blue grotto

This is one of the best lay outs ever. There is a huge deck right at the water to get ur equipment ready and ur gear on (with elastics to secure your tanks). Picnic tables with huge rods and hangers to let your gear dry. Close by bathhouse. Extremely friendly and knowledgeable staff. A guy on a golf cart even picked up our rented stuff and took it back for us. Great visibility. There's a few cool things to see like giant gold fish, tiny catfish, Virgil the resident turtle and the glass air bell. I would strongly recommend watching the video on their website, it's very accurate and descriptive. Everything was so convenient!!! You could pull your vehicle right up to the top part of the deck and just have to walk down a few steps to be in the water. No doubt I will return.

This is a full service center. I dropped off my tanks to get filled, then drove on to select a pavilion to set up my gear. Shortly a wonderful gent came by on his golf cart with our 2 tanks filled up! Awesome!The shop lady was efficient. They had stickers inside for your dive book.The cavern was good but a bit crowded mostly due to classes. The classes were silting up the outer portion of the hole, but we didn't run into anyone inside the cavern. I would suggest to get there early. We arrived at 1pm and the entrance was very cloudy, but since it was mostly classes the deep part of the cavern was not bad and still dive-able.Showers was cold to barely warm.

Visited with American Pro Divers out of Crystal River (see my review), and found a gem here. Under new management usually doesn't mean that much for other businesses, but even walking in the Dive shop is really nice. Extensive investment in new facilities including dive shop, bathrooms, and multiple new pavilions with tables for setup. Several cabins were there, making an ideal getaway to do some diving and relaxing. Super clean bathrooms and showers. I didn't stay overnight but am very tempted to make a point to go out and stay.Diving facilities also have a huge facelift... literally walk-in to the water. See my pic, but it doesn't show the stairs into the water. Bottom does have silt that can get stirred up by newbies. We went on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn't crowded at all, great visibility.My favorite dive while in Crystal River.No on- and very remote off-site dining options, so take some thing to grill or eat. RV sites and tent camping also available.

Perfect venue for working on skills with students for technical programs. A bit crowded at weekends but excellent nevertheless. Management and staff friendly and extremely helpful.

We went to Blue Grotto for my son's check out dives this Feb., after reading some reviews about BG I was a bit nervous. NOthing could have been further from the truth. The place was well maintained, the staff was very accommodating, and the diving was fantastic. To those of you giving this place a bad review, I'm not sure where you were but this place was exceptional. BTW I am not a novice diver I've been diving for 18 years and am an instructor so I can say I know what I'm talking about...Never mind the negative reviews, go and have fun...Remember to say hello to Virgil the turtle while you're there.

This was our first time going to Blue Grotto and diving a cavern. The place is truly cared for and it shows. I can never complain about having my tanks refilled and delivered via golf cart. The cavern is well laid out with a marker rope. And did I mention Virgil the friendly turtle. More pics posted at divertrek.com

This was my first trip there. The updated facility is beautiful. The staff was friendly and having someone come around in a golf cart to pick and deliver tanks is a wonderful service (with a smile). In the early hours, many students were diving so the visibility was not good at all. But most of them left and by the afternoon the silt had settled and we had some wonderful, non crowded dives.

Went here to finish my open water diving certification and it was awesome! The area is set up very nice with heated bathrooms/showers, campsites, and individual pavilions for gear set up. The dive site has excellent visibility and ample wildlife. Virgil the turtle is so cute as well! The staff was very friendly as well.

This place was great! It cost $40 to dive all day, but because we arrived after 3 p.m. we were only charged $30. The route through the cave was well marked, the visibility was great, and the staff friendly and helpful. The set up area was very practical, clean, and well maintained. The restrooms were modern, spacious, and clean. The rental gear was well maintained as well. I highly recommend Blue Grotto. If I am ever in the area again I will definitely dive here again.

We went here to do a dive on a Friday morning. While the main group was diving my wife took a discover Scuba course. We enjoyed the dive and my wife loved the instructor/owner who worked with her in the pool before taking her into the spring.

