General Travel Scuba Diving

General Travel Feature Articles and Reader Reports

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For Undercurrent Online Members and some available for Public

Dive Articles Passport Tips for Traveling Divers, 7/09 Go Where No Diver Has Gone Before, try diving from a kayak, 7/09 Divers, You’re Not Using Enough Sunscreen, 7/09 Why You Need Trip Insurance Now, dive companies closing, job layoffs, flu pandemics - - what’s next?, 6/09 Organizing a Group Dive Trip: Part II, handling group discounts, deposits and important details, 5/09 “This Industry Isn’t Run By Divers Anymore”, reader feedback from sport divers and industry professionals, 5/09 Creating One Big Happy Group Dive Trip, plenty of work, plenty of hassles, 4/09 Extra Costs on Your Next Dive Trip: Part II, missed dives, tips and fuel surcharges, 4/09 Thinking About a Dive Trip?, 3/09 Cabo, Cozumel, Dominica, Naples, Some good finds, but what’s with the bad customer service?, 2/09 How Divers Will Never Be Lost Again, new personal GPS device still working out the kinks, 10/08 Drinking and Diving: How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?, 10/08 When There’s Not Enough Divers, what dive operators do about it, for better or for worse, 10/08 Bahamas, B.V.I., Ontario, Roatan..., the good, bad and ugly in dive resorts, boats and service, 10/08 Downward Dogs Can Improve Your Diving, 10/08 Can You Make Any Changes to a Dive Release?, 9/08 Divers, Sign Your Life Away: Part II, 9/08 A Second Look at Dive Boat Engine Exhaust, 9/08 Are Your Dive Photos Worthy of a Book?, 8/08 Divers, Sign Your Life Away: Part I, 8/08 Introducing Our New Online Divers Forum, 8/08 A Few Good Deals For Divers, 8/08 The Last Word on Dive Tipping, rules for American divers maybe even I can observe, 7/08 Three Caribbean Hubs That Leave Your Dive Bags Behind, 7/08 What Happens If You Miss the Boat?, 6/08 Tipping on Dive Trips: Part II, 6/08 Tipping on Dive Trips: Part I, how much do you tip, and to whom?, 5/08 Proper Liveaboard Hygiene, 5/08 The Frequent-Flyer Diver, 05/08 Oh, Did We Mention the Fuel Surcharge?, and can divers do anything about it, even if they paid in full?, 04/08 Dealing with “Difficult” Divers, a former liveaboard captain’s perspective on customer service, 04/08 Readers’ Diving Tips, 2/08 A Major Risk: When the Dive Operator Doesn’t Take Plastic, 2/08 New Travel Rules for Dive Gear Batteries, 2/08 Diving, The Rich Person’s Sport , a stroll through the DEMA convention, 1/08 Diver Car-Rental Scam in Cozumel, 1/08 Belize, Palau, South Carolina and More, 10/07 The Skinny on No-See-Ums , 9/07 Safety Concerns on Liveaboard Boats, 8/07 Is the Travel Info You Need Online?, 8/07 When You Decide To Go It Alone, 7/07 South Pacific, South Caicos, Sudan, Utila, 6/07 The Costs of Dive Shop Travel, 5/07 The Hidden Costs of Dive Travel, 4/07 Bonaire, California, Fiji, New Liveaboards, 4/07 You've Come a Long Way, Nitrox, 03/07 The Joy of Freediving, 03/07 Multiple Flights after Diving , 03/07 Kids Sea Camp, Curacao, 2/07 Infection Warning, 2/07 Cuba, Bonaire, Belize... and a clever thief in Curacao, 1/07 Diving the World, 8/06 How to Go Diving with Nondiving Kids, 8/06 Fine New Destinations, 7/06 Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Grand Turk, West Papua, 5/06 Scuba Coiba, Santa Catalina, Panama ; Virgin, inexpensive, Pacific diving, 3/06 Great Live-Aboard Living..., 9/05 Reports on a new Indonesian live-aboard destination; Updates on Vieques, big shark diving in North Carolina day boats, Club