012: Liveaboard vs Dive Resort

We're all dreaming of that next big dive trip.  One of the big dilemmas is if you should dive off of a liveaboard, or stick to a landbased dive resort.  Todd and Dalton discuss the pros and cons of each.

Detailed show notes can be found on our blog page.

Feedback:
If you have thoughts, ideas or comments, email us at feedback@theaquaticlifepodcast.com

Help Us Grow The Community:
*** Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast content from.  It would help us to grow the community and means a lot to us.  Thanks!***

You can subscribe to The Aquatic Life on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all major podcast apps (RSS)

The Aquatic Life Social Media Pages:
Website: TheAquaticLifePodcast.com
Twitter: AquaticLifePod
Facebook: TheAquaticLifePodcast
Instagram: TheAquaticLifePodcast

More About your Hosts:

Todd Reimer
Portfolio: toddreimerphoto.com
Facebook: todd.s.reimer
Instagram: tsreimer
Twitter: tsreimer

Dalton Hamm
Portfolio: daltonhamm.com
Dive Instruction: piratedivecrew.com
Facebook: daltonhammphotography
Instagram: daltonhammphotography
Youtube: Dalton Hamm Photography

Transcript

Todd 0:08

Welcome to Aquatic Life, the podcast about underwater photography, diving, and adventure travel. I'm Todd Reimer, and with me as always is Dalton Ham. Hey, what's going on, guys? How you doing, Dalton?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm doing good, man. You know, this uh COVID thing's not keeping me down. How about you, bud?

Main Topic

Todd 0:27

Well, we got COVID now combined with rioting here in LA. So try not to uh get in too much political stuff like that, but it is definitely uh some crazy times we're living in, just trying to stay safe. It is the apocalypse is here. Focus real quick at the start of the podcast before we get into our main topic and talk about uh reviews. We plead everyone to uh go in and uh give us some reviews to get more notice on our podcast. And our few loyal listeners have uh done that for us. So I just want to say thank you to a few folks that have left five-star reviews for us. So thank you to Cambodian Driver and Ravriostress, May, look what Gail's like, both shoeman22 and the real shoeman, Ramona and Dive Jams and Derek Cares also all left us five-star reviews. Thanks, guys. Um, it really does help. Your checks are in the mail. Exactly. So, but it really does help. We're definitely quite the niche little podcast out here that focuses on scuba diving and underwater photography, and then we'll hopefully, as we get more reviews, it'll help us get noticed by more folks. Uh, in addition to that, uh word of mouth is great. So if you're a member of uh any groups on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, uh let them know that we're out there and uh we'd really appreciate it. But thanks, guys, really appreciate the reviews. Right on. What do we got going on for today's topic, Dalton?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

I think we're uh teeing up liveboards versus resort diving.

Todd 2:00

The idea here is when we're going on a trip, one of the big decisions we have to make if we're gonna plan on dive trip is do we go on a liverboard or do we get a resort and schedule resort dives? There's pros and cons to talk about both, and I figure it'd be a good topic to chat about because now we both have some experience in both types of dive travel trips. And for those that haven't done uh liverboards or haven't done either, there's definitely tips that we can tell everyone what to look out for and how to make a better decision. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

They're really two different beasts, you know, each one has their their perks and their their pros and their cons, right? Exactly.

Todd 2:42

We'll get into the details, but a lot of what makes the ultimate decision is really gonna be based on the location you choose. So if you're gonna go to some place like the Galapagos, well, guess what? You're not gonna be doing much shorediving. Uh you know, you're you're gonna want to do a liverboard there versus other places that are known for shorediving like Bonair, we've talked about in an earlier episode. You're gonna want to do primarily shorediving. So of course you you want to be based in resort. You don't need to be on a liverboard in Bon Air. There's definitely locations that will be more prone to one versus the other, but there'll be places, other places where you can do either. And that gray area is kind of where I think it's good to kind of weigh the pros and cons of both to make that decision. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, and I think it also it depends on if you've been there before or not.

Live Aboard Pros and Cons

Todd 3:29

Dalton, why don't you give everyone an overview of what is liverboard diving?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, I think we definitely can uh can talk about that. Um, you know, for example, liverboards usually have a dedicated camera room where you can leave your camera set up pretty much the whole time.

Todd 3:48

So yeah, liverboards, you basically get on the boat, you basically dive, eat, and sleep on the boat. The boat's usually rigged that's catered to our divers and underwater photographers. Uh, as you mentioned, that's one of my pros too, is usually have dedicated spaces for photographers.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yeah, and and they're usually vary in size, anywhere from a two-berth sailing catamaran up to like a 20-berth, 120-foot dive yacht.

Todd 4:15

So, why don't we get into why people like liverboards so much? What are the benefits of be of being on a liverboard? You mentioned one of them, which is if you happen to be an unawater photographer like us, you're gonna have a a nice dedicated camera room for photographers, usually on most liverboards. Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah, and when you do live a board diving, everything's full service. So, I mean, everything's set up in your own little locker, your own little space. You go to the same spot every day. And basically, once you get on board and hand your dive gear over, they set it up for you, they wash it down for you, they break it down for you, and you really don't have to do anything. Show up.

