Regions / Caribbean / Saba / Juliana's Hotel - Sea Saba Dive Center

Juliana's Hotel - Sea Saba Dive Center

7 Nights - 10 Boat Dives / $1283 USD Per Person Double Occupancy Summer Rate, $1337 USD Winter Rate

Watch Videos

PADI 5 Star Certified

Nitrox $

WIFI Available

Star Rating

Juliana’s Hotel has the perfect location in the touristic village of Windwardside, nestled in the lush hills, where the days are warm, the nights are refreshingly cool, the birds are chirping, and a gentle breeze flows through your room, suite or cottage. Saba is perfect for travelers looking for a real island experience without the “touristy feel,” yet still want access to restaurants, hotels, shops, and more. Guests arrive in Saba by taking a 15-minute flight or 90-minute ferry ride from St. Martin. Juliana’s Hotel is just a minute’s walk from Saba’s finest restaurants, gift shops, grocery stores, museum, and much more. While strolling through the streets, you'll acquire the true feeling of real island life, relaxed and laid-back.

Juliana's Hotel - Sea Saba Dive Center WEATHER

The hotel is only a 15-minute cab ride away from the Juancho Yrausquin Airport. As guests travel from the airport, venturing up the winding road, they pass Saban cottages, and the villages of Sunrise Ridge and Hell’s Gate. This side of the island offers a great vantage point for viewing the neighboring islands, such as St. Maarten, St. Barths, and St. Eustatius. On a clear day, you can see as far as Montserrat. The hotel is close to the Mount Scenery stairs, which take you to the highest point within the Dutch Kingdom (3000+ feet). You’re also in a great spot to gain access to the crossroads of the island's most scenic trails. Enjoy the fascinating changes in vegetation along the way and the magnificent views of the neighboring islands. Juliana's Hotel is a prime location for hikers.

The hotel offers an assortment of cottages, suites, oceanview, and garden view rooms. Juliana’s rooms have individually controlled air conditioning. The traditional Saban Cottages do not have air conditioning. These three older cottages "breath" at night with the wooden frames and floors. Lily Pond Suite, Flossie's Cottage, and Floral Cottage have ceiling fans and stand-up fans to help control the heat, but most guests love sleeping with the gentle Caribbean trade winds. All other accommodations are air-conditioned.

The Orchid Cottage has two bedrooms; one of the bedrooms has two twin beds that may be joined together to form a king-size bed, and the master bedroom has a queen-size bed. Both bedrooms are fully air-conditioned. Once inside, all the comforts of home are waiting for you including a CD stereo, DVD player, and a flat-screen TV with satellite access, a fully equipped kitchen, and a gas barbecue grill is also available. Orchid Cottage features a private, outdoor bathroom enclosed by a rock formation, perfect for showering in a natural surrounding while enjoying utmost privacy. The Captains' Suites is a unit of four rooms, which formerly belonged to the Old Captain's Quarters Hotel. These spacious rooms are a traveler's dream, with glass sliding doors opening onto a private terrace with spectacular Caribbean ocean views. Shabby chic furniture gives the room a contemporary, clean-lined rustic twist, making it the perfect pick for this nautical themed room.

The ocean-view rooms are spacious and decorated with tropical fabrics, plantation furniture, and tiled flooring. These rooms have two full-size beds with 100% cotton linens and duvet covers (one room has one king-size bed). All rooms are designed for maximum comfort and feature a private balcony with a hammock. The garden-view rooms offer a stylish blend of island charm, comfort, and convenience to enjoy on your vacation. These rooms have a queen-size bed with 100% cotton linens and duvet covers. The garden-view rooms are air-conditioned, and two of them come equipped with a kitchenette (available upon request).

Sea Saba Dive Center is a Caribbean dive shop located on Saba Island. The island has deep waters that provide direct access to plenty of drop-offs, wall dives, pinnacles, and seamounts. The marine life is also protected due to the Saba Marine Park. This means that there is no anchoring or fishing. Guests are often able to see wonderful macro life, pelagic fish, nurse sharks, Caribbean reef and blacktip sharks, hawksbill and green turtles, and so much more. There are over thirty dive sites that are great for exploration. Since the island is only 5 square miles (9 kilometers), divers can arrive at dive sites relatively quickly no matter which side of the island they are on.

When diving with Sea Saba Dive Center, guests get to dive from the 40’ custom boats. There are two boats that separate divers based on their skill level and preferred diving experience. Guests do not have to dive in groups and there is no limit on bottom times. There is always a minimum of two instructors in each boat so that guests can be assisted both onboard and in the water. There are three dives per day and night dives on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. There is a minimum of four guests for a night dive and no minimum for diving during the day. The dive center is also PADI certified and is an SSI Training Facility. Sea Saba offers nitrox but does not support technical diving or rebreathers.

Rates on Saba are seasonal with two main seasons. Summer (low season) is from April to November. Winter (high season) is from November to April. Saba offers year-round diving with seasonal differences in water temperature and surface conditions. The water temperature varies between 26C and 28C (77F-84F). Visibility ranges from a minimum of 20m (60ft) to virtually unlimited. Swells and heavy rainfall may influence visibility, but typically it clears again very quickly.

