Aloha everyone! Ever since a quick free scuba intro in the pool at the Intercontinental Fiji, my husband and I have been wanting to get certified. We always liked snorkeling, but everyone we know that is a certified diver has nothing but amazing things to say about it, and just looking at their videos alone is convincing.
We probably could have had many opportunities to get certified in a beautiful place in our myriad of travels the past couple years – Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii multiple times, Bahamas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Vietnam…but we were hardly ever in one place for more than a few days (classic #travelhacker problem). Getting certified usually requires a minimum of 2-3 days, and you aren’t supposed to fly for 24 hours after diving.
Many blogs I read say that Thailand is one of the best places to get certified because it’s inexpensive and beautiful at the same time. I wasn’t able to fit it in to my recent 4 nights at the Park Hyatt Bangkok, so I thought about doing it on my upcoming trip to Vietnam in March. I did some extensive research on certification in Vietnam (Nha Trang is the most popular location for certification), and then decided to check what prices were like in Maui, since I will be there in January for a week, and we would have a car. To my surprise, doing it in Maui would maybe only be ~$100 more expensive than Vietnam (which I found to be around $350-450 including both the academic and water portions), which would be worth it since I wouldn’t have to take additional intra-Vietnam flights just to go to Nha Trang.
The FoundersCard concierge helped me with a lot of the research by calling a bunch of shops in Maui near the Andaz Maui in Wailea where I will be staying. I thought I’d share the results of our research here in case it would help anyone else! This is in no particular order and the prices are valid as of today’s writing (12/27/2017).
Table of Contents
PADI Open-Water Courses Near Wailea
| Shop | In-person academic + water | E-learning academic + in-person water | Kama’aina Discount | Number of Days |
| Scuba Shack |
$375 + tax All-inclusive |
$179 to PADI $325 + tax |
No | 3 |
| Ed Robinson Diving Adventures |
$468.72 (incl tax) $60 for manual + shipping $18 log book |
$179 to PADI $364.57 (incl tax) $18 log book |
No | 2-3 |
| Maui Dive Shop | No option |
$179 to PADI $349.95 + tax |
10% off | 2-3 |
| B&B Scuba |
$419 + tax ($450 total) All-inclusive |
No option | No | 3 |
| NeverDry Divers |
$449 + tax All-inclusive |
$179 to PADI $349 + tax |
No | 3 |
| Maui Dreams Dive Co | No option |
$179 to PADI $349 + tax |
$100 off, requires full-time residence | 3 |
| ProDiver Maui |
$499 + tax All-inclusive |
$179 to PADI $379 + tax |
$100 off | 3 |
What about SSI?
After I did all this research, my co-blogger Michael Wu told me to look into SSI certification, which is what he got. I found a great blog post detailing the big-picture differences between PADI and SSI methodology (for example, the online portion of the course is free for SSI, whereas it is $179 for PADI). After reading the post, I was very intrigued by getting certification via SSI instead, so I tried to look into SSI certification in Maui.
My search results turned up only Maui Dive Shop, but when we called, they currently have no SSI instructors. I could do SSI in the Bay Area, but driving to Monterey from where I live is quite a trek in the early morning, it’s a lot more expensive and cold here, so I think I will continue down the path of getting PADI certified in Maui.
Next Steps
While I was researching, the advice I found over and over again in all the blogs was, it doesn’t matter whether you get PADI or SSI certified, it doesn’t matter where you get certified, nor how much it costs (in fact, there were a lot of quips along the lines of, “if you care about how much it costs, maybe you shouldn’t get certified at all.”)
The most important factor is who your instructor is.
So armed with all of this information, the next step is to thoroughly read the online reviews for each dive shop, and then make an appointment. I’m still trying to decide whether to do the e-Learning thing at home first, or just do an all-inclusive course in person.
If anyone has any advice or wants to add anything from their experiences, please feel free to in the comments!
We got SSI certified years ago in the Bay Area (the dive shop is long-since closed) and only went to Monterey at the very end for a weekend of open water dives.
Though visibility wasn’t great the weekend of our dives I’m glad we did them here instead of our travel destination. That meant the “learning” time wouldn’t cut into our vacation, and we also got experience diving in colder water. That last past was handy when we later went to New Zealand and took a dive tour at Poor Knights.
Just something to consider.
Thanks! We have a ton of time in Maui since we are there for a week, and the courses only run from 7 am to maybe 1 pm (or earlier) each day for 3 days. I did try to find SSI in the Bay Area and I can’t remember if it was PADI or SSI but there were only like 2-3 options and maybe another $200 more than Maui.
I’m also hoping to get my scuba diving certification. Interested to see which one/how you go about choosing!
Hi Nancy! Where are you thinking of doing yours? Here’s an update on my progress. After scouring the reviews for the shops I listed above, I’ve narrowed it down to 4 (incidentally, the last 4 on the list). The first one on the list had some particularly nasty reviews even though it is the cheapest one. I’m leaning now towards B&B Scuba, followed by ProDiver Maui, and then NeverDry and Maui Dreams equally. I’ve been meaning to give them a call just to chat further about some specific details!