Dive Review of Aquacenter/Paradisus Playa Conchal in
Costa Rica/Guanacaste

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Aquacenter/Paradisus Playa Conchal, Jul, 2008, by Craig Grube, VA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 21 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 4216.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We did 4 days of 2-tank diving with Aquacenter, located in Flamingo. We stayed at the Paradisus resort in Playa Conchal and were picked up everyday by the owner Eduardo, he will even pick you up if you are staying down in Tamarindo. Eduardo runs a tight operation and picked us up right at 7:15 and we were generally in the boat heading out toward the Catalina Islands by 7:45. After the two 40 minute dives, the surface interval and the return trip, we were usually back at the hotel about 11:30AM. Aquacenter has several boats based on divers, we were on the larger twin hull twice when there were 9 divers and twice on about a 40’ Newton when we had less. Needless to say there was ample room. We were taken to the various rock islands out by and including the 2 big Catalinas. The DM’s give a solid briefing and help you in and out of the water. There is a rinse tank for cameras and a fresh water hose. There is a cooler with a variety of juices and fresh cut pineapple. Boat rides were in the 20-25 minute range. Dives are limited to 40 minutes or, if you gulp air, down to 800 psi. Due to the viz, you dive with the DM and they will have 4-5 divers per DM and you split up into two groups that don’t cross paths until you are back on the boat. The viz was between 30-60’ depending on the day and the site. Water temp was 82 at depth so didnt need wet suit. If you tend to get cold a shorty or 2-3 mil would be plenty. The marine life was amazing, with white tip and black tip sharks, twice saw huge manta’s, and numerous moray’s on every dive. Once we saw two green eels out in the open water fighting each other. There are large schools of fish on every dive, including a massive wall of spade fish on one outing. One dive we counted 15-20 spotted eagle rays, including one school of 7. Wide variety of puffers, tons of king angel fish, lobsters, occasional scorpion fish, turtles, and seahorses. We will definitely return and dive with Aquacenter. The Paradisus is an all inclusive resort(about 1 hour from the Liberia airport) and our family was very pleased with the rooms, food, pool, customer service, location, etc. We also did a variety of land based tours that we found fun. The Costa Rican people are very friendly. The main roads are well paved (side and back roads are rocky, mud and potholes) but watch out for roaming cattle.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Tahiti, Fla.Keys, Turks & Caicos, Cozumel, Hawaii, Little Cayman
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, surge
Water Temp	78-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	40 minutes within sight of DM.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Fresh water hose, rinse tank and plenty of space on boat. Viz makes the photo opportunities a bit challenging.

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Dive Review of Aquacenter/Paradisus Playa Conchal in Costa Rica/Guanacaste

Aquacenter/Paradisus Playa Conchal, Jul, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Aquacenter/Paradisus Playa Conchal in
Costa Rica/Guanacaste