Where to go for Christmas?

[Little Naughty]

My boyfriend and I are hoping to go away for Christmas. We're looking for somewhere hot, with warm water and lots of good diving. Oh, and won't cost a small mortgage to get to! Has anyone got any suggestions apart from Egypt?

[Dave Crampton]

Devon?? Cheap accomodation, minimal transport costs, lots of wrecks etc..

I'll grab my coat.

[Georgina]

For about 18 years I went away every Christmas and always wanted somewhere hot, hot, hot. The thing you have to watch is the rainy seasons. A lot of places get so much rain at this time. The places I dived at Christmas were Maldives, Cuba, Thailand, Red Sea, Philippines, Burma, Indonesia. Thailand is a good time at Christmas but Philippines and Indonesia did get a lot of cloud and rain. Fantastic diving but depressing when you have been there nearly two weeks and not seen the sun. The rain is warm but it didn't stop for 48 hours in Indonesia. Cuba good but mixed weather and coolish. Went to Kenya and Tanzania a lot and weather is good at Christmas but didn't dive then. But the weather seems to be changing all over the world. In the Red Sea I would wear a dry suit at Christmas. Lots of people don't but I feel the cold. It is the wind on the boat after the dive and putting a freezing cold wet suit back on that gets you.

Christmas is very expensive time to travel because you always get flight supplements and hotel supplements and compulsory gala dinners. Everywhere was always very Christmasy and always had turkey and mince pies even in the middle of the Serengeti and black Father Christmas's. El Gouna was the least Christmasy place I had ever been to! I appreciate a lot of people want to get away from it all. It is getting better and we have Christmas trees and santa coming to Tamr Henna square for the kiddies. A lot of Europeans celebrate on the 24th with dinner, not like the Brits with their Christmas Day lunch and Queen's speech. At least I get a Christmas Lunch now but it is at Boxers Bar in Downtown on Boxers Day

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by Little Naughty

My boyfriend and I are hoping to go away for Christmas. We're looking for somewhere hot, with warm water and lots of good diving. Oh, and won't cost a small mortgage to get to! Has anyone got any suggestions apart from Egypt?

Hello you!

Tenerife is nice - warm all year round and fairly cheap. The diving's pretty good, not as colourful as the Red Sea but with plenty of life - turtles, rays, octopi etc.

The photos in our loo on the left-hand side were taken in 'Reefee. Did you notice them on Tues evening?

See what Mike and Joe have to say about Cape Verde. I think they're off there soonish.

[nickb]

Tignes

Fantastic skiing in the world-class Éspace-Killey and you can ice-dive beneath the lake:

[the_negligent_snail]

We are thinking about going away as well, but have decided to leave it to the last minute to book and see what is available. 2 reasons for this really, first the downturn in the economy may mean better prices later in the year and secondly, I want to see what the airlines are going to do with their fuel prices/surcharges before I commit.

[divegyrl]

Juz & I spent one Christmas & New Year diving in Cozumel, shorties, lots of sea life & very reasonable (should be even better with the £ to $ at the moment) The most expensive part was the flight & that was about £400 if I remember correctly ('03)

We dived with Aqua Safari an excellent, professional, well run, slick operation; they had 3 boats running and you were assigned according to your abilities (not your badges) 2 dives before lunch and then the 'extra' afternoon dive was $9! Bargain!

We booked everything separately, but they do have dive packages with the local hotels. We stayed at Bahia Suites which had massive rooms with ginormous beds

Weather was great, shorts & t-shirt weather, the cruise ships arrived every morning at 8 & the town was overrun with tourists, but they all left by 2 when you had come back from your dive........ perfect!

The only down side was our flight, we used Martinair (cheapest deal) & had to fly first to Amsterdam, it is soul destroying flying over England on the way back to hang around Schipol for a few hours before you really get home!
Martinair is also a sh1t airline to fly with

I miss flying off on sunshine Christmas holidays, we will have to look into it again!

We have also dived in Egypt & Spain, we wore shorties in Egypt, but I was getting cold after an hour, in Spain it was dry suits.

[Oonasdivers]

PM Sent, we have an offer on M.Y. Blue Seas for Christmas, just £886 pp.

[incapete]

Originally Posted by nickb

Tignes

Fantastic skiing in the world-class Éspace-Killey and you can ice-dive beneath the lake:

I went to Tignes last year in Feb and went diving here - lots of fun and I got to combine skiing and diving on the same trip.
Might have to go again next year!

I'm off to Oonas in November so I don't think I can justify (or afford!) a Christmas trip as well. I do like the idea though - better than sitting watching crap TV at home!

[bythesea]

I belive we are going to Argate this year, cheap and eco friendly