Divers rate Deco Stop Lodge as the natural base for the SS President Coolidge, and the reasons come up again and again in our reviews: gear rooms built for the job, a kitchen that feeds tired divers well, an infinity pool over the Segond Channel, and a welcome from Kim and the team. Here is what five recurring review themes actually say.
Why do divers rate the gear rooms?
Practical detail is the theme that shows up most in our diver reviews, and it starts with the gear set up. Reviewers writing about a Coolidge trip keep mentioning the secure lockup, the bank of rinse tubs, the separate camera wash tub, and the space to hang wet kit so it dries overnight. On a multi day wreck trip that matters more than almost anything: nobody wants to pull on cold, wet gear at 7am. The rooms sit on site, a few steps from your room, and dive operators collect and return your kit here each day. It is the kind of thing you only appreciate once you have done a week of dives, and our guests clearly have.
How does diving the Coolidge work from the Lodge?
Straightforwardly, which is why reviewers recommend basing here. The SS President Coolidge lies just off the southeast coast, about a ten minute drive from Luganville, and is one of the largest divable shipwrecks in the world at more than 200 metres long. She sank in 1942 after striking friendly mines, and now rests on her port side with the bow at 21 metres and the stern at 73 metres. Operators like Santo Island Dive pick divers up from our front gate. Many guests write that they came for a week and worked their way down from an orientation dive to The Lady, the ceramic relief in the first class smoking room, over ten or more dives.
What do reviewers say about the food at Club Narcosis?
The food is one of the most consistent points of praise, and it surprises first timers. Review after review mentions how well the kitchen feeds a group of hungry divers, with more than one guest calling the meals five star. The menu leans on famous Santo beef, which several reviewers rate as the best steak they have eaten, plus fresh local seafood and lobster. Breakfast is included, and the chef will pack a picnic lunch for a Millennium Cave day or a Coolidge surface interval. Club Narcosis Restaurant and Bar is on site, so after a long day underwater the walk to dinner is measured in steps.
Is the pool really the best seat in town?
Guests certainly think so. The infinity pool sits on site with an open outlook across Luganville and the Segond Channel to the outer islands, and it comes up in review after review as the place people ended their diving days. It doubles as the ideal spot to run out a surface interval or simply decompress in the loosest sense of the word, cocktail in hand, watching the light change over the water. Non divers rate it just as highly. Several reviews describe booking to dive and then spending as much time by the pool as under it, which we take as a fair compliment to both.
What do guests say about Kim, Ben and the team?
The welcome is the theme that ties every other review together. Guests writing about their stay repeatedly describe Kim, Ben and the staff as warm, genuine and quick to help, with the phrase nothing was too much trouble appearing more than once. Deco Stop is a family run lodge, owned by Ben Healy and Kim Duncan, a Queensland couple who named it after the diving term for a decompression stop. Reviewers often say it is the people, as much as the wrecks, that bring them back. For a small lodge in a small town, that is the review theme we are proudest of.
FAQs
Is Deco Stop Lodge a good base for diving the SS President Coolidge?
Yes, and that is exactly what most of our reviews say. The Coolidge lies about a ten minute drive from Luganville, dive operators collect you from our front gate, and we have dedicated gear rooms for rinsing and drying kit overnight. Divers regularly base themselves here for a week to work through the whole wreck.
Do you have somewhere to wash and store dive gear?
We do, and reviewers mention it often. There is a secure lockup with a bank of rinse tubs, a separate camera wash tub, and hanging space so your gear dries overnight. It is one of the practical details divers say makes a multi day Coolidge trip far easier to manage.
Can non-divers enjoy a stay here too?
Absolutely. Plenty of guests come for the infinity pool, the Segond Channel views and the food at Club Narcosis rather than the wrecks. The Lodge sits a five minute walk above Luganville’s Main Street, so town, the market and the WWII history are all close by, dive or not.
What do guests say about the food?
The kitchen is one of the most praised things in our reviews. Divers coming off a long day repeatedly mention the famous Santo beef, the fresh local seafood and lobster, and how well the team feeds a hungry group. Breakfast is included, and the chef will pack a picnic lunch for day tours.
Reviews only tell you so much, of course, and the best way to understand why divers keep coming back to Deco Stop is to book a trip and add your own page to the logbook. Take a look at our rooms and rates to plan your stay, and see the Lodge facilities, including the gear rooms and Club Narcosis, before you arrive.
Image credit: Vanuatu Tourism Office
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