Todd 5:02

Roll out of bed or roll out of the uh cap tree and pick up your camera if they haven't done that for you already, which uh sometimes they'll do if they know that it's ready to go. And it's definitely white glove service. Uh it's really nice. The other big benefit is uh the amount of dives you can get in per day. Usually on a liverboard, you're doing anywhere from three to five dives a day, depending on the place in the itinerary. So if you if you're looking to get as many dives in as possible uh and get most underwater time for your buck, a lot of times the liverboard actually ends up being a value.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Absolutely. And um, just like you're saying, the the opportunity to be able to get you know five dives a day, you know, usually four during the day and one at night, you know, you can you can really rack up the uh the dive time and fill out a dive log. You know, you figure if you're doing a 10-day trip, you're doing nine days of diving, you're gonna rack up 45 dives, you know, if you're doing five dives a day.

Todd 6:04

Having said that, I've noticed not a scientific study, but at least in my own time, I've I've noticed that liverboards tend to be cutting down, especially in Asia. They're it seemed to be a lot more places would offer five dives a day, guaranteed, so to spoke. Officially, that was their plan their plan. Now some of those same boats are not do not as aggressive, but you usually can get in four dives a day on average, and some are still doing five dives a day. But either way, definitely a lot more than you would be getting if you do if you were land-based. For sure, for sure. Which averag which would average about two dives a day, maybe three. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Um and also you have to look uh the the value. Um it it might not seem like a value because usually it's a fairly large number, but once you factor in that you're getting room and board, all of your food, all of your drink, all of your dives, then that number doesn't seem so big. And it's actually usually you're getting a value to it when you break it down per dive.

Todd 7:09

If you're uh an iron diver and you're planning on doing those five dives a day, uh you're usually gonna get your money's worth for sure. Uh like you said, lodging meals are included, drinks, your boat rides per day are all included all there. And so if you're you want to get a lot of dives in, it's definitely worth it. Something to note there is most of the itineraries, just like other boats, if you haven't been on boats, a lot of times tipping is always an interesting topic, but it's they will usually be recommended, but it's not included. So you'll need to tip the entire boat staff, not just the dive guides that helped you and the boat crew. But if you ask when you're reserving what the typical thing is, it's still discretionary. You you could go on the boat and not tip, especially if you're not part of America. It's it's kind of one of those things where there's always a interesting topic of guests from around the world on levelboards, but they'll usually be a recommendation. It's usually another.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

And I mean, just as a as a dive professional, I'll always say that a lot of these guys work for the tips, they're not getting paid much of anything. So definitely, definitely tip um if you get good service. I'm not I'm not saying that if you get crappy service to tip them, you know, 10, 15, 20 percent. But if you get good service, tip accordingly.

Todd 8:34

Yeah, especially on a live board. Like uh if you happen to have not the best dive guide and that's a bummer, first of all, gosh, this is a whole nother topic. But usually on a liverboard, you get one dive guide for the entire trip. They don't swap out, so they they know you better. But some dive guides maybe don't cater as well to underwater photographers or things like that. If you're not happy with it, talk to the cruise director and see if you can get swapped off and change with that because you the worst thing, the last thing you want to do is find out, well, you don't have the dive guide and you don't say anything to the end when something could have been done. So by all means, make sure to to bring that up ahead of time. But let's say you don't have the best experience with your dive guide, by all means, you don't need to tip that person nearly as much, but don't take it out on the guy that's basically been your uh steward, your room steward, and your waiter and everyone else. If they've given you good service, they deserve uh gratuities as well. So very good point, Dolph. Absolutely. Having said that, uh let's go on to the next uh point that I had, which is less planning. Uh, obviously, if you're at a resort or if you're shore diving somewhere like in Bon Air, you kind of have to do and figure out how to plan your days every time. And if it's some other resorts, you kind of have to figure out which of the itineraries you want to do. With a liverboard, once you get on board, the the whole dive trip's been planned out for you. You won't have to do anything. You just roll out of bed and show up. And you show up. It's one less thing to have to organize. Yes, it's it's really nice. Yeah. So, Don, you have any other benefits that jump out at you for being on a on a liverboard?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Well, I think uh you know, usually the the meals tend to be very good because it's almost like getting catered food. It's not like you're going having to decide, well, what am I gonna have tonight? You know, they've already prepared a meal plan and it's usually a gourmet meal plan. Usually.

Todd 10:27

And I guess that ties in really well with less planning. You don't have to figure out where you're gonna go to eat, right? Because there's there's only one place to eat. And for the most part, it's uh it's usually they usually do a very good job out of it. Uh the other one uh benefit I've got is dive site diversity. So if you're on a liverboard, you're gonna be able to get to places that you couldn't get to on a resort dive because if you're always leaving from the resort, you usually can only go to a certain distance. Whereas you're from the liverboard, obviously you can go all over the place, remote places that other no resort could ever get to. So uh that's the other benefit, is you can go to more pristine reefs in places that have more diversity than just what your dive resort can get to. And the other last thing I've got is minimal boat ride time. Since you're on a liverboard, usually the big boat gets to wherever you're supposed to dive. You everyone jumps in a couple tenders or on a smaller boat, you get on and you're and your boat ride time is a couple minutes and then you're getting ready to go in the water. Versus the resort time, sometimes you have to travel for an hour, 10-15 minutes to an hour to get to wherever you're actually going to go and dive.

Live Aboard Cons

SPEAKER_02 11:33

And and if you're lucky and you get to do actual mothership diving, where you just dive from the boat you're staying on and you don't have to get on a tender or a smaller boat, then it's even it's even less. It's like you wake up and they're already at the dive site, and you know, basically you get a dive brief and the pool's open. Yeah, that's really nice. Or you're having, you know, you finish your morning dive and you're having breakfast. And then by the time breakfast is over, you're at the next site. And it's like, okay, well, whenever you're ready, the the pool's open. You know, and that's that's really nice that you don't have to worry about where you're gonna be at the next dive site, how long is it gonna take you to get there, and how long's your surface interval and all that. It's just everything's just taken care of. And there and there are a few downsides as well. I mean, you know, like when you're talking about um a cabin or a berth versus a hotel room, you know, not on ever there are exceptions to the rule, you know, that have really nice cabins with a queen or king-sized bed, but those are few and far between. A lot of your cabins on live liverboards are very small, and when you fit two people in there, it it can get kind of tight.

