This is a report of a trip taken in July 1997 to the Bahamas, off the coast of Florida. It's a beautiful spot for scuba diving.

This was kind of exciting for us because it was our post's first trip out of the U.S. We first flew from SLC to Orlando. You can get a good fare if you take some time and plan ahead.

We spent the night at an inexpensive motel near the airport in Orlando, then the next morning flew on Continental Airlines on a B-100 airplane to Nassau. It's a small plane, holding about 20 passengers, and everyone gets a window seat!

Our dive shop was called Dive Dive Dive, and they sent a van to pick us up at the airport. They are located over on the southeast side of the island. The advantage is that you are away from the crowds in town, and close to the best dive sights (see the map below). The disadvantage is that when you do want to go into town you have to get a taxi, unless you're going to rent a car. But Dive Dive Dive usually gave us rides in their van, and we only used taxis to get back after our excursion.

The shop has 6 small buildings, each with rooms that have a living room, kitchenette, a couple of bedrooms and bathroom. We used two rooms, and they were quite comfortable and clean. The other nice thing is that you are living right there at the shop, so it's easy to get going in the morning. You walk out your front door about 50 feet to the dock, have your continental breakfast, grab your gear and get on the boat. Doesn't get much easier than that.

And the diving was great. We hit lots of the popular sights, including Sand Chute, the James Bond Wreck, WilLaurie Wreck, Golden Key(Hollywood Bowl), Razorback, School House Reef, and finally a Shark Dive. The boats are very comfortable. We usually took one of the larger boats that holds about a dozen people. Our group was a little smaller than that, so we usually had another small group with us. The Shark Dive on our last day was further out than the rest, so we took a smaller, faster boat. We had several different dive masters, but all seemed to work well with our group.

To save money we generally fixed our own meals. But we did go out to eat a couple of times in town. One of my favorite meals was at Traveler's Rest. It's located down the coast from Nassau, and has a real local feel to it. The food was great.

When we weren't diving we generally went into Nassau. There is the Straw Market right in the center of town. Lots of cruise ships stop in Nassau, and when they do the market is packed. Just a few hundred yards down the road from Dive Dive Dive is a nice beach, and a couple of times we went snorkeling. We also spent an afternoon over on Paradise Island, walking around the huge resorts there. The Atlantis Hotel is something to see, especially the aquarium pools that are mixed in around their water park/swimming pools.

We had a great time and I think the situation at Dive Dive Dive was really good for a group like ours. It was nice to have everything right there, and not have to haul gear or even drive anywhere catch our boat for dives. The weather in early July was great. It was hot and humid, but we were near the water much of the time, which made it nice. I'd go back any time.