My wife and I travelled with Mike and fellow divers to the Philippines and Hong Kong in late March 2009. The trip involving a week of diving at Puerta Galera, a week of diving at Dumaguete, and four days in Hong Kong exceeded our expectations in all areas, particularly in terms of the excellent planning by Mike O’Meara of Squba Holidays Inc. He covered every detail of the trip in terms of flights, dive plans, baggage handling, and side trips. It truly was an escorted trip, and in our opinion, it could not have been better in any way.
John & Cynthia Rutledge
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Village Apartments – Bequia. Best accomondataions, superb diving with Kathy and Bob at Dive Bequia. My Wife Gloria and I spent 5 weeks there in Jan/Feb 2010 and loved it. I dove in the morning, then snorkeled in the afternoon. Saw octopus, eels, flying gunards….all snorkeling! Also saw them diving along with Magnificent Urchins! Did a three wreck, one tank dive with Chris from Dive Bequia! Wow! Pure excitement. This is one of the best dive spots in the Caribbean.
George Allen
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I wanted to let you know that we had an absolutely fantastic time. The Galapagos Sky was great, the people and the organization of the trip was pretty flawless. The dive masters were so incredibly educated and knowledgeable we were blown away, not only did they know everything about the sea, on land their knowledge was outstanding. The diving was everything we hoped for, there was not one thing that anyone wanted to see that we didn’t, sea lions, dolphins, penguins, sharks Galapagos, white tips, black tips and Hammerheads in quantities that were ridiculous. If someone told me on dives I would look up and down and see no less and 50 to 100 Hammerheads at one time I would have thought they were dreaming. And yes our group had two swims with a Whale shark. Not to be left out there was also an incredible amount of super sized reef fish that were largely ignored for the bigger stuff.
Lisa Mackie
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I just returned from Atlantis Philippines…Let me give you the bottom line first: It was the most enjoyable dive trip ever! All credit to you because you sort of talked us into it, against my uncertainties. It started well when we were met at the airport, taken to the excellent hotel, had a super dinner and were picked up in the morning for our easy flight to Dumaguete. Our room was perfect, even had free wireless internet. Diving was very very good. Food outstanding. Apo Island unbelievable, with perfect visibility, flat sea, no current. The staff, from start to finish, were wonderful. Nothing was a problem. They were friendly, kind, thoughtful, helpful, funny, delightful. They all addressed us by our names, every time we interacted with them. The divemasters were the best ever. During our holiday, the staff became aware that Paul logged his 800th dive. On the last evening, they made it into a special event and gave him a T-shirt with his picture on it, his name, the resort and notification of his dive score. Lovely! Many thanks, and well done Squba Holidays.
Tony Rebuck
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We just wanted to send you an email and let you know our trip was the most fantastic, wonderful AMAZING trip ever. We were so happy, what a place. Anthony’s Key is absolutely incredible. The food was wonderful and far exceeded expectations. Our room OMG our room, it was at the tip of the island what a beautiful place, loved it, was heaven. The dive operation was the most incredible, we love them, they made diving so easy and enjoyable, they were wonderful. The dive staff is entertaining and care about everyone so much, they make sure you are safe and make so much time for you. The dolphins, wow, we could play with them whenever we wanted. We met divers that have been to AKR 4,5 & 6 times and keep coming back and have been to other places in Roatan and this place far exceeds expectation. We can’t wait to get back. Thank you so much for setting everything up, thank you for the great room…
Bob and Sonya Collard
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‘Entire trip was better than we could have even thought … we were treated to a week full of the culture, the history, the passions and the troubles of the region while above water, and the beauty of the reefs with locals who knew all the treasures and special creatures when diving. ‘Could not have planned it this way if we had tried. It was wonderful! We had only the one week to be there, but both feel like we had been there so much longer and learned so much about the area. Kellie and Sam (Rick’s managers of MV Bilikiki) were absolutely wonderful … Made sure we were right at home aboard ship and in the water. Never felt like they were doing their job … more like they were very good friends. Cannot say enough good things about them … Terrific experience!
Re: future divers booking Bilikiki … rest assured, you are sending your clients to a dive operation that has thought of EVERYTHING! The crew was unbelievably attentive … on board … and especially when divers are in the small boats, in the water, and on surfacing. No matter where we popped up, the crew knew where we were and were there to retrieve us and bring us safely back. Land based support was extraordinary. We had personal escort from arrival through to include our departure check-in. I would recommend Bilikiki Divers to any diver seeking a South Pacific live aboard experience … Could not have been better!
Donna and Nelson Baumer
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My wife and I have had the privilege of taking several trips with Mike to wonderful places such as the Philippines, Curacao, Turks & Caicos and the Galapagos. Squba Holidays is the only call I will make with any dive vacation we will ever take. Top Notch!
Stefan Arless
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Saba…Wow, what a great time !!! This is a completely charming place, really different from anywhere we’ve ever been. First off, the island is tiny – about 2 miles by 2 miles. You could drive around it in a boat in about an hour. There are about 1500 inhabitants.. All the buildings are white with red roofs. All of them. Cottage was clean, well equipped – great front balcony, huge side patio with nice pool; an enclosed rear patio for meals. Fridge had bottles of wine, cokes; beer waiting for us. I can’t say that we drank it all; we restocked it before leaving, but it was a lovely ‘welcome’ gesture. Completely secluded, lovely view; 4 minutes walk from anything in Windwardside. Trish and Mike, who run Brigadoon Restaurant are the caretakers, were just excellent.
We didn’t need anything, but Trish called a couple of times and made sure we had their cell numbers etc. Restaurants were incredible. Completely excellent. It is an absolute ‘no brain’ vacation. I knew that we’d be taking cabs a lot and we did. The surprise was that the cost of the cab was usually included in the cost of whatever activity we were going on, so we paid exactly 1 cab ride in the whole week. Cab drivers were like tour guides, and they weren’t waiting to get paid at the end of every ride. That’s relaxed!
Diving was even more “valet” than Little Cayman. Everything stayed on the boat. The crew packed and unpacked our gear every day. We arrived at the boat and our BC’s were already on tanks with our equipment right there. They switched tanks between dives and packed everything into gear bags after the 2nd dive. When we did afternoon dives and night dives, the gear was magically set up on a different boat and then back in place the next morning. We lost a fin, no problem – they had a spare set on board – forgot a computer, they had a second crew computer that was doing the dives. Sarah had a high pressure hose blow at the end of a first dive – they had a spare reg on board for the second dive and did the repair overnight. Dinner reservations, done – and they arrange the cab to take you to dinner and pick you up as well. And the people in Saba are really nice. We went to a couple of “Sea and Learn” sessions – world class speakers and presentations. I couldn’t recommend a diving destination any higher than Saba —- for a diving couples or a small group like ours, it’s right out of sight. Thanks for all the help and excellent arrangements.
Bill Fletcher
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March 2012…. My wife and i have just returned from a super week in Curacao staying at Lodge Kura Hulanda and diving with Go West Diving at the west end of the island. Luke and the team at Squba Holidays were great and Byan’s team working from their great Dive shop right beside the lodge provided us superb, safe, and friendly boat diving experiences. The team at Go West was awesome. We made great new diving friends from Canada and the US and experienced an awesome dive site selection. I recommend Squba Holidays as the place to go when looking for Dive operations selection in the Caribbean!
Stu & France