Todd 12:59

Another con of uh being on a liverboard is it's not good for mixed company and non-divers. So if you happen to be looking on taking a vacation and you happen to be going with family members and not all of them are divers, well, obviously a liverboard's not gonna be good for mixed company. Having said that, I've been on several liverboards where there were a couple people where not everyone dove, and maybe some people snorkeled, but you're gonna be paying a premium for that, although it may be good to save your marriage. It's not good from a pocketbook, it's not a it's not a great value. So if you're going trying to plan a vacation and you're going with a group of friends and not everyone dives, liverboards are probably out. You're going with family members and not everyone dives, liverboards are probably out. Or they're just not maybe they die, but they're they don't have an interest in doing more than a dot one dive a day, it's probably not the ideal situation. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

And uh I think that kind of has to do with my next my next one's like, so boat is life, basically. You know, if if it's not on the boat, you're not doing it. And you know, if you get seasick or anything like that, it can you know that can be kind of troublesome. You know, so you gotta make sure you got your sea legs and you have to make sure that you actually enjoy being on a boat. You know, it can it can get tight.

Todd 14:28

And that's also important when you're researching, if you're considering a liverboard, ask on on boards like scuba boards, email the the boats that you're looking at and ask them about their itinerary and what the weather and if there's any tough channel crossings, how rough the seas tend to be out around the time that you're doing it, because it does make a that is something you can kind of be prepared for one way or the the other. An example is places like Raja Ampat that we've been to is pretty much known for having pretty calm seas, no matter where you go, no tough crossings. Whereas when we dove in Komodo, when you leave Bali, there's always a tough channel crossing at several places, and have rough seas is pretty uh notorious for for having a strong channel crossing where uh May did not do great on there, was that she had a tougher time, but still managed and didn't ruin her day. But some other people had a really, really rough time with it. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

And I've seasickness is such a a finicky thing. I mean, I've seen people that get on a boat in calm seas and just from the what you get from just walking back and forth on a boat, they get seasick. And I've seen other people where you could be in you know 10-foot seas slamming down and they're they're fine, you know. So I think that just making sure that you're you're comfortable on a boat, and if you have any doubts whatsoever, you know, uh look into either the patch or triptone or the little bracelets that they have, yeah, or bone.

Todd 16:16

May had a great uh great experience with uh relief band. Yeah, that watch-looking thing that sends electrical pulses, and it actually worked really well for her. Um, so that's another one too, and they're about 70 to 100 on Amazon. Um, but any of those, any and all those things are good options, it's good to have with you just in case.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Um personally, I've never I'll tell you that I've been seasick once in my life, and that's when I was like 14 or 15 years old. Um, out with my dad in the Gulf of Mexico, I wasn't feeling well, and I decided to go below deck. Never a good idea. Never a good idea. So and my dad told me he's like, I wouldn't go down there, it's gonna make it worse. And I'm teenager, what do you know? I go downstairs and come up a little bit later, green and puking, and it wasn't pretty. But other than that, I've I've never been seasick. And I know you know you don't get seasick very often, if at all. But still, from time to time, if I'm going somewhere, you and I are going somewhere that we're know we're going to dive and we want to dive, and we know that the seas have the potential to be rough, we'll take stuff anyway. We'll take some tryptone or bonine anyway, just to be safe. It's better safe than sorry.

Todd 17:38

And that stuff you usually have to start taking 12 hours or a day before. So you can't just pop it once you start feeling it. That by then it's too late. So um, you know, if you if that's something and you're planning on taking pills for it, you've got to start before you get on the boat. Um, so another pro tip there. Exactly. But otherwise, if you look at uh the things that use acupressure, the bracelets and or the watch we've been, though those will work immediately, allegedly, for the those that that's a very good point. Don't spend all this money only to find out that uh that you you're miserable the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah um if you didn't need to start taking stuff as a preventative because you're not sure, it's better to take it and not need it than need it and not take it.

Todd 18:23

Yep, for sure. So yeah, but uh but definitely another potential con because if you're at a resort and then you realize you had problems, one you're spending less time on the boat, you only need those couple boat rides, and if you find out you're not having a good time on the water, well then you can shore dive options or whatever. Yeah, or just be by the beach or whatever you're planning on doing. So um another con of being on a liverboard is kind of going back on the price and value. If you're the type that isn't planning on doing five dives a day or more than two dives a day, let's say, it's it ends up not necessarily being value. For sure. Some people don't care, some people just love being on the boat anyway. And the other nice thing, I guess we didn't get into pros, I'll throw back up there, is they usually have an onboard masseuse and things and and plenty of things to do, and it's great to be on the boat when no one else is.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

A huge lounge area, like on deck lounge area.

