Bocas del Toro, the Best Place in the World to Learn to Dive!
Utila, Honduras has long been known as “the” location in the Caribbean to get certified for scuba diving. Each year thousands of backpackers make their way to Utila to learn to dive in the beautiful Caribbean waters. The primary reason that Utila has been designated as the best place to get scuba certified is cost. Utila has billed itself as the cheapest place in the world to earn scuba certification. Backpackers, having limited budgets, flock by the thousands to this small island off the coast of mainland Honduras. If cost is the major factor for getting certified, backpackers should strongly consider coming to Bocas del Toro. There are also a plethora of other reasons to consider Bocas over our neighbors to the north.
Scuba certification is not an inexpensive proposition in most areas of the world. In the United States, Europe and most of the Caribbean scuba certification often runs over $500 for the PADI certification class. This is one of the reasons backpackers flock to Utila to get certified. An examination of the web sites for various dive shops on Utila show that the average price for a PADI Open Water Certification class is $260, substantially below most places in the world. Interestingly, Bocas del Toro is significantly less expensive than Utila for dive certification classes. The average price for getting certified in Bocas del Toro is $225, and during the off season certification classes can found for as low as $195. It is time that the rest of the world learns that Bocas del Toro is, in fact, the cheapest place in the world to get certified.
There are certainly other factors to consider besides “cost” when getting scuba certified. One of those is the quality of the diving. Unfortunately, Bocas is not known as a dive destination. Having dived in over a dozen Caribbean locations and logging over 3600 dives in the Caribbean and the Bahamas, I can say the diving in Bocas is wonderful. The water temperature stays a balmy 84 degrees all year round. We are blessed with having excellent dive sites on the leeward sides of our islands so the seas are usually flat calm. Contrast that with other Caribbean locales that frequently experience high seas which often lead to cancelled dive trips and it is easy to see why Bocas diving is an excellent place to learn to dive. Many places in the Caribbean experience strong currents which make certification extremely challenging, but here in Bocas most of our dive sites have little, if any, current. We are out of the hurricane belt, so tropical storm activity never results in cancelled dive trips or certification classes. I have taught diving for close to 20 years and I can honestly say that Bocas del Toro is the easiest place I have ever experienced to learn to dive.
The diving itself is actually very good. The waters of Bocas del Toro are very diverse and contain over 90 species of coral, over 140 species of tropical reef fish, and over 200 species of non-coral invertebrates (crab, lobster, shrimp, octopus, squid, nudibranchs, anemones, seastars, crinoids, sponges, etc.). Bocas is also the home to some very unusual fish. While it took me over 2000 dives to spot my first seahorse in the Caribbean, the local Bocas divemasters point out seahorses to divers regularly. Other unusual fish such as soapfish, toadfish, flying gunards, chain morays, and goldspot eels are spotted frequently. It is not just the marine life which makes Bocas diving so special, but also the diversity of its diving. Bocas boasts vertical reefs (like Hospital Point), caverns and swim thrus (Polo Beach), wreck dives, pinnacles (Tiger Rock), and some of the best night dives anywhere in the Caribbean.
In addition to diving, there are other reasons to consider Bocas del Toro as a place to learn to dive. To meet the budget of backpackers, there are a multitude of hostels, offering accommodations for about $10/night. For those looking for more private accommodations there are budget hotels which charge approximately $20-$25/night. We offer restaurants that cater to all palates and include great pizza, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Thai, Panamanian, Mexican, and American cuisine. Some of the local restaurants only charge $3.50 for a complete meal that includes salad, beans and rice, and a choice of chicken, beef or pork. Excellent empanadas can be purchased from street vendors for $.25/each. Sodas and beers are usually $1-$1.50.
While taking a certification class requires studying and practice, most divers enjoy experiencing the night life once the sun goes down. While Utila offers a few bars on their very small island, Bocas has many bars, discos, and nightclubs and a very active nightlife. All of them are excellent places to unwind after a nice day on the water.
Bocas Water Sports has qualified instructors who can certify divers from the Open Water level all the way through the professional ranks of divemaster and instructor. Bocas Water Sports has been around since the early 1990s and is a PADI IDC Gold Palm Resort, the highest level of PADI dive center in the world.
Come check out and see why Bocas is the best place in the world to learn to dive!

