiple other Goliath Groupers, many black groupers and Nassau groupers on every dive. Don't forget about schools of Jacks, tarpon, eagle rays, southern stingrays and whiptail stingrays, Hawksbill turtles, moral eels and large schools of Porkfish, grunts, goatfish, etc. We saw some rare (for us anyway) small reef fish including Black Hamlet, Butter Hamlet, Yellowbelly Hamlet and two Golden Fairy Basslets. A final highlight was being able to snorkel with Tito, a 10 foot crocodile who lives around the Tortuga. Dive masters, boat captains and all the staff were fantastic and very friendly. An amazing diving trip! Only downside was that it took us two days travel by plane, taxi, van and boat to get from Havana to Jardines de la Reina.
Websites	Avalon
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Cuba, Grand Turk, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cabo Pulmo, Cozumel, Galapagos, Hawaii, Grand Cayman, St Lucia, Ontario
Closest Airport	Santa Clara	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-70 Ft/ 12-21 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Follow dive master's breifing
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	no
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		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	No dedicated camera area, but plenty of room in cabins to play with cameras.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Elaine Morse in CO, US at Aug 18, 2018 17:22 EST

I would like to know more about the trip from Havana.

By report author: Rob Unruh in ON, CA at Aug 22, 2018 10:39 EST

We flew from Toronto to Havana on Thursday (landing at midnight), and stayed in a hotel in Havana overnight. 3 hour taxi ride from Havana to Santa Clara and overnight in hotel there on Friday. 2 hour taxi ride form Santa Clara to the marina in Jucaro on Saturday morning. 3 hour boat ride out to Jardines de la Reina on Saturday afternoon. Arrived at the Tortuga floating hotel at about 6:00pm on Saturday. You might not have to do all that travel depending on what flights into Cuba you can get. Some will go directly to Santa Clara....just didn't work out for us. Long trip to get there, but very worth it!

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Dive Review of Avalon/Tortuga in Cuba/Jardines de la Reina

Avalon/Tortuga: "Jardines de la Reina May 2018", May, 2018,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Avalon/Tortuga in
Cuba/Jardines de la Reina