Todd 19:18

Yeah. So there's definitely things to do, don't get me wrong. And if money is no object, who cares? And for a lot of people, that's what usually happens. Um, and they're okay with diving two dives a day. But if you're trying to figure out one versus the other, if you're only doing two dives a day, it's probably uh going to be paying a lot more money for the privilege of doing two dives, and you could save a ton just by doing those dives based off of a dive resort, dive hotel somewhere. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

And uh I think one one that I have is if you don't like strangers, if you're not, you know, an outgoing person or or not necessarily outgoing, but you're you just you know kind of like to do your own thing, you might have a hard time on a boat because you know, like I said, I've I've been on all sizes of boats. The biggest boat I've been on still feels tight when you have it full of people. Um so you're gonna be in in other people's business, so to speak. And you know, there's it can be difficult to find alone time uh unless you're skipping dives or something. Um, but that's not a bad thing. You know, uh I've I've met lifelong friends on on live a boards, you know, from all over the world. Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't trade that.

Todd 20:46

Yeah, it's it's kind of a pro and a con, depending on your personality type. Um it's kind of uh weird for me, but just just to go on with that, it's not only is it tight quarters, it's also tends to be clicky. So uh there's you a lot of times half the boat is um reserved by a dive group that may be from a different country that doesn't even speak your language. The flip side of that is like you said, we've met so many great people on our liverboard trips. Is this part of what I think is also a big pro is you getting to meet people from all over the world with different perspectives, but you already have the bond of all love to dive, right? And you all have great dive experiences. And that's kind of the idea of what really spawned this podcast for us is look, every time we're on a dive trip somewhere, we meet all these amazing people from all over the world, and they all have different views on life and do totally different things, and it's great, but we all get together and bond pretty quick from you know, with each other, and it's so great to meet all these people, and then we go away and then we're on Facebook friends and things like that. But we realize that that diving, you know, this love for diving is such a passion that even for people like. Me that I'm definitely very introverted normally. Once we start talking diving and things like that, it's just a different world to be able to talk with people about all their different dive experiences and and what they like to do and what they don't. And it just tends to be so much more freeing to get to talk to all these other people from different walks of life.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Absolutely. And sharing those experiences, like you were saying, you know, what they've seen and what they haven't seen and what you've seen that they haven't seen, and and vice versa, you know, it's it's always great just to you know talk to people about what their experience is, you know, when you share something that you really love doing.

Todd 22:40

Yep. But having said that, if you're not that type of person and you kind of wanted quiet time or private time with just uh you maybe on a honeymoon uh or whatever, you may or may not have a table that just seats two people on your liverboard. You might be like you're usually on communal diming or larger groups. So just be aware of that.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah, I was about to say when you're when you're talking three meals a day for you know 10 days, you're gonna you're gonna be sitting next to people you don't know at some point. Now by the end of the trip, you'll know everybody.

Todd 23:12

Yeah. Take advantage of it for sure. If you do decide to do a take advantage to get to know everyone, even if you're normally shy and don't want to talk to them. Um, it's really a really great experience. And especially if you're internationally somewhere to meet people from all over the world, it it's enlightening. It's part of what's great about traveling and lifeing life is getting to uh learn about different cultures and different people's perspectives, and they get to learn about you. And more often than not, you get to make a lot of uh friends that you would have never had the opportunity to make before. For sure. Kind of going on that, uh, the culture side of things, one of the downsides of being on a level board also is the food, meaning yes, the food can be good on the boat, and they usually do their best to have a variety of things, but you're pretty much having food that one chef has made the entire time. And if you're on a two-week trip, there's gonna be a lot of stuff that gets repeated. Um and if you're a a foodie, yeah, it's still great, but you if you have the desire to kind of reach out and and check out all different restaurants from all different places. I'm thinking like Cayman Islands has so much different food from all the different places that are out there, it would be kind of a bummer to be stuck on the boat the entire time and not get a chance to try a several different restaurants. You basically are stuck with the one chef that happens to do it. Usually it's it's a good thing other than one boat that we've been on. It's almost always still really good. It is definitely a con in that you're stuck with one chef and one type of food for most of the trip.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah, and that's that's what I was going to add is that if you're a foodie, um, and I think I think we're all foodies to some degree, but if it's if it's like really your passion, make sure you do your research as part of the boat that you're looking at, you know, see what their food is like. Because I I mean I we've had a couple of misses on on some of the liveaboards that we've gone on. Um, we won't name any names, but you know, the the food wasn't the food wasn't great on that on that boat.

Todd 25:17

To be fair, uh so we're we won't name the boat, but it was on uh a liveaboard in the Maldives. Uh and to be fair, at least uh Maldives isn't known for having the best food even on the on Mali or the islands. It's hard to find good food anyway, but still two two weeks of having a bad chef was really disappointing. For sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Uh it can happen, it doesn't usually Yeah, and that's what I was gonna add to it was that you know if you do end up on a boat that has you know a bad chef or or not the best menu, you're stuck on that boat for for the next 10 days, you know, or two weeks, depending on on how long your trip is. Um so make sure you take a look at that when you're doing your research.

Todd 26:04

If you uh have any allergies or food preferences, vegetarian, vegan stuff like that, most boats usually will cater that to that, but be sure to ask ahead of time just to make sure that they're gonna be able to handle that. Uh it's never been an issue from any places I've been on, but you want to ask those questions ahead of time as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Yeah, definitely don't spring it on them because they have to uh it's not like they can run out to the grocery store and and pick up a salad for you or something. You know, they they've got to have all that stuff on board before you um embark on your journey.

Todd 26:39

Any other cons that uh you can think of?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Nothing that's really uh jumping out on I mean, I think we've covered and we talked about the size, you know, that the rooms are a lot smaller than what you get at a resort. And I guess I guess one thing that you know you you can say is a con um on a liveaboard uh versus it's a a pro on island is that there's you you don't get to experience much of the culture of the area that you're at or see any of the um things that are special about the island. You know, like if you go to Kozumel, you can take a day over and go to Playa del Carmen and go down to Tulum and see Mayan Ruins and dive a cenote. But if you're on a live board, you're not gonna be able to do that.

