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Our school scuba club decided to go to Key Largo for our spring break trip. We spent two days driving and four days diving. There were 10 students on the trip with varying experience. Half the group were open water divers and the other half were advanced or training assistant. We drove down from Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. which took us around 20 hours. Our budget was pretty limited since the school was paying for most of the trip, but it ended up being more expensive than we thought.
We stayed at the Suites at Key largo, which were very nice. The rooms were two stories with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and screened porch on the first floor and a bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. The living room had a pull out couch that we used since there were 3-4 people in each room. The kitchen was perfect for us since we cooked most of our meals instead of eating out every night. All the rooms faced the canal and right across there was a bar which always had live music playing. We spent a lot of time out on the porch. There were two other hotels with pools and hot tubs and so we just walked over and used theirs since our hotel didnt have one. We chose the hotel because our dive shop was literally 10 steps next door.
We booked all of our dives through Horizon Divers. Originally, we had it set up so that our group would do two days of diving together and the open water divers would do afternoon dives the other two days, while the advanced people went in the morning. The shop was really hesitant about letting our open water divers go on the Spiegel Grove and the Duane, so they had to pay extra for a dive master if they wanted to come with the advanced group. Horizon Divers messed up our schedule and claimed we never made one with them ahead of time. Our club president had planned out every day with the shop as well as the group prices, but we ended up paying about $10 or 20 more per dive per person. Our schedule was changed around and we only made one days dives as a group.
We kept our equipment in a storage shed for the week, which was really nice. The crew was excellent; they were friendly, helpful, and willing to help us when we all got sea sick... I dont think any of us realized how large the waves were going to be. 3 of the 4 days they were 4-6 feet! Most of us were sick the first two days, but then we took Ginger pills and Dramamine and we were alright.
We did have a day of diving where the waves were almost 8 feet tall; we went to the Spiegel Grove, but the crew decided the conditions were too bad to make the dive. So we went to the Duane instead, which turned out to be just as bad. The current was very strong, but everyone went down anyway. Our group dove the Spiegel twice and both dives were amazing. We also dove Woody's Ledge, Christmas Tree Caves, Eagle Ray Alley, Aquarium and Northstar. Eagle Ray Alley was the best dive by far; we saw rays, nurse sharks and all sorts of fish and invertebrates. The reef was healthiest there too.
I would have gone with a different dive shop that was more accommodating for larger groups. But I would highly recommend Horizon Divers and the Suites at Key Largo. For college students, i wish we had gone to a place where there was more to do topside. We basically entertained ourselves the whole trip. I had been to Key Largo before and I know that its not the best diving around, but our newer divers thought the trip was perfect.
