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Diving St. Lucia

There is a marine reserve with nice reefs that are ideal for beginners with a variety of coral and sponges, including gorgonians, black tree coral, barrel sponges, vase sponges and black lace coral. For the more advanced diver, there are some strong currents and wreck diving on the Waiwinette Freighter and the Lesleen M. St Lucia dive centers coordinate with each other to make sure that no two centers are diving at the same site at any one time. All dive sites are within reach of a short boat trip. Marine life includes nurse sharks, turtles, seahorses, angelfish, eels, snappers, fusiliers, and sponges.

Best time to dive

Year-round diving is great in St. Lucia.

Visibility

Visibility averages 65 to 115 feet.

Water temperatures

The water temperature ranges from 79°F to 84°F.

Weather and climate

St. Lucia has a sunny climate all year round and an average temperature of 84 °F. Although sunny throughout the year, the rainy season lasts from June to October. Average rainfall ranges from 60 inches at the coast to 160 inches in the rainforests. Throughout the year, however, pleasant trade winds keep the air cool.

Language

English. Creole is also spoken in many areas.

Passport/Visa requirements

U.S., British, and Canadian citizens can enter with a valid passport or government-issued birth certificate. Citizens of all other nations need a valid passport. All travelers should have a round-trip or onward ticket.

Currency

Eastern Caribbean dollar – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Electrical current

220 AC, 50 cycles, as in Europe. Adaptors or transformers are necessary for North American appliances.

Capital

Castries

General information

One of the Windward islands, St. Lucia lies between Martinique to the north and St. Vincent to the south. St. Lucia’s natural beauty is well recognized and appreciated by her neighbors hence her title ‘The Helen of the West Indies.’ St. Lucia’s most magnificent natural features are Gros Piton and Petit Piton towering 2,618 feet and 2,438 feet respectively straight out of the sea. Down at sea level, St. Lucia possesses beautiful white sand beaches. In St. Lucia’s rainforests lie many species of birds, insects, and to a lesser extent, reptiles and mammals. Some species are endemic to St. Lucia like the St. Lucia Parrot and the rare St. Lucia Whiptail lizard.

Map

Get a map of St. Lucia from WorldAtlas.com.

Diving St. Kitts
Crystal seas filled with fish, wrecks, and reefs encircle Nevis making diving excellent even for the most experienced of scuba divers. Many divers consider Monkey Shoals, a reef stretching from 40 feet to 100 feet in depth, among the best diving. You’re likely to encounter schools of bright tropical fish, nurse sharks, and turtles sharing the waters. You can also dive the Caves, a collection of grottos filled with marine life off Nevis’ southern tip. Some diving operators provide the use of hydrophones – underwater listening devices – to detect the melodic clicks produced by the whales and dolphins that pass through between January and April.

The islands offer a wealth of relatively new, untouched dive sites. More than 400 ships sank here between 1493 and 1825, but only a dozen or so have been identified to date.

Best time to dive

Year-round diving is great, although August through October can be tricky with hurricane season.

Visibility

Visibility averages 60 to 100 feet.

Water temperatures

The water temperature ranges from 78°F to 84°F.

Weather and climate

Cooling Trade Winds blow consistently along with a sunny climate all year round and an average temperature of 84°F. The hottest portions of St. Kitts weather appear from May to October. Weather includes very little rain.

Language

English. Creole is also spoken in many areas.

Passport/Visa requirements

U.S. and Canadian citizens can enter with a valid passport or government-issued birth certificate. Citizens of all other nations need a valid passport. All travelers should have a round-trip or onward ticket.

Currency

Eastern Caribbean dollar – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Electrical current

110 volts is most common, but 220-volt electricity is available in some areas.

