The Near and the Far of It

There's a lot of appeal in getting to your dive destination the same day you start out, or at worst the next day. But the marine life on a exotic Pacific trip is something every diver wants to experience.

So what's the holdup? Is it money? Our February issue told of a dive trip aboard the Rembrandt van Rijn in Belize totaling $2,300 for a week. In this issue, our correspondent's 12-day expedition to remote Indonesia cost about $3,500, including airfare from Los Angeles. So this Pacific trip cost only $60 a day more than the Caribbean trip.

Island Dreams Travel sells a week package on Sipadan, Borneo, for $2,695, which includes air from LAX. Add typical airfare from Houston to a week on an Aggressor in the Bay Islands or Belize, and the Sipadan trips runs only about $650 more, or $450 more than a trip to the Turks & Caicos.

Part of the catch, of course, is getting the extra travel time. A transpacific trip can easily eat up five days with travel alone, and after coming all that way, your desire to stay longer is stronger. However, if you haven't been yet, or if it's been a while since you treated yourself to an exotic dive destination, my advice is, Do it. The rewards can be awesome diving -- worth the time and money, even if it takes rolling two Caribbean trips into one exotic trip. J. Q.