Meds with good diving; A Private guide in Cozumel, Guam, 8/05 New Strict Caribbean Passport Rules., 8/05 Taking A Caribbean Cruise On A Ship Of Thousands, 7/05 Do a Little Touring Too, (see sidebar, p.5), 3/04 Available For Public New Dive Destinations, Part II, from our fearless subscribers, 8/03 New Dive Destinations, from our fearless subscribers, 7/03 The Scubascam Lingers On, (see sidebar, p.7), 6-03 Skinny Dipping Scuba, (see sidebar, p.6), 6-03 Essential Dive Books, (see sidebar p. 12), 5/03 Those New Baggage Requirements, how to protect your gear and your film, 3/03 The Reality of Dive Travel, (see sidebar p. 13) 3/03 Another Packing Peril, (see sidebar p. 15) 3/03 Travel Safety in the Age of Terrorism, Bali? The Red Sea? The Philippines?, 2/03 Can't Pay with Plastic?, tell them to "use it or lose it", 7-02 Five Personal Caribbean Favorites, and summertime in Cayman 6/02 Dripping Ceilings, Peanut Allergies, an Honest Man, what our readers have to say, 5-02 Diver Dies from Blod Clot During Flight, (see sidebar p. 5) 4-02 Picking up the Pieces: The Misadventures of Tropical Adventures, (see sidebar, page 11), 3-02 Readers Lose Money with Scubacan, do we have a scuba scam here?, 2-02 New Dive Possibilities, New Ripoffs, alerts from our readers, 2-02 Divers Left Floating as Agencies Go Bankrupt, travel insurance no longer helps, 1-02 Dve Trip Tipping Nearly Universal, but there ’s disagreement on the amounts and recipients,1-02 Dive Travel in These Turbulent Times, random thoughts as we go to press, 10-01 Travel Insurance in a Time of Terrorism, (see sidebar, p. 6) 10-01 The Best 2002 Live-Aboard Cruise, (see sidebar, p. 3) 9-01 When a Travel Agent Sticks to "Its Rules, "standard" business practice is lousy business practice, 8-01 Thumbs Down:, resort owners pre-empting guests (see sidebar, p. 4), 7/01 Boiling Seas, Bleached Coral, and Butt-Cut Shorts , tips for the live-aboard lifestyle, 6-01 Marine Parks, Arrogant Management, Seven-Mile Beach, Important updates in land-based operations, 4-01 Made a Deposit Then Stayed Home?, ... and the resort kept your money?, 2-01 The Travel Agent/Wholesaler Link, (see sidebar page 11), 2-01 Asia on the Cheap, ASEAN air pass for $99 each (see sidebar, page 9), 10-00 When Your Guide is Asleep at the Wheel, bum trips from our readers logs, 9-00 Live-Aboard Lowdown, Readers report on new craft, small ops, and boats that save a buck. Also includes "Should Your Next Trip Be a Live-Aboard?", 8-00 Publisher's Picks and Pans, Truk, Statia, PNG, Baja Mexico, Bonaire, Cayman, Honduras Bay Islands, Turks and Caicos, Florida Keys, and more, 7-00 Frequent Flier Finesse, Airline miles strategies that pay off, 6-00 Phony Ad Wrecks Vacation, Little Cayman Beach Resort ad (see sidebar page 7), 2-00 Local Chamber Fees, 10-99 The Trouble with Going to Bonaire and Curacao, getting there is the hardest part -- ALM or TACA or ??, 7-99 Travel Updates, 6-99 Editor's Picks and Nixes, the good, bad & ugly, 5-99 Boot Camp for Divers, Learning Cavern Diving in Florida , 5-99 Editor's Travel Notes, 3-99 Caribbean Hurricane Planning, 3-99 Editor's Notes, On DEMA, travel, & trouble, 2-99 Picks and Nixes of '98, 1999 Chapbook preview, 10-98 Hidden Costs of Travel, Whopping unexpected taxes, 8-98 Travelin' Divers Update, 7-98 Airlines Graded, (see sidebar, page 3), 9-97 Melatonin for Jet lag, (see sidebar, page 2), 4-97 Tipping, 4-97 Traveling Single, 4-97 Carry-On Luggage, 10-95 Dive Travel Agent Problem, Sea Safari, 4-95 DEMA Destinations, 3-95 Dive Travel Specialists, 10-94