Resort Diving Pros

Todd 27:32

Yeah, same thing in Hawaii. You can do this cruise this great liverboard and then dive all around, but you're gonna miss all this great experiences that you can have on the island in Hawaii. So if it's not been your if you've already been to that island in Hawaii, great, then you don't you're not gonna miss anything. But if it's your very first time, it you may not want to jump right on the liverboard for your first trip there. So I think that's a good opportunity to switch gears and talk and focus on um resort diving or on-premises at a certain spot. First of all, let's just make sure we're all on the same page. So this is either being based out of a hotel or a specific dive resort on any given island in general. We're trying to keep it wide open here. So, what are some pros of why you'd choose uh to be based on a resort instead of uh choosing the loverboard option?

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Well, it doesn't move for uh um unless there's an earthquake, right? Unless there's an earthquake. Right. But I mean, for the most part, you have a lot more room to to spread out. You got a more creature comforts of home. Um if you want to you know walk down the street to the restaurant or to the local OXO or convenience store or liquor store, you can do that. You know, it's just like being at home. You just lock your door when you leave, go hop in your rental car or or walk, go down to the local bar, whatever it is. You can you can do that. I think that's probably the the biggest difference to me is having that ability to roam.

Todd 29:08

For sure. Yeah, that's I have that as well. Um the first point I have is you get to enjoy non-diving activities. So you get to roam. If there's land-based sightseeing to do, you actually can go and do it. Um, so you want to go zip lining, you want to do uh ride horses down the beach, ride go explore ruins, all that other stuff, you have that opportunity and you can do it any time during your trip and then and spreckle in your diving when you're the first half of the day or a totally different day. You take a whole day off from diving and and do your non-diving activities, and you can do more of that. Going back to the fact that if you have mixed company and you have people that are non-divers with you or people that are not avid divers and want to break up their activity, if you're in mixed company, obviously it's a benefit to be resort-based because if you want to do diving every day for 10 days in a row, you can do that while certain of your other friends can take every other day off or most days off, and they can go do their own thing. You're not not everyone's tied into having to dive every single time. Everyone can kind of make their own plan, and that's definitely a big benefit if you're going with people that like diving, they want to go dive with you, just not every day.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Absolutely. I I was on a uh a mixed company trip in January before uh all this COVID stuff broke out. Uh, we were in Cozumel, and it was you know one of those things where half the group was going to go diving, but the other half of the group, they weren't even certified. You know, so they stayed at the resort, hung out at the pool, slept in, had breakfast, you know, all that stuff while we were out getting wet. Yeah. So there's a lot, um, a lot to do, and it's easy to split a group up. And I would say, um, you know, like to a degree you have a choice of dive sites where on a live board, they've pretty much got it all planned out, their route, their itinerary, you know, how far out they're going, turning around, coming back, you know, all that stuff. Um, when you're on island, you got a little bit more freedom, you know, to choose what where you want to go dive, how many times a day you want to dive, you know, your tour operator.

Todd 31:28

Do you have you have a choice of tour operators? So you have a choice of do I want to shore dive today or a boat dive today? Um and if you want to go back and redo something. So let's say we're in the Caymans and we had such a great time on the Kitty Wake that we want to go and dive it again to get a specific shot, we can actually do that versus just have one dive at it. You can custom tailor your own dive plans. So definitely a very big plus.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

One of the times that I would say that you can get four dives, sometimes five dives a day in when you're on an island, but you have to be very tight with your schedule. You have to have it dialed in, or you have to pay a premium and get a private boat with a private guide.

Todd 32:18

So when when you said that, you know, Bonair jumps in my mind right away, right? So the theory of you could get in six or seven dives a day. You wake up really early, you get out and and shore dive and and just go from one side to the next, and you can do that. But the problem is you have to be someone in your group has to be very diligent and have to be the drill instructor to get you out of bed, get you fed and out the door fast. And that usually doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Yeah, you know, you gotta pack snacks. You don't you don't go and have a two-hour lunch, leisurely lunch at the beach. You're you're going, going, going.

Todd 32:55

You have to be uh really well prepared for it. And then if so, you definitely could get more dives a day. And but more often than not, people that do that they end up thinking, uh, you know, even if you're a hardcore diver, especially if it's your first time you again, you're drawn by the culture and you want to see the flamingos or you want to enjoy being in town, you should be able to get five dives a day in, but you end up gonna get two on many of them just because you want to experience everything else.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

There's nothing wrong with it.

Todd 33:21

Um, there's nothing wrong with that unless you've been there several times before and you happen to be have a whole group of people that are really disappointed and gung-ho to do that, it's gonna be hard to pull off.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

But and and reading the map, reading the map, knowing where you're wanting to go, and and actually realizing you're like, I'm on an on the small island of Bon Air. Bon Air is not a huge island until you start trying to drive around and find these different dive sites you want to dive at, and then all of a sudden it becomes huge. Yes, for sure.

Todd 33:52

Now, having said that, um, the fact that you're at a place like Bon Air or any place that has shore dive on shore diving options, it makes for having better opportunities to take your time to shoot photos. So you go to a place like Salt Pier or these other places that just you know you're gonna sp it's pretty shallow and you're gonna get an hour to an hour and a half easy out of your tank, and you can just concentrate on being around a pier and checking out the macro life under the pier or or whatever your interest is and not have to worry about it. Again, it's just a benefit of shorediving in general. But if they have to be based on a resort where you have shorediving options, you know you can get an hour and a half dive in, no problem. And do that several times and and just concentrate on focusing on that type of photography you're interested on on that particular shore dive. You don't have that opposition on on the liverboard.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Yeah, and if you and if you do, you know, say since we use Bonair for our example, you know, say you do you know, Salt Pier or the Helma Hooker, and you know, you go on that dive and you come out of the water and you're like, man, that was incredible. Let's do it again.