I LOVE diving Blue Grotto! The new setup is perfect for divers, and the new owner is focused on making the facility even better. There are overnight cabins as well as camping. I am an instructor, and I love bringing students there because the conditions are always excellent, even when other dive sites are blown. The staff are focused on providing great customer service, and it's always an enjoyable experience to dive there. My students enjoy the gorgeous limestone formations, the bell with compressed air where divers can chat during a dive, and they especially love the interactions with Virgil the soft-shelled turtle!For advanced divers, the open water cavern is spectacular and reaches depths of 100'. I am not a cave diver, but I've heard that the cave there is excellent, too. I have lots of video of Blue Grotto on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to see it in action. https://www.youtube.com/user/GabrielleConsulting

I would like to start off by saying the staff (in particular Susan) were very helpful and friendly. They have a lot to do and have to run around helping people and they helped everyone I saw with a smile. The cabins are cute, clean and cozy. The dive facilities are nicely set up and if you need some piece of equipment they have it there for you to rent or sell.It is worth stopping by the Blue Grotto if you are in the area. Even for an experienced diver it was really beautiful and fun diving down to the bottom cavern. If you have ever thought about cave diving this will give you a very mini taste of it. If the water hasn't been stirred up by other divers (we actually had the place to ourselves!) the water is crystal clear. When I looked at my dive buddy it appeared she was suspended in midair the water was so clear. There are a few fish and a VERY friendly turtle. If I had kids or was with a new diver this would be a must on my dive list.

Blue Grotto under the new owners have made many improvements to the property and facilities as identified in other reviews. This is one of the better cave/spring dive locations as for convenience and reliability and ability to do a deeper dive. Other springs are susceptible to being flooded out. Only criticism is that they need to better regulate the number of divers in at one time. With two dive classes and our group of 10, the silt on the bottom gets stirred up and 30 divers is too many. The dive was like bumper cars in a snow storm.

Blue Grotto was to be my second ever cave dive. More advanced than the nearby Devil's Den. Unlike Devil's Den, there are many areas of this location where you cannot surface if you run out of air due to many feet of rock over your head. The site gets it's name from the emerald blue water. As you descend you are surrounded by schools of sunfish. Located inside the underground cave system there is an area with an air filled box where you can take the regulator out of your mouth for a few seconds and talk to each other deep beneath the earth. I did not have an advanced certification so I did not descend down a line to the deepest levels. I would definitely return.

Completed my last certification dive at Blue Grotto. Holy Smokes the surface facilities are super. The owners have fairly new covered pavilion areas, office and deck around the spring. They are diver focused as the pavilions have rods and equipment hangers at each one. The have a cart circling the resort picking up and delivering fills for divers. The deck at the springs is large and able to accommodate several divers at once. Divers are required to watch a video before admission – before you roll your eyes, it is well done and does have a couple local suggestions that can help divers coming after you. The video also introduces Virgil, the resident water turtle and gives pointers on how to protect Virgil from over anxious divers. Since we were going through the certification process, we were limited to the pool and first room of the sink hole complex giving us a max depth of just under 60 feet. There is a second room deeper than the first room, but light does not shine past the third room; technically making the second room a cave. There is lot to explore and see and it makes for a great dive for the newer diver. One of the unique draws to the Grotto is the air bell location in the first room. It is approx. 30 feet deep and located on the ceiling of the room. For me one of the more unique sights was the ceiling of the first room. It has pockmarked surface that captures exhaled air. When a light is shined on the ceiling, the air pockets look like spilled mercury.As with many water attractions in the central Florida area, this location is best visited on a weekday. You may be the only party in the spring on some weekdays. The weekends tend to get crowded but if you hit the gate early and beat the classes that may show, you will have 60-100 foot visibility. That will fall to less than 40 after the first class of 10-15 go through.I will be returning to visit Virgil the Turtle in the near future.Oh, almost forgot - they have HOT showers!