I was fortunate enough to do some diving at Guardalavaca, on the north-east coast of Cuba, a couple of years ago. This is a remote and quiet area, good for chilling out but not exactly bustling.
The fish life on the large undulating reef complex included Tuna(Which I saw feeding -that was pretty amazing), Barracuda, Moray eels, Snapper, Grouper. We dived on 2 small wrecks (35-40ft) which looked like they had been sunk deliberately for the purpose.
The sea temperature was a constant 30c (86f) so I didn’t bother with a suit after the first couple of dives. I did get a couple of small stings though, so it might be worth wearing one if that is a worry.
Of the 14 dives I did, 11 were to depths below 30 metres and 1 was to 41m. I would not recommend Guardalavaca for novices because of this, and would advise checking your insurance before going.
There are two dive operators in the area, Ocean Lovers at Esmeralda Beach and Eagle Ray at Guardalavaca Beach. I did most of my dives at Ocean Lovers as this was handier. A ten dive package cost 250us inc tank and weights, plus equipment. I hired a stab jacket for 17us for the duration.
As a pointer for anyone heading there, here are the names of the 3 best dive sites. Canales 2 - This is a long swim and follows the top of a wall at 30m above a sandy bottom at 50m. It rounds off to a point at 35m and on the other side drops away sheer - totally awesome.
I would recommend taking a full deco computer with you, as the guides will push each dive to the limits of your air - I’m a light breather and did this dive on a quiet day with the divemaster, we were using 10 litre cylinders and still ended up doing decompression.
Canto Azul - Another big wall that just seems to keep going, we were down to 40m on this and it looked like it kept going another 20.
Corona - A large area of walls going to about 35m max, some caves, chimneys and swim throughs make it pretty interesting.
There are also 2 dives called Cueva 1 & 2. 1 was ok, I didn’t get a chance to do 2 as the guides wouldn’t do it if there were any newish divers about (Some of the Canadians especially were very inexperienced, which surprised me ). The guys that did 2 though said it was a great dive, a cave at 42m!
The Hotel we stayed in was the Sol Rio Del Luna. Medium sized, modern and part of a Spanish managed outfit. There are plenty of activities organised by the hotels entertainment team, a massage parlour, gym, bicycle and moped hire, watersports and horse riding.
This hotel is one of the more upmarket in the area and offers an All Inclusive option - The food was fairly good (Very good by Cuban standards, apparently). If you like exciting nightlife go elsewhere though, as it is situated 2 miles from the village.The nightly entertainment in the hotel was pretty good though, and the satellite tv in the rooms included 2 US movie channels. Good for when you need an hour or two cooling off in an air-conditioned room.
In general Cuba is very interesting and has a lot more to offer than we were looking for, as we were there purely for relaxation. I would recommend the diving at Guardalavaca without hesitation.