Todd 35:01

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sure, no problem. And that can happen too, even on boat dives. A lot of resorts will have several itineraries, and you usually sign up the day before, like, okay, we have three boats going out. This boat's doing this dive site one and two, and then three and four, whatever the boat's named, and you can sign up for whatever you want to do. And so that way, if you like, oh man, I had a great time seeing this giant rose coral garden. I really want to go back and doing that again. Well, if you're on a liverboard, well, sorry, you you moved on. Yeah, but if you're on a resort, you can say, I want to do the dive again. Can I get with this group that's going that happens to be going back there? You have you'll have that option on a resort. And if you're short diving on your own, then by all means go six or seven times and you don't have to wait for the person to say that we're doing that dive today. You you just drive to it. So you all the more benefit benefit in those cases.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yep.

Todd 35:55

We talked about this a little bit, but obviously there's better food choices, your variety. If you're in mo again, location dependent, know where you're going. But uh, if you're going to Maldives, you may not have that many choices. You're gonna be stuck on your own island anyway, so there's not that much variety regardless. But other places like the Caymans and uh anywhere else, there's lots and lots of restaurants catering to tourists, divers and non-divers alike. So, you know, if you're again, if you're a foodie and you want to have different types of food, or you'd happen to have just a big group of people that have different different budgets of they want to eat more expensive, they want to eat on the cheap more, blah, blah, blah. They can control more of that if you're based on a uh if you're based at a res at a resort.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah, for sure. And you know, like you're saying, you know, if you want to eat at the resort, you can. If you want to eat at a new restaurant for every meal, you can. You know, it's just it's totally up to you.

Todd 36:50

Yep. And having said that, uh, some places, some resorts will try to sell you a food plan. And uh sometimes it makes sense to do it, but do your research ahead of time, see what else is out there. And um, especially if you're gonna be there for a while. Again, it's always for me, since I'm more of a foodie, I try to skip the food plan whenever possible and say, you know, I want to be able to venture out in my own and try places that are in town again to soak up the culture, get food variety choices and not be stuck with the same choice every single time. For sure. And figure out that ahead of time because you may be going somewhere where there aren't any choices. And uh, so you you need to buy the food plan anyway.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

And sometimes the food plan is affordable enough that you know you're gonna have breakfast at the resort every day because you're gonna catch breakfast right before you go diving. You don't have time to go out and come back. Um, you know, it it could be worth buying the food plan just for breakfast every day.

Todd 37:50

Yep. I was just about to say that. A good example uh is one May and I went to Taviuni way back in 2010, I think it was. It's a tiny island that uh you wouldn't normally think there was much uh back then there were many options, but there were a few. We they had a food plan that allowed us to have breakfast and lunch on on site, and then dinner we basically didn't buy, which was nice to have that option. And they had a shuttle that would take us wherever. So we actually went sometimes to other resorts that had really great options that were much better than our resort, and then a couple of restaurants in town. It was just one or two, but they actually ended up being really good. And ended up that all the other people, the guests that we were diving with, ended up asking us, where did we eat? What do we think? And several of them wanted to go out to dinner with us because they just got sick of the food, eating the same food all the time at the hotel. And the food wasn't bad, they just got they just got bored with it after a week. So, you know, they may have a food plan again for breakfast. If you can get one just for breakfast or breakfast and lunch, what because you have short surface interval, you're not gonna be going in or anyway, great. And um, then just have dinners on your own. That that's great if they have that option. But definitely look into it and weigh the pros and cons there.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Yeah, and uh also I think a um a pro could be uh I know we said the same thing for a uh for a live aboard is the value for your money, but I think that on island can be a value for your money as well because you have your choice of everything from a you know hostile room share, you know, for$25 a night, yep, up to you know, the writs for five or six, seven hundred dollars a night, you know, or or more, depending on which island you're on. So I think you have the option to make it a value, uh a value to go.

Todd 39:41

Yep. I have that as my last pro here is better for people on a budget. All the points you mentioned, Dalton, are spot on. If you happen to want to go diving in a certain place but need to need to save some money and stay at uh a hostel or a cheap hotel, uh those options will be available to you. And then you just need to get tacos for 50 cents a taco every day. And that's really but you get to allocate all your money to diving and you got to do all the dives like everyone else, but you just got to save you have that option, it's great. So um you'll have those opportunities uh uh being land-based for sure. Location dependent, but um, but those will be available to you. So if that's if that's your type of vacation where you want to be more on a budget, that's uh land-based trip for you is is a way to make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Um yeah, I I agree, you know, the the value for, you know, like I said, you can spend 50 cents on tacos, you know, or you can do a budget hostel, you know, or you can, you know, Bon Air, for example. Usually shore diving is included with your dive package. And so you you basically you get a tank card and you drive around when you're done diving, you go to you know, another tank fill station, they fill your tanks and off you go. Um, you know, so it's up to you how many dives you get in a day. It costs the same whether you do two or you do 10. You know, so things like that can really be budget friendly. If all you want to do is dive, you stay at something like the courtyard, which is pretty inexpensive there, pay for the dive package, and off you go. And however many dives you get, and then you know, get you know the don't donor brood or whatever for for lunch, you know, just a couple of bucks, and they it can be very affordable.

