Beaches Resorts (beaches.com) offer scuba diving programs for divers eight years of age and up. The resort chain has three locations in Jamaica and one in Turks and Caicos, all offering dive excursions for the entire family. Family Dive Adventures (familydivers.com), a diving tour operator, features a tour to the Cayman Islands allowing kids as young as four to get involved in scuba-assisted snorkeling. While they can't go under the surface, they will get acclimated to the water and using gear. Older children and adults take part in more advanced dives together.
Frommer's recommends the RMS Rhone wreck as one of the top-four wreck diving sites in the world. The steamship sunk in 1867 and features a variety of sea life and coral. Sunchaser Scuba (sunchaserscuba.com) and Aquaventure (aquaventurebvi.com) offer diving trips to the wreck site. In Aruba, Sport Diving Magazine recommends exploring the wreckage of the Debbie II, the Antilla or the Jane Sea; Red Sail Sports (aruba-redsail.com) offers trips to all three ships' diving sites.
Explore the waters around the quaint island of Saba with an Alyson Adventures (alysonadventures.com) gay diving trip. Pool instruction is offered for beginning divers while certified divers can choose from dives around hot springs and underwater marine park or swim with sea turtles and rays. Undersea Expeditions (underseax.com) offers gay and lesbian scuba trips to the Caribbean islands of Bonaire and St. Lucia; trips include hotel accommodations, dives, airport transfers and some meals.
The package at Sandals Resorts (sandals.com) allows its guests two complimentary dives per day, and also offers instruction and certification courses for beginning divers. The resort has properties in Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua and the Bahamas. Jamaica's Hedonism II Resort (hedonismresorts.com) in Negril runs free scuba diving classes four days a week; certification courses are an additional cost. Introductory scuba lessons are included in the package at the Excellence Resorts (excellence-resorts.com) property in Punta Cana; extended deep water dives are available at an additional cost.