Capital

Basseterre

General information

St. Kitts lies in the Leeward Islands. It lies near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 200 miles south of Puerto Rico, and just west of Antigua. Nevis is one half of a nation along with its larger sister island, St. Kitts. The island is volcanic and is just 7 miles long and 5 miles wide. Nevis is quiet and lush, a perfect place to relax. Nevis has excellent beaches and a tropical rainforest with trails to hike. All ten thousand residents of Nevis, sometimes called the “Queen of the Caribbees” for its serene natural beauty, embrace the simplicity of life here and invite guests to do the same.

Map

Get a map of St. Kitts from WorldAtlas.com.

Diving St. Barts

Relatively few divers visit each year leaving it largely untouched and unknown. The most spectacular dives are around Pain de Sucre, an islet way off Gustavia harbour, or around a small cape, l’Ane Rouge, off Colombier bay, or around Coco islet. Just off Gustavia harbour, a fishing boat that sunk a few years ago, Le Kayali, is a nice dive spot. St. Barts’ dive sites fall into two separate areas, with the majority of dive charters sharing one area and a dive charter on the north east coast having its own area. The main dive area extends from the main town of Gustavia, with several sites no more than five minutes from the entrance to Gustavia. Many sites have structures that you can swim in and through, including some large caves. St. Barts has two wrecks, one of which is rarely dived by the operators but it is an easy dive to do independently. There is an extensive range of invertebrates on the reefs. Anemones, urchins, sea cucumbers, lobsters, and eels are typically present on all sites.

Best time to dive

Year-round the diving is good.

Visibility

Visibility averages up to 100 feet.

Water temperatures

Water temperature averages 80 °F.

Weather and climate

Weather in St. Barts is considered tropical. During the summer, daytime weather averages in the 80s F, dipping only a few degrees in the winter months. Most rain showers fall briefly during the night, with blue skies persisting throughout the day. The weather does tend to get a bit rainier in the summer months and moving into fall. Sunshine persists throughout many of the days.

Language

French is the official language, but most residents speak at least some English. Creole is also used in some places.

Passport/Visa requirements

Citizens of all nations need a valid passport. All travelers should have a round-trip or onward ticket.

Currency

Euro – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Electrical current

220 AC, 60 cycles, as in Europe. Adaptors or transformers are necessary for North American appliances.

Capital

Gustavia

General information

St. Barthelemy (better known as St. Barts) is a small island, just 8 square miles (21 square km), forming part of the Leeward Islands of the northeastern West Indies. Small, pristine, and deliberately uncrowded, St. Barthelemy is as European as it gets in the Caribbean. Known as the “Cannes” of the island for its chic, trendy attitude and deluxe accommodations, St. Barts used to be the choice holiday destination for scores of celebrities. The population of St. Barts, mostly descendent from the original French settlers and numbering in the few thousands, is centered predominantly in and around the capital of Gustavia.

St. Barts restaurants alone draw tourists every year, as they are often called the best in the Caribbean and are comparable to the best in the world. Dining, then, is truly an experience on its own in this culinary paradise.

Map

Get a map of St. Barts from WorldAtlas.com.

Diving Saba

Saba’s diving can be categorized into three dive types of dive sites: seamounts and pinnacles, fringing reefs, and true coral reefs. Off the west coast of Saba, the seabed drops quickly to 700 feet or more and would limit diving to the fringing reefs if it were not for an underwater mountain that rises to within 90 feet of the surface. Saba’s seamount has three peaks with a plateau joining them at 130 feet.

From the north west corner around to Fort Bay, Saba is fringed with coral encrusted rocks. In some areas, the coral has fused the rocks together so that the base substratum is no longer visible and it appears to be built entirely by coral. Saba’s marine life is healthy and varied and, because some of the sites require diving in the open ocean, the chances of seeing pelagic species are high.

Best time to dive

Saba is an island for all seasons. While the winter months between December and April are the most popular for the “snowbirds” escaping harsh winters, those same months generally bring cooler water and air temperatures, better underwater visibility and sometimes rougher surface conditions. The summer months bring less crowds, warmer water and air temperatures, slightly decreased underwater visibility due to plankton rich waters and calmer surface conditions. The varying underwater conditions ensure a steady stream of diverse seasonal marine life. Even the months of September through November, which are considered peak hurricane season, frequently bring very calm surface conditions as storms pass and generally ensure less crowded topside conditions.