Resort Diving Cons

Todd 41:37

Or Airbnb at some places, or come Grant Cayman, there was the Comfort Inn was always cheap. Uh, and then you uh can just get a slice of pizza and be on your, you know, with not without the soy sauce while you're driving. Uh but uh you know that there's definitely ways to make it happen and and stay on a budget, so that's really good. For sure. And the uh con section for resort diving, I think we've covered some of this, but let's just uh talk about them. Obviously, longer boat rides. So usually because you're being land-based, a lot of times the dive sites are out. Depending on where you go, sometimes the dive trip on the boat may be 10 minutes and six-pack, no big deal, but sometimes it may be closer to an hour to get to the the dive site. Again, it's not horrible, not the end of the world, but it is time in your vacation that you're spending on a boat and and maybe not in the most comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

I mean, I know we've been in some boats in uh Mexico that were, you know, you're not really sitting on a seat or a bench, you're kind of sitting on the rib of the boat. Yep. And you got, you know, I think our buddy Ethan was laying across our fins, you know, because it was a full boat, you know, and you got a 45-minute ride, it can be interesting.

Todd 43:08

Yep. So, you know, if you're looking to maximize your time, some again, some islands, you all your dives are 10-minute boat ride away from shore, so it's no big deal. But do your research, know where those dive famous dive sites are that you want to get to and how long they are. It definitely can play into your decision. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

And you know, also you're in charge of all of your own equipment. You're hauling it around every day. To and from to and from the boat, you know, from the from the hotel to the car, from the car to the dive center, from the dive center to the boat. Um, if you're lucky enough to dive at a dive resort and stay at a dive resort, you know, sometimes they'll have lockers that you know you can rent and Then you're just lugging it from the locker to the boat every day. Um, but a lot of places, even though you're at the resort, you still end up lugging it back to your room. And so you're spreading your dive gear all over your room, hanging it out on your balcony, um, wanting to have a second or third floor room so you have a balcony to hang your stuff on and not just a patio where you know it could be swiped.

Todd 44:28

And if you're a photographer, that means all your camera gear, your camera room at a resort doesn't usually exist, and you're definitely not going to leave anything there. So that means a good portion of your hotel becomes the camera room, and you have to deal with doing all of your changing out memory cards, things like that. You're doing it on the bed or a desk, and if you along with all your other dive gear, your bigger room all of a sudden gets cramped because it has to be sectioned off and certain things, and it's again not nearly as convenient if you have to do that in your hotel room and you have to be messing with your housing and doing maintenance and things like that on the in a corner of your room or on the bed. It's just not nearly as convenient as if you're on a live board.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Yep. And also if you're not staying at the resort, at the dive resort, and you're using a dive center in town and just staying at an Airbnb or uh another hotel, um you have to find a way to make your way to the dive center. Sometimes the dive center will send a van, but when they do send a van around, they're sending around to multiple places. So, you know, if they have multiple boats, you might have 12 people in a van that you're trying to cram in with with your dive gear. It can get you know uncomfortable sometimes.

Todd 45:46

Uh another one is a lot of times dive resorts only do two or three dives a day. Sometimes they do two in the morning and three and then third in the afternoon only. And sometimes, depending on conditions, since night dives are not that popular at many resorts, a lot of times, unless you have enough people, they will just not do them at all. Um, so you may be at a resort, we had this problem in Taviuni, you know, we flew all the way to the middle of the of nowhere to see all this beautiful coral, and they were they were the worst as we sometimes we couldn't even get three dives a day, and we only did two dives a day. It's it was a little bit of an extreme uh circumstance that you wouldn't that doesn't happen at all resorts, but it could happen where you may want to dive more, but you just can't. And it was not feasible to go anywhere else because we already booked seven days at this place, and we tried to uh convince the uh resort owners that the crew needed to do at least three dives a day, but that just wasn't their policy, was not to override them. So we flew all that way to get to this great remote location, and we're stuck only doing two dives a day when we had nothing else to do. We were in this small town where we're there just to dive. We took a 10-hour flight to Fiji and then another puddle jumper to get to Tabiuni, and we're in the small island where we were there to dive, and we could only do two dives a day. Um, usually it's better than that at most places, depending on where you go. But um, if you want to get a lot of dives in and you're at a resort, it happens to be at a remote location, you're gonna be stuck with only the amount of dives that uh that they allow there. And sometimes it's not that many.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

I think that are staying on an island, you also have to think about are you gonna stay at a resort, or are you gonna stay at a hotel and figure out which one is better for you? And I and and sometimes having all those choices is a good thing. Sometimes having all those choices isn't so much of a good thing. You know, you can sometimes it's nice just to say, hey, this dive boat, this liveaboard, you know, it takes off from Rowatin and travels around, you know, Utella and out to the seamounts and stuff. You know, I I just want to do that. I don't want to have to worry about which resort I'm staying at, you know, where I'm making my way to. You know, on the flip side of that is, you know, it's nice to be able to have those choices.

