My husband and I are staying at Banana Beach from 11/1-8. We are doing our open water certification dives and are trying to decide which outfitter to go through. THey all look good online, so its hard to choose. We are looking between booking through MOnkey Business (onsite at Banana Beach), they book through Amergris Divers, or protech or grumpy & happy. Monkey Business and protech have the same price, G&H is about $25 more per person.
Any recomendations would be appreciated.
Thanks!

We stayed at Banana Beach in May and we did our diving with Ambergris Divers and they were great. I highly recommend them.

G&H may be higher however it's totally private - no one but you in the class. We're going with them due to this and were highly recommended. If you want groups less attention, then others are the way to go. I prefer the "hands on" approach for this first time experience.

My husband and I did our open water cert via referral (did the classes here) last Nov. We went through Blue Hole Dive Center, and they were wonderful. Our instructor, Jim was fantastic! We booked the rest of our dives through them. They partner with Amigos Del Mar – who are nothing short of wonderful. The crew is professional, accommodating and fun. We are returning Nov 5-15th and plan to book through Blue Hole again. BTW – you will be AMAZED by the diving. We saw 2 gorgeous sting rays cruise by 5 minutes into our first open water dive. The worst part about staying on Ambergris Caye is having to leave.

I don't dive, but if I ever decided to learn the only person in the world I'd go with is Jolene (Happy & Grumpy), who has the patience of Job, and I'm sure I would put her patience to the test!

Not sure of what the status is on Blue Hole Dive Center. Kent and Laurie moved back to Canada earlier in the year and the shop closed. However, Jim Zykan is still here and providing instruction and Amigos is as strong as ever.

As a diver, is there anyway you can do your open water at home? I always feel your local op will give you the best training, because you may want to come back and get more. This way you can enjoy your dives when you get to A/C. That said I have used both Pro Tech and Amigos, either should be good. Haven't heard of the other.

Of course, Sluggo, you can do part or all of the course anywhere. The question is merely whether you want to get into cold water. If you know or think you're later going to want to dive in cold water then learning there is a good idea, or at the very least have a good formal conversion course - there's much more to cold water diving than there is to warm.

So sorry to hear about Blue Hole Dive Center! Well, I guess we'll go to Amigos Del Mar. LOVED their Blue Hole Trip. Thanks for the post, SimonB.

Pedro2 why do you assume it is cold water diving?
Don't know where kphil12760 is located, but it may not necessarily be cold water diving. Not trying to take money out of your pocket, but I liked getting my C card at home, and going diving elsewhere. Just my $.02