Visibility

Expect visibility to reach 100 to 150 feet in winter and 60 to 100 feet in summer.

Water temperatures

During the winter months you’ll generally find water temperatures that range between 78 and 80 °F, whereas water temperature in the summer months reach a toasty 82 to 85 °F.

Weather and climate

Daytime temperature on Saba averages 80°F. Easterly trade winds and the mountain create ever changing cloud movements.

Language

Dutch and English

Passport/Visa requirements

U.S. and Canadian citizens can enter with a valid passport or government-issued birth certificate. Citizens of all other nations need a valid passport. All travelers should have a round-trip or onward ticket.

Currency

NAfl (guilder) – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Electrical current

110 volts, 50 Hz, U.S. standard

Capital

The Bottom

General information

Dubbed the ‘Unspoiled Queen,’ Saba has strikingly little tourism and is extremely laid back. Saba is located about 1225 miles southeast of Miami, Florida and 195 miles east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles. The island forms the westernmost corner of a triangle of islands including St. Maarten and St. Eustatius. Shaped a bit like a heart, Saba’s land area is small, but because of its topography of folding mountains the island is far more substantial. As the tip of an immense underwater mountain, the island juts out of the sea with no pause for lowlands or beaches. Saba’s central volcanic peak, Mt. Scenery, is 2,900 feet. There are no rivers or streams on the island. The leeward (western) side is dry with cacti and scrub, the windward (eastern) side has thicker vegetation and the mountainous interior is given over to lush jungle growth such as tall tree ferns, palms, and mahogany trees.

Map

Get a map of Saba from WorldAtlas.com.

Diving Nevis

Crystal seas filled with fish, wrecks, and reefs encircle Nevis making diving excellent even for the most experienced of scuba divers. Many divers consider Monkey Shoals, a reef stretching from 40 feet to 100 feet in depth, among the best diving. You’re likely to encounter schools of bright tropical fish, nurse sharks, and turtles sharing the waters. You can also dive the Caves, a collection of grottos filled with marine life off Nevis’ southern tip. Some diving operators provide the use of hydrophones – underwater listening devices – to detect the melodic clicks produced by the whales and dolphins that pass through between January and April.

The islands offer a wealth of relatively new, untouched dive sites. More than 400 ships sank here between 1493 and 1825, but only a dozen or so have been identified to date.

Best time to dive

Year-round diving is great, although August through October can be tricky with hurricane season.

Visibility

Visibility averages 60 to 100 feet.

Water temperatures

The water temperature ranges from 78°F to 84°F.

Weather and climate

Cooling Trade Winds blow consistently along with a sunny climate all year round and an average temperature of 84°F. The hottest portions of Nevis weather appear from May to October. Weather includes very little rain.

Language

English. Creole is also spoken in many areas.

Passport/Visa requirements

U.S. and Canadian citizens can enter with a valid passport or government-issued birth certificate. Citizens of all other nations need a valid passport. All travelers should have a round-trip or onward ticket.

Currency

Eastern Caribbean dollar – Get exchange rates at http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Electrical current

110 volts is most common, but 220-volt electricity is available in some areas.

Capital

Charlestown

General information

Nevis lies in the Leeward Islands. It lies near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 200 miles south of Puerto Rico, and just west of Antigua. Nevis is one half of a nation along with its larger sister island, St. Kitts. The island is volcanic and is just 7 miles long and 5 miles wide. Nevis is quiet and lush, a perfect place to relax. Nevis has excellent beaches and a tropical rainforest with trails to hike. All ten thousand residents of Nevis, sometimes called the “Queen of the Caribbees” for its serene natural beauty, embrace the simplicity of life here and invite guests to do the same.

Map

Get a map of Nevis from WorldAtlas.com.