Narrative text and photographs courtesy of Juliana's Hotel and Sea Saba Dive Center.

Dive Conditions

Temperatures between summer and winter don't normally vary more than 5°F (1 or 2°C) in the Caribbean. The average temperature is about 80°F (27°C) year-round. Naturally, southern islands tend to be a little warmer than the northern ones. For example, Curacao’s southern location keeps its summer average at 83°F (28°C) and winter at 80°F (27°C), while the northern Bahamas are north of the Caribbean in the Atlantic and vary from a summer average of 80°F (27°C) down to a cool 69°F (20°C) average in the winter. There is a wet and dry season, with most rain falling between May/June and October/November.

However, location and topography, such as rain shadows created by mountains, can play an important role in local weather conditions. Keep in mind that those cold fronts in the U.S. that dip down from the north can keep right on dipping to most of the northern islands, bringing cooler temperatures and rough water in their wake.

Two other important factors to consider in the Caribbean are tourist season and hurricane season. The off-season for tourism is roughly mid-April to mid-December. It can mean much lower prices (up to 60 percent less) than in the busy high season for some destinations. Hurricane season runs from June through November, with September the most likely month.

Bonaire – excellent shore diving. Bonaire has a strong reputation as the world's capital of shore diving, and for good reason! Apart from having more than 60 sites accessible from the shore, and over 20 others accessible by boat at Klein Bonaire, Bonaire offers diving freedom like nowhere else in the world.

Cozumel, Mexico – beautiful corals and great drift dives. Cozumel is a great year-round dive destination with excellent yet easy drift dives, stellar visibility, colorful sponges, lots of fish, and a great variety of marine life. On a typical Cozumel dive trip, divers will see turtles, moray eels, nurse sharks, and lots of colorful tropical fish. Eagle rays and blacktip reef sharks are also commonly seen.

Cayman Islands – walls, wrecks and healthy reefs. The Cayman Islands have so much diversity to offer to scuba divers, that some locals even say that there is a different dive site for every day of the year here. Pick between the three islands: Grand Cayman, the largest, most popular and well-developed island with so many things to do; Little Cayman, the most untouched and least populated; and Cayman Brac, which is somewhat in between, not too quiet and not too crowded. Grand Cayman offers a vast number of interesting wreck and wall sites, as well as Stingray City, where the rays are fed squid by hand in 12 feet of water. Be sure to include the world-famous 251-foot (78-meter) shipwreck USS Kittiwake in your vacation. The most secluded and smallest out of three, Little Cayman offers its own charm, with over 50 dive sites to choose from, including the famous Bloody Bay Wall Marine Park, best-known for its amazing colors, steep drop-offs, and dramatic swim-throughs.

Roatan & Utila, Honduras – excellent diving in a laidback atmosphere. Roatán is the largest island among the Bay Islands off of Honduras’ east coast, which also includes the popular Utila and some other islands cays. Divers love Roatán for its inexpensive diving and laid-back atmosphere. Roatán's waters have close to 100 named dive sites, varying from wrecks, caves, and lots of excellent walls.

Turneffe Atoll, Belize – an unspoiled destination. Turneffe Atoll in Belize is the largest of the three atolls that make up the world’s second-largest barrier reef. Located southeast of Ambergris Caye, it may just be the best and most beautiful dive area in the whole country. This large offshore atoll reef offers a wide variety of easy dive sites, insanely clear visibility, and very varied marine life. Divers may expect to see white-spotted toadfish, eagle rays, tarpon, green morays, various reef sharks and nurse sharks. Watch out for spotted drumfish and flamingo tongue cowries. Belize, in general, is a place for both adventure seekers and those who are looking for a relaxing time. When you're not diving, there's a range of activities to pursue including cave tubing, waterfall rappelling, Mayan ruin tours and other tropical rainforest activities. The dive season is year-round. Visit in April-May for the best overall conditions. November-April are the most popular months. Check the weather report if you intend to visit in the summer/hurricane season from June-November.

Turks and Caicos – great shark dives and amazing wall dives. This is a British Overseas Territory consisting of 40 islands, only eight of which are inhabited. Most of the best dive sites are spread across the three main areas: Providenciales, the most popular and populated island in the country, also known as “Provo”; Salt Cay, which is a wonderful diving spot with many interesting wrecks, caverns, and walls; and Grand Turk with beautiful protected plunging reefs and interesting history and culture to discover. The dive season is year-round. Keep in mind that there are occasional showers throughout June-October. Hurricanes are not common, but check the latest weather forecast before travel.

Dominica – sperm whales. While not quite as frequented by tourists as other places in the Caribbean, Dominica is quickly gaining a reputation for being one of the best places in the world to visit. In 2017, Dominica made it to the Lonely Planet's Top Ten places to visit, and with good reason, especially for divers. One of the things that makes Dominica so amazing both above and below the surface of its waters is the topography. Rugged peaks and ridges on land, and then steep underwater volcanoes underwater, complete with pinnacles and craters galore. And there is practically little to no current in the waters, which makes exploring those crevices very easy.