Scuba Diving | Las Catalinas Islands Costa Rica

The Las Catalinas Islands are one of the places you can go Scuba Diving on the North/ Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

Video of my Las Catalinas Scuba Diving Day

HOW TO GET THERE

The Las Catalinas Islands are about an hour boat ride off the shore from Playa Flamingo in Costa Rica. Playa Flamingo is a small resort town filled with upscale accommodations. If you're a budget traveler like myself no worries because the tourist hotspot town of Tamarindo is on the coast about 25 minutes south. In fact we went diving with one of the dive shops located in Tamarindo. They'll take you by boat up to the island's dive spots so it's super convenient!

The shop I went with was called TamaDive. I can't speak for any others but these guys were really nice, had nice gear and a nice boat, so I'd recommend.

COST

When I went, January, 2021 - the cost was $110 USD for two fun dives (meaning you need to be already certified)

WAS IT WORTH IT? WHAT DID YOU SEE?

I'd rate the dive about a 6/10 and thats because we swam with a family of 3 reef sharks and I had never gotten that close to one before. If not for them it would have been lower. The visibility was not great. Probably about 5-10 meters. Comparing that to the say the diving in Indonesia where you get 20-25 meters it was definitely not the same. There were coral reefs but again they were ehh when compared with other dive sites. Really it was the boat ride out there that was the best part.

The verdict; the boat ride out there was beautiful but maybe opt for a catamaran, kayaking day trip instead and save the diving for the more clear Caribbean side of Costa Rica.

If you have any questions about diving or traveling in general leave me a comment on here or on YouTube and I'll get back to you!