Open Water Diver - Bávaro

“I WOULD NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY. We were staying in the Bahia hotels and this Dive Centre are part of the resort. My partner booked to complete the second part of his Open Water Diver course as he had already completed his theory and pool-work. Myself and my brother in law also booked to join him for some dives once qualified. We paid a total of My partner was told he would be going out with an instructor between 9am-12pm on two days, and we could then join him for some fun dives. The night before his first dives, he avoided alcohol and got an early night. We woke up early to eat breakfast and he went to the Dive Center just before 9am. Nobody seemed to know what was going on but he was told to wait 10 minutes and come back. He did this, and was told again to wait another 10 minutes and come back. The third time trying, he was told that the instructor was running late and he should come back in an hour. Not a great start. While we were waiting, another woman was distraught and her little boy was crying. She had booked online months ago, but the office were so disorganised that they had overbooked on her date. She was told to come back with her son the next day at 9am, and she (like us) had been waiting for over two hours. She was really upset and so was her son - this was his first dive experience and it had been ruined by them twice. Our instructor finally walks into work at 11am but has to go in the pool with this poor lady and her son first - another hour to wait! My partner asked if he would still get to fit in 2 dives that day, and they said he could only do 1 as there wouldn't be enough time!!! At this point, having wasted a whole morning of our precious time on holiday and with no confidence that they could deliver what was promised, we asked for our money back. If this was day 1, and other people had the same issues, then we risked ruining another 2 more days of our holiday. It also made my partner very nervous that they had no organisation or people skills - he didn't want to trust their instructors and equipment with his life, if they were this incompetent. They agreed to a full refund and gave us a receipt for this. We were told this would take 5 working days which brought us to the end of our holiday. Once home, we chased this up MULTIPLE times by email. Finally after THREE WHOLE MONTHS waiting, our credit card company gave us the money back. We got one response from the dive centre but this was only because we copied in the Bahia hotel reception. They said 'there are lots of documents and processes' etc etc to justify why a refund promised within 5 days had taken 3 whole months. I think they thought that we would just 'go away' after a while. If our credit card company had not paid us, we would still be waiting. Save your time, save your money, protect your safety - choose another dive centre.”

“The main goal of this trip was to get my open water certification. Alejandro with Scubaquatic was the first person i spoke with and he let me get in the pool with a tank to practice before I did my practical. Alejandro got to know me through the week and we shared lots of laughs. Marion and Fanny were the next 2 that I met at Scubaquatic. I dived with both the first couple days and Fanny on my last 2 dives. She was the best. I am glad her and Alejandro talked me into going to Catalina for my final 2 dives. It was beautiful. Also got to meet and speak with Domingo and Carlos (supervisor). Nice meeting you all!”

“I wanted to do my open water license with short notice, but thanks to the help from Pedro managed to do it in 2.5 days. He helped me a lot on the theory explaining everything very well, and we did four great dives. The whole process was extremely fun. If you want to go diving ask for Pedro Marin!”