Dive Review of Caicos Adventures/Caribbean Paradise Inn in
Turks and Caicos

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Caicos Adventures/Caribbean Paradise Inn, Nov, 2012, by Brent Barnes, OK, US ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 8 Helpful votes). Report 6770.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Returned from a very nice 5 day dive trip to Providenciales of the Turks and Caicos staying in the Caribbean Paradise Inn and diving with Caicos Adventures. I contacted Caicos Adventures by email in advance and their response was rapid and they answered all questions I had. We did a diving/accomodation package with the Caribbean Paradise Inn through Caicos Advedtures. Provo is abosuletely full of high-end condos and is a very expensive island. The Caribbean Paradise Inn was far away the cheapest of the accomodations that Caicos Adventures had packages for and we found it to be a good deal for the money. The rooms were very basic but clean. The air-conditioning functioned very well and they had cable TV with many channels. There was a small pool and the Inn is small with only about 16 units and there were only a few people there during our stay. They have a nice balcony for drying scuba items as needed. Breakfast was included in our package and included eggs, bacon, toast and fresh fruit each morning, we simply had to notify the staff what time we wanted breakfast the next morning. Caicos Adventures picked us up at 8:10 AM each morning in an air-conditioned van and drove us the 20 minutes or so to their marina picking up other divers on the way. The dive operation was superb and I had only two complaints about Caicos Adventures. Normally, they have an outstanding large catamaran that is a very nice dive boat with lots of space. However, the boat was having its engines replaced the whole week that we were there so we dove on their smaller boat. We had 7 - 9 divers each day with 3 crew, and this boat should really be limited to 6 divers. It was quite crowded with that many divers and we literally had no room to move or for all of us to make any attempts to get out of the sun during the surface interval. Again, this was likely bad timing as their major boat was out for a few days getting its engines replaced and we would have had plenty of space if we were on their larger dive boat. My other complaint is that they limit to a single 2-tank boat dive per day. As the sites are 30 - 40 minutes away, they simply do not have time to do morning and afternoon dives each day. They do reportedly offer a 3-tank trip each Thursday which we had signed up for and requires a minimum of 5 divers to go, but they cancelled it as they only had their one boat functioning so we did the standard 2-tank trip that day. They did promptly refund us the cost difference when asked. The diving was superb, and compares favorably to most Caribbean places. Virtually all diving by Caicos Adventures is done on the walls of West Caicos, French Cay and Northwest Point. We did 3 days of diving and they took us to each of their three major diving areas. All the diving was excellent but we found West Caicos to be the best. Dive sites were 30 - 40 minutes by boat. A nice briefing was done and divers were then allowed to dive the profile of their choice. A guide was in the water but you were allowed to dive your own profile if you wanted and as photographers we generally did our own exploring on the wall. The vis was generally 80 - 120 feet on the walls. We saw at least 2 - 3 Caribbean Reef sharks on every dive at West Caicos and Northwest Point and had several close encounters with friendly hawksbill turtles. My favorite dive by far was The Gully at West Caicos. We had at least six Caribbean Reef sharks for that dive circling very closely for most of the dive allowing great photo opportunities. There was a school of several hundred horse-eyed jacks right under the boat also. The walls are stunning with healthy coral and large amounts of gorgonians and black coral. Fish life is healthy as they have had protected marine sanctuaries for many years. Caicos Adventures served turkey or ham sandwiches on the boat each day which was included in the package. They had lemonade or water to drink. They would rinse and store your gear each night and have it set up for you the next day. We ate out for dinner each night. I did love Providenciales but the island is very expensive. The cost of diving and lodging is well above average for the Caribbean, on par with the Cayman Islands with 2-tank dive trips averaging over $100. There were many good restaurants withing one-half mile of our hotel making a rental car unnecessary as we simply walked to restaurants each night. We ate at Pizza Pizza one night which was the cheapest of options but was still $75 for two large pizzas, two salads, two soft drinks and bottled water. Our final night we ate at the Coboya which is right at the Caribbean Paradise Inn. It is extremely expensive but outstanding with an internationally renowned chef. Count on over $100 per person for a salad, entree and dessert with gratuity. Again, the island is very expensive, but the benefit of that was virtually no crime and no beggars or homeless people at all. I will certainly return to Provo and will branch into diving trips to Grand Turk and Salt Cay also.
Websites	Caicos Adventures
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	[Unspecified]
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	60-120 Ft/ 18-37 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None strictly enforced
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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	No camera table or dedicated area for cameras. A single camera rinse bucket was present but was not large enough for my SLR system.

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Dive Review of Caicos Adventures/Caribbean Paradise Inn in Turks and Caicos

Caicos Adventures/Caribbean Paradise Inn, Nov, 2012,

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 Caicos Adventures/Caribbean Paradise Inn in
Turks and Caicos