As the summer travel season approaches you may be considering taking a dive vacation with the whole family. Yes, it is possible to have a fun family vacation that also includes some scuba diving, even if you have young divers and/or non-divers and your family. All it takes is a little bit of extra planing and being aware of a few tips when scheduling your diving activities.
My family has one young, newly certified diver and one non-diver. Our young diver is only 11 and, therefore, has depth restrictions to her certification. Our youngest is only eight and therefore cannot scuba dive yet, but he surely loves to snorkel! By following these tips for planning your excursions you will be sure to have a fun and successful family dive vacation.
Tips to follow when planning for your young divers:
- When booking your charter boat dives make sure you mention to the dive center
that you have a young diver and what their depth restrictions are. The dive charter we are diving with only does shallow dives on Thursdays. Due to this, we only booked for that day so as not to go to any dive sites the whole family could not do. - Ask the dive center if they can provide smaller cylinders for your young divers, such as 63 ft.³ aluminum cylinders. This way you're young diver does not have to wear a tank that is bigger than she is.
- Ask the dive center if they rent child size gear or not. You'll find when you start traveling with young divers, most dive centers do not provide youth sized dive gear.
- If both you and your wife are divers, like in my family, decide beforehand how you are going to split up the diving. I recommend that dad go on one dive with your young diver and then mom can go on the other dive. This way your non-diver is not left on the boat alone and you can take him/her out snorkeling during the dives. If this is your plan, make sure when booking your charter to inform them that you each will only be doing one dive so that they only charge you for two instead of three divers.
- Look into what shore diving is available at your destination. If the boats do not go out to many shallow dive sites, this is a great alternative to boat diving with young divers, as long as the entries are not difficult.
Tips to follow when planning for your non-divers:
Before you even travel on a diving family vacation make sure that your non-diver is a strong snorkeler so that you can take them out snorkeling off of the boat while the rest of the family is out diving. This can be almost just as fun for your young child as they can follow all of the divers from the surface.- Plan a snorkeling cruise while you're on your trip and not just diving excursions so that you're non-divers get at least one day of family snorkeling time, where you can all be in the water exploring the underwater world together.
- Since your non-diver may be very young and get cold easily while out snorkeling, make sure you bring other activities to keep them entertained while waiting on the boat for everyone to get back from their dives.
If you're reading this blog chances are that you LOVE to dive and what better way to do the sport you love than with your family around you. If you follow these tips you can certainly have your cake and eat it too by having an awesome family dive vacation with both your divers and non-divers alike.