Todd 48:14

Yeah. So again, it goes back to your personality type. You have to do a lot of the if you're not staying in a dive resort, you have to do your planning all by yourself. You have to book the hotel, you have to figure out book with a dive op. Are you gonna book, go with a dive op uh in the hot in the hotel or a different operator? Uh who's got the best value? Got to do the research on that. Got to figure out which package do you get? Do we uh can we get it guaranteed to get three three days of diving in, even though we're there for a week? Are we gonna do six days of diving for there for a week and then get everyone on the same page? Um if you if you want to schedule it, you know, you kind of have to figure that out. And if you don't have a set schedule, then you get back to the fact where it's difficult if you're a hardcore diver that you're gonna be losing out because people are sleeping in and you want to be out the door to get three or four dives in today. But guess what? The other people are sleeping in, it's their vacation too. And before you know it's 11 o'clock and you still haven't gotten out the door, it can be frustrating. So it happens a lot when you're just at a regular hotel and not at a dive resort with a set schedule or on a loverboard. So definitely something to cons to consider.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Also, I think uh, you know, it depends on how much time you have, you know, how many days are you working with. Because, you know, if you're looking for a five-day live board, I don't think you're gonna find one. You know, most of them are, you know, 10 days to two weeks. Sometimes you can find some seven-day ones, you know, but I think you also have to think about how much time you're working with. You know, if you're working with less than that, you know, you're gonna have to go with resort diving.

Todd 49:52

Yeah, I think there are some places in the Bahamas that have like three-day, four-day differences. But again, you know your location that you've chosen will will dictate that. You'll see what your options are. But for the most part, liverboards are usually a week, yeah, 7, 10, 14. Uh, but there are there are some shorter ones out there. And a lot of times the same liverboard will maybe mix it up and have some shorter itinerar mixed with some longer ones. Um, see what's out there. But that's a good point. If you happen to be at a certain amount of days that you can only go on a trip and it's less than a week, liverboard diving is probably out for you and you're gonna have to do some sort of resort dive. Having said that, if you only have that amount of days, we'll maybe be at a dive resort so they can and and you want to dive as much as possible because they're gonna cater to getting as many dives in as possible versus if you're doing it on your own, it'll be hard to get more than one or two dives a day at all if you're not diving every day, and you may not be able to dive every day anyway.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

For sure, for sure. And you know, I I think the we've talked about pros and cons of each. And I think if someone asked me, well, which one would you do? I would have to say it depends. I don't think one is any better than the other, I think they're just different.

Todd 51:03

Locations will determine what is the best option for you. Almost always it's easier to say that there are always some exceptions, but um, you know, if you're gonna be going to Raja Ampot, I'd say they're great resorts. And if you can get it to Missoula Resort, great. But if you've never been there before and it's your first time and you want to see all different areas, you want to be on a liverboard in my mind. Uh same thing with Komodo uh versus other places, you're going to Bonaire, you're gonna be shore diving. There's no reason they offer boat trips, and I don't know if they have liverboards, but uh but Caribbean diving in certain places, it's uh you know, resort diving is the way to go just because there's so much good diving right off the shore that there's no reason to spend money. Hawaii's uh in my mind, I haven't been on a liverboard in Hawaii, but I know they offer them. But for me, it's a no-brainer to be land-based because there's so much fun stuff to do in Hawaii on land that if I spent the whole week on the boat, I feel I'd be missing out. I haven't been there so much now that I I I could see myself going on like the Kona Aggressor or whatever out there. But I've we have family there, I've been there so many times. Okay, I could do one trip doing doing that. But if it's my first time there, by all means, I'm staying land-based so I can take advantage of everything the island has to offer, not just the board. So totally it depends, uh, usually based on where you're going. Yep. Couldn't agree more. Any other thoughts or tips before we wrap it up?

SPEAKER_01 52:32

I don't have any.

Todd 52:33

And I think I'm all tipped out. I think we exhausted this topic pretty well. Um, anyone has any questions about that or follow-up, just uh shoot us an email or message us on our social media and we'll be happy to get back to you with our experiences. But uh I guess that's the other thing I would say is if you're thinking of liverboards, um, there's a website called liverboard.com that in addition to being basically a travel agency and booking, there are reviews and pictures of boats and seeing, like if I have a destination, I can just choose. The first thing it says is pick a destination. I'm saying, okay, well, I'm going to Belize. It'll show me all the liverboards that are in Belize, in the time frames, when they depart, do they line up with when you plan on going? That's you can figure all that out there and get an idea of what boats there there are to offer, their itineraries, and that'll give you an idea if there's a liverboard as an option for you. So that's usually where I go as a good starting point. I don't necessarily book through liverboard.com in the end because I will usually try to go directly through the provider to see if I can get a better deal. Usually I can't, but a lot of times they do. It's just simpler to cut out the middleman anyway. But it's a great starting point to look at what are my liverboard choices. But if you have any questions, Dalton and I both have got good experiences doing both types of dives, so feel free to ask us.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

Yep. If you have any questions about even if there's a place that you're thinking about going, yeah, send us a message.

Wrap Up

Todd 54:00

Yeah, I'm sure we can uh I'm sure we can help. Yeah. So why don't you email us at feedback at the aquatic lifepodcast.com or hit us up, uh hit us up on our social media. You can find everything on our show notes there. So let's wrap it up here, Dalton. Before we leave, why don't you tell everyone where people can find more about you?

SPEAKER_02 54:20

Sure. Uh people can visit my uh commercial photography at Daltonham.com. Uh you can find me on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook at Dalton Ham Photography. And for anything dive related, you can go to piratedive crew.com.

Todd 54:44

And they can find more of my work at toddrephotography.com. Please take a moment to rate us in iTunes and give us a little review. That would be greatly appreciated. And hit subscribe to get all of our episodes as soon as they come out. Having said all that, want everyone stay safe and have a great week, and we'll catch you next time.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

See you later, guys. And um, I also think that uh, you know, I had something in in my brain. It kind of I was listening to you talk, so you know, such sweet words were coming out of your mouth. It was like honey.