INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL : Dive Vacations Mean In-Depth Adventures

Since the beginning of time, man has looked at bodies of water and slipped into their depths to investigate. For early man it may have been a search for a god. Today we dive into the deep for adventure . . . pleasure . . . excitement. It’s exhilarating.

Dive vacations, which can be enjoyed around the world, come in many variations. The array is mind-boggling, and so--to assist our readers--we have listed a number of helpful contacts.

Scuba divers and snorkelers, in addition to just swimming, can feed, pet and study fish, some of which will follow them around like fun-loving, playful puppy dogs. Then there’s an abundance of undersea mountain ranges, precipitous drop-offs, shipwrecks, brilliantly colored marine life in extensive botanical gardens, superb coral reefs, forests of colorful formations, piles and piles of rocks and expanses of sand, submarine canyons and caves created by volcanic or wave action.

Scenic and monetary treasures and various life forms abound below the surface. Divers can discover and photograph gorgonian fans, black coral trees, delicate hard corals and brilliantly colored sponges.

It’s an unlimited, bubbly bright vision that is catered to by hundreds of tour operators, who will customize dive packages for individuals and groups at a variety of prices.

World Expeditions features adventure holidays in Australia between the Great Barrier Reef and the Queensland shore, where scuba diving and snorkeling is available around the countless uninhabited islands.

World will take passengers on an old square-rigged schooner, the Coral Trekker, for six nights and seven days at $600 per person, including three meals a day and camping out on beaches. There’s an extra charge of $95 for diving.

In addition, World has packages to the Maldives south of India, where boats sail between islands and there is also camping on beaches. An eight-day trip costs $620; for 15 days it’s $1,200, including meals. Diving is $95 extra a week.

Another destination is Koh Samui Island, Thailand, where seven nights and eight days costs $550, including accommodations, breakfast only, and one night in Bangkok. Scuba diving is $120 a week extra. On all trips, snorkeling is free.

For more information, contact World Expeditions, 291 Geary St., San Francisco 94102, phone (415) 362-1046.

Sea Safaris, 3770 Highland Ave., Suite 102, Manhattan Beach 90266, phone (800) 262-6670 or (213) 546-2464, specializes in scuba diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific, Atlantic (Bermuda), Red Sea and the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.

Tour-package prices vary with destinations and whether a trip is on a live-aboard boat or from a resort. Pacific trips of seven nights and eight days cost $600 to $1,500, including accommodations, meals, transfers and six days of diving. Sea Safaris can plan trips of one day to a year, for individuals and groups.

CanoAndes Expeditions offers scuba and snorkeling tours to what it calls the “most exotic and remote places in Central and South America.” It considers the best areas for scuba diving to be off the coast of Belize, the Galapagos Islands and Venezuela’s Los Roques Islands. Argentina’s Trelew area and Peninsula Valdes, along with Brazil’s Buzios, are given “good” ratings. For snorkeling, CanoAndes will run trips to the San Blas Islands, Panama; Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica, and Balleslas Island, Peru.

Rates for a yacht trip to Los Roques Islands are $1,300 a day for six people, including accommodations and meals. A four-day minimum stay, including bungalow accommodations, the flight from Caracas, plus meals and equipment, costs $210 a day per person or $840 total.

Four days in Belize runs $550 per person, including accommodations, breakfast and dinner, equipment and guide. In Argentina, four-day packages cost $420 per person, including hotels, meals, equipment and guide. The Galapagos Islands trip is on a 6- or 12-passenger yacht that costs $1,800 per person for seven nights and eight days, including meals, accommodations, guide and equipment.

Snorkeling in Peru costs $35 to $110 a day per person for half-day or one-day sessions. In Panama and Costa Rica, it’s $30 to $50, with equipment and guide provided.

For more information, contact CanoAndes Expeditions, 310 Madison Ave., Suite 1916, New York 10017, or call (212) 286-9415 or (800)242-5554.

Blackbeard’s Cruises visits uninhabited islands in the northwest Bahamas on 65-foot sailboats--Sea Explorer, Morning Star and Pirate’s Lady. Individual or group bookings are offered for snorkeling and scuba diving in various packages from four to 10 days from $350 to $825 per person, with three to four dives a day.

The cost includes accommodations, food, soft drinks and rum drinks, equipment and a stop at a port (Nassau, New Providence; Freeport, Grand Bahama Island or the Bimini Islands).

For more information, contact Blackbeard’s Cruises, P.O. Box 66-1091, Miami, Fla. 33266, or call (800) 327-9600.

All Florida Adventure Tours, 11137 Kendall Drive, Miami 33176, phone (305) 270-0219, conducts snorkeling tours to the Florida Keys and to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park north of Key Largo for $100 to $150 per person a day, including food and accommodations.

Trips average three to seven days and can cover 100 miles of islands in the Keys. Special attention to seniors and handicapped persons. Also, All Florida will set up swimming with the dolphins at Ft. Jefferson National Monument, which is at the southwest tip of the Keys.

Aqua Adventures, which represents 70 resorts, will take divers to the Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, Cayman Brac, Grand Cayman, Curacao, Grenada, Jamaica, Little Cayman, Roatan, Saba, St. Lucia, St. Martin and Turks & Caicos Islands. Scuba programs range from wreck, wall and blue-hole diving to live-aboard dive boats.