Editor's Book Picks for General Travel

The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com; just follow the links. -- BD

World Atlas of Coral Reefs
by Mark D. Spalding, Corinna Ravilious, Edmund P. Green, United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center.

If there is one book that belongs in every traveling diver's library, this is it. The superb World Atlas of Coral Reefs has everything you want to know about the reefs from Costa Rica and Cuba to the Coral Sea and Cayman. The information is specific and up to date. The photos, maps and layout superb. And the price, for this 424 page, full color, hard bound volume, is a steal at $31.50

The Atlas was released in September by the United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center to document and conserve the world's coral reefs. Clearly written with divers in mind, it's an invaluable resource for global travelers. Here's what you'll find.

• 94 maps, including global maps of biodiversity and reef stresses, regional maps showing 3-D bathymetry and high resolution maps showing reefs, mangroves, population centers, dive centers and protected areas.
• 280 color photographs, showing reefs, wildlife, people and places, Including 84 photographs taken from space by Shuttle astronauts.
• Text explaining the formation, structure and ecology of coral reefs; their various uses and abuses at the hands of humans; and the techniques used in coral reef mapping.
• Detailed texts describing the distribution and status of coral reefs in every country.
• Data tables listing information on biodiversity, human use, and protected areas. These include statistics on coral reef area, biodiversity, fish consumption, and threats.

For example, you can learn about pollution damage to the reefs at Providenciales and the lack of human impact, as well. Or, where extensive bleaching took place in Honduras 1998. You'll read that Milne Bay in Papua New Guineas has the most extensive reef system in that country and where, in Fiji, the bumphead parrotfish and tridachna clams will not be found, thanks to overfishing. Order now.

Diving Cozumel ... Cayman Islands ... Belize ... Bahamas ... Bay Islands ... Bonaire ... Bermuda ... British Virgin Islands ... Hawaii ... Micronesia
by Speck, Garoutte, Middleton, Cancelmo, Strohofer, Lewbel, Martin, Douglass, Verdure, Rosenberg, Hanauer...

No matter where you are headed, the Aqua Quest Books covering your destination are the only way to supplement Undercurrent's hardhitting critical information. Each of these books describes specific dive sites, depths and location, shore diving entries, the critters you'll see, local history and customs, places of interests. Take one as you travel or buy one after you return for the memories. Scores of excellent colorful pictures and maps supplement each of these 7x10 paperback 128 page books.

Paul Humann ID Books by Paul Humann, Ned Deloach: The three set fish, creature and coral ID books by Paul Humann are the unparalleled sources for information on Caribbean sea life and identification. This month Paul and his partner Ned deLoach released updated and expanded editions of each, with scores of new critters, even better photos, and information unavailable anywhere else. Why, the Reef Fish Identification book, at more than 500 pages, is 20 percent larger than the previous volume, which came out in 1994. Whenever I travel to the Caribbean, I tote all three books and spend my down hours figuring out what I saw and where to look to find rare creatures. Paul's splendid Reef Creature book (420 pages), covers sponges, nudibranchs, octopus, crustaceans, Christmas tree worms and plenty more. His Coral ID book (276 pages) helps you identify all the hard and soft corals, spawning, and even the growth on top of corals, as well as algae and other plant life. Beginners may want to ID only fish, but I'd recommend that all three books be part of every diver's library. And, if you have an old set, by all means replace it. You'll be delighted at the additions and improvements. Each book normally retails for $40, but are discounted when you order here. And the boxed 3-volume set is available now at a bigger discount, $81.60 (June, 2004). You'll get the best prices Amazon.com has to offer, speedy delivery, and the knowledge that a large hunk of our profit will go to preserve coral reefs. All are spiral bound, 6x9

• Reef Fish Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas ,
• Reef Creature Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas and
• Reef Coral Identification: Florida Caribbean Bahamas
• The Boxed Set of all three (now listed at $81.60 -- June, 2004)

Watching Fishes: Understanding Coral Reef Fish Behavior
by Roberta Wilson, James Q. Wilson.

Your buddies can probably name the reef fish, but read this volume and you can explain what those critters are actually doing -- and why. This fascinating book describes why and how fish change color, how they smell and socialize, the difference between day and night behavior, even how damsels cultivate algae patches -- which is why they attach you when you fin by. Watching Fishes, Understanding Coral and Reef Fish Behavior is written for divers, not scientists, by Roberta and James Q. Wilson. They describe in lively nonfiction prose the behavior of basslets to blennies, clownfish to crinoids, damsels to drumfish. Perfect for between-dive reference. Paperback, 6x9, 274 pages.

You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's Book Picks section.