Buceo Gavilana

Katelyn Robinson

★★★★★

We had the best day ever scuba diving and snorkeling with Didier and his crew. They provided us with coffee to start the morning and brought snacks and waters for us to have on the boat. The snorkeling was incredible; saw so many beautiful fish and turtles. Didier took us to two different spots for snorkeling / scuba diving. He also shared a GoPro video from our swim (without an extra charge). Highly recommend!!!

Brianna Simon

★★★★★

Had an amazing experience diving with Buceo Gavilana. Huge thank you to Didier and his captain. This was my first time diving in the ocean and Didier made me feel safe and comfortable. He also accommodated for my sister wanting to snorkel while I dove and took us to sites where we could do both. I saw sharks, eels, starfish, rays, and many schools of fish. I would highly recommend diving with Buceo Gavilana if you are in Costa Rica!!

Daniel Beauchemin

★★★★★

6 stars. 🙏 Hands down the best dive shop in Costa Rica.We have been to Galapagos, Greece as well as many place is the Caribbean. This year alone we have done 80 dives. This is the 3rd dive shop we have dove in Costa Rica with and was by far one of my top 3 for professionalism and experience. The sites that Didier brought us to visit were outstanding. They fit our level of diving perfectly. We are booking more dives with this center. He even posts a video on his Facebook page of your dive....no charge. Hard to beat!

Citizen Rad

★☆☆☆☆

DO NOT BOOK WITH GAVILANA. We just returned from a trip to Costa Rica where we took our son to complete his open water certificate with Didier Halbert of Buceo Gavilana in Playa Garza. Here is an honest review: Didier does not speak English well and cannot explain the materials, safety concerns or what he is looking for to see from the diver. I had to translate for him (with my little bit of Spanish) so my son could understand what was happening. The dive suits are old and worn out. There are holes in the arms. We brought our other two children along as he offers snorkelling - which you can see on his website - but in fact you are not snorkelling in any area where there are fish. My two younger children were excited to snorkel, only to have to sit on the boat for 3 hours while my older son did his dives. He charged us $20 per child, to sit on the boat and he called it snorkelling because they were out in the ocean. The experience for them was terrible so we did not bring them back on the second dive day. I went alone with m. son, and Didier completed his certification using a dive master from Playa Samara. He then decided to charge me $20 to sit on the boat - after the fact. And when I learned about this (which came via email the next day) and we refused, he said he would not send in our son's certificate. BEWARE. He does not speak english well enough to teach, he is not honorable, and he adds extra charges at his own discretion. On the positive side, the driver of the boat was really nice and helpful. He did his best to make the experience for my two younger kids as good as possible by allowing them to jump off the side of his boat.

Abigail Cannon

★★☆☆☆

So the first thing you should know about this business is they only take cash and won't pick you up to bring you to Garza on the morning of your dive. This is true even if you're their only customer that day, which I was. Didier (the owner) had told me he could not pick me up in the morning, but would drive me back to my house after the dive. This becomes important later. Unfortunately when I arrived I had forgotten the cash only rule and I don't typically go around carrying more than $100 in cash. Didier told me I could not pay after the dive on my way home, even though I'm staying close to the bank, because he needed cash to pay the Costa Rican boat drivers. This does not show great prior planning one his part. There are no atms in Garza so he ironically ended up having to drive me all they way back to the bank, which is nearly all they way to my house, so I could get the needed cash. If he'd been willing to pick me up in the morning and then stop at the atm on the way it would have saved me some money (I had to pay for my own transport to Garza) and everybody some time. I also ended up paying him $120 when he told me the price of the dive was $110, because the atm didn't give change. On the subject of wasted time, when we arrived at the dive boat the engine was broken and based on the fact that Didier and his assistant began working on the engine before even attempting to start it, I suspect they knew it was broken before this morning. I think I ended up having to wait about an hour before the engine worked and we could drive off. Didier also acted fairly surly after it became apparent that I'd forgotten the cash only rule and barely spoke to me at all for the rest of the time we were interacting with each other above water. He was happy to socialize with his Costa Rican assistant though. I'm also fluent in Spanish so the problem was not a language barrier. Didier's behavior regarding attention to customers is also a bit inconsistent. While I was gearing up he did not seem to think I was competent to fasten my own buckles, but while we were underwater he never once asked me how much air I had left. Thankfully I kept a good eye on my own air gauge, but the consequences of running out of air are usually a lot higher than the consequences of an improperly fastened buckle. When we arrived back in Garza Didier packed up the gear without thanking me for being a customer or driving me back to my house like he's initially said he would. I asked and he refused saying he had to clean gear. He also never gave me my $10 change. I guess he thought he earned a tip. My tip is that while the reefs have some beautiful fish, go see them with someone other than Buceo Gavilana