Costs, depending on destination and resorts, run $189 for three nights, $419 for seven nights and $1,699 for two weeks.

In addition, Aqua is offering scuba honeymoon packages for certified divers that include fruit, flowers and champagne on the first day.

For more information, contact Aqua Adventures, 114 East 32nd St., Suite 501, New York 10016, (800) 654-7537.

The Caribbean, Mexico, the Red Sea, the Maldives and Micronesia are some of the destinations of Underwater Adventure Tours for scuba divers. Underwater Adventure Tours, 732 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago 60614, call (800) 621-1274 or (312) 929-0717, runs land-based trips in addition to yachting packages. Yacht trips to the Bahamas for 12 to 25 people cost from $350 per person for three nights to $1,095 for seven nights, including accommodations, meals, unlimited diving and equipment and beverages. Land trips are $235 to $459 for three nights.

Ocean Voyages, 1709 Bridgeway, Sausalito, Calif. 94965, phone (415) 332-4681, will take individuals or groups on scuba diving trips to the Galapagos Islands, Aegean Sea, Red Sea, Cocos Island (Costa Rica), Tahiti, Fiji, Micronesia, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, Grenadines, Pacific Northwest, French Polynesia, Seychelles, Maldives, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Accommodations are on motor and sailing vessels that can carry from 4 to 16 passengers. Cost is $115 to $200 a day per person, depending on the destination and type of boat, including all meals and diving.

Snorkeling packages include island exploration in French Polynesia (Tubuai, Raiatea/Tahaa and Bora Bora). An eight-day, seven-night package costs $1,050, including accommodations, meals, equipment and a guide. Seven days of snorkeling in Hawaii by boat costs $750, while eight days in the Grenadines and the southern Caribbean costs $895.

Ocean Escapes will take scuba divers on what it calls “floating hotels,” sailing yachts and motor yachts of from 30 to more than 200 feet, and go “off the beaten track” with unlimited diving, providing diving and snorkeling gear. Ocean Escapes, P.O. Box 6097, Newburyport, Mass. 01950, phone (800) 227-8633 or (617) 465-7116, charges $800 to $1,400 per person for eight-day, seven-night packages, including meals, guide and dive instructors.

Destinations include Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Anegada in the Virgin Islands, Saba and Barbuda in the Leeward Islands and the Florida Keys and New England coast in the United States. Ocean Escapes also will put together a “family special” on a chartered yacht for four to six people and children for $100 to $300 each.

Lost World Adventures, 1189 Autumn Ridge Drive, Marietta, Ga. 30066, phone (404) 971-8586, specializes in trips to Venezuela and “off the beaten track” vacations. Scuba diving and snorkeling to Puerto La Cruz and Mochima Bay National Park, Los Roques Islands and Morrocoy National Park, where there are 20 islands.

Los Roques requires a minimum of eight people, including air fare from Houston, for $1,590 per person for eight days and seven nights. Puerto La Cruz costs $890 per person with air fare from Houston, but no meals, and Morrocoy, a snorkeling trip, is $990 per person a week, including air fare from Houston.

In addition to Venezuela, Lost World will set up trips of scuba diving and snorkeling to the “Bay of Dolphins” (Fernando de Noronhia Bay, 200 miles east of Rio de Janeiro), Brazil, where divers can swim among 500 dolphins. From Los Angeles the package costs $2,395 for a week per person, including air fare, accommodations and diving, but no meals.

Tropical Adventures represents 52 land-based diving resorts and 19 live-aboard dive vessels, including such destinations as New Guinea, Sea of Cortez, Seychelles, Indonesia, Australia, Coral Sea, Red Sea, Roatan Island, Guanaja Island, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Tonga and Micronesia.

One-week trips cost from $300 to $1,000 and include some meals, diving, transfers and hotels. Tropical also will set up packages from three nights to a year, with the latter costing about $70,000 a person. For more information, contact Tropical Adventures, 170 Denny Way, Seattle, Wash. 98109, phone (800) 247-3483 or (206) 441-3483.

Ocean Connection features scuba diving and snorkeling vacations to Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Tobago, Bonaire, Curacao, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.

Ocean will set up a three-night package for $200 to $445, including transfers and two days of diving, but no air fare or meals, and seven-night packages for $525 to $1,120, including hotel accommodations, round-trip transfers, three meals a day, three boat dives and unlimited shore dives. For more information, contact Ocean Connection, 16730 El Camino Real, Houston, Tex. 77062, phone (800) 331-2458 or (713) 486-6993.

Hawaii’s Kona Coast is the destination of the Charter Locker for snorkeling and scuba diving. Charter, 74-425 Kealakehe Parway, Suite 16, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740, phone (800) 247-1484 or (808) 326-2553, will take snorkelers and divers to Kealakekua Bay, Kahaluu Beach and Mahukona by boat for one day or overnight. Snorkeling costs $28 a person for three hours and scuba diving $68 a person for four hours, including two tank dives and two locations, with equipment provided.

Belize Promotions will take individuals and groups to Belize’s Ambergris Cay, one of the most popular islands in the world for scuba diving and snorkeling, and eastern Guatemala. Packages, including air fare from Houston, New Orleans and Miami, are from $432 for three nights to $582 for seven nights, double occupancy. Contact Belize Promotions, 720 Worthshire St., Houston, Tex. 77008, phone (800) 231-0629 or (713) 869-3614. Provides transfers and accommodations, and food only on some packages.