yara (and diving) >
Originally Posted by
ridefar
Amanyara...hard product, quality of sea life and coral for snorkeling
yara has totally different hard product, but its not a private island (nor gated) with that amount of space, has about three times the number of residences, and is much higher occupancy.
yara is in a nature reserve, with diving/snorkeling, and the onsite nature expert(s) and they have occasionally brought others in as well.
Originally Posted by
Ericka
Snorkeling & Diving
Since visiting Amanyara, we’ve learned that the Turks & Caicos is not really a snorkel destination. While the water is very warm and currents are few, the best aquatic life here is deeper than 40 feet. We did snorkel though - just off the Beach Club rocks and out on the Northwest Marine Park reef with the complementary snorkel boat. Both locations were OK but it’s really hard to get excited after recently returning from Amanwana.
The diving proved better, particularly for Mr. Ericka who is fully certified. I took the Discover Scuba course with Chester, a funny and patient guy that runs the dive shop. Chester is now a Big Blue employee who used to work for Amanpulo (long story). Mr. Ericka did some of the nearby Marine Park wall dives, of which his favorite was the Amphitheatre. He tells me the dive had good marine life diversity with different fish at different levels and lots of healthy corals. Best of all, each guest was given a dive computer to monitor depth, bottom times, decompression status, etc.
And to dispel the myth that Amans are stuffy…as we were pulling out for a dive one day, Chester noticed two heads bobbing in the water in front of the Beach Club. He hollered, “Hey Fritz, wanna go diving?” Fritz quickly collected his gear and jumped on the boat, and that’s how we ended up diving with the head chef. The other bobbing head was John the GM, so they were probably having a meeting…only at an Aman.
Originally Posted by
Ericka
Mr. Ericka believes Amanwana has the best diving and I have to agree with him based on my experience taking the Discover Scuba courses at most of these locations. Not just compared to other Amans but to other resort areas worldwide. Better than the FS Maldives. Better than the Great Barrier Reef. They shot the underwater scenes for Planet Earth (Coral Seas????) on the nearby reefs of Indonesia.
He has experienced very good diving at Pulo, Yara, and Hotel Bora Bora but Wana was the best.
Originally Posted by
dstan
we just returned from PLS and only got to see the resort from our dive boat...diving was superb - we saw turtles on every single dive we did there at Northwest Point. ^
Originally Posted by
Ericka
Amanyara file fish
Amanyara fireworm
Originally Posted by
ngfan
You get a daily visit from the local stingray right on the shallow beach part and occasionally by a 7 foot long reef shark right in front of your beach lounger (no worries, they are friendly chaps, just keep a relaxed eye on them to avoid accidents). The beach and water is stunning and almost comparable with Amanpulo.
A big group of dolphins passed by the resort at lunch one day. The boats were started immediately, we followed and met them some miles away. What a great experience that was to see them jumping around and playing with the boats !
occupancy rate was 85 % at times for the pavilions and low for the villas although it is off season now.