Rainbow Reef Retail Center - Key Largo, Florida

Frederick S.

I booked an open water referral session with Rainbow Reef dive center. The booking agent provided me with a review of their program and process. They also booked my hotel accommodations. Our instructor Payton was awesome. She was a professional and patiently guided us through the remaining open water certification skills. These were performed off one of their dive boats on Molasses Reef. During this adventure we saw sharks, sting rays, turtles, and all manner of tropical fish.
A lot of value for the cost in my opinion. If you're looking to take the family out for scuba or learning how to dive, this is the place!

Eric E.

My daughter and I travelled to Key Largo to dive, and booked six dives with Rainbow Reef (we initially booked four, but had such a great time we booked another two while we were here). Our dive guides, Leo, Steve, and Grace were awesome—informative and encouraging and relaxed. They took special effort to make me feel comfortable, as our first dive was only my second time scuba diving in the ocean. The captains and first mates were also fantastic. On one morning dive, the first mate of our boat, the Tropical Paradise (Sydney, maybe?) had to jump in a rescue a diver who had been stranded by another diving company! The consistent head counts and attention to detail and currents assured us that something like that would not happen with Rainbow Reef. Thank you to Rainbow Reef!

kevin C.

This dive operation is top notch! Booking was super easy, just a phone call with a knowledgeable representative who suggested sites based on our experience. Rental gear is all high quality and seemingly very well maintained. I brought my own gear but my dive buddy had no issues with any of his rentals and not a single tank issue on either of our boats, either day. Our dive guides, Anna and Jellybean were phenomenal, incredibly helpful and fun to dive with. The whole boat crew both days were great and made for a fun experience outside of the water!

10/10 will dive with them again, and strongly suggest you do too!

Chris U.

I’m a brand new and very inexperienced diver and I had the straps stolen from my fins while on a dive here. When I got back to my hometown, the guy at my local dive shop took one look at my fins and said it didn’t make any sense why someone would do this because they were missing a necessary part of the strap when they stole them.

So it only seems likely that whomever it was who did this, did it for some type of retribution against me.

My only question is why?

I was never disrespectful to anyone when I was at Rainbow Reef as I don’t treat people that way. I can only conclude that because I am very inexperienced and I guess slowed down the group a little (especially because I have a learning disability), that ticked someone off and they decided to take such cowardice action against me.

I don’t know who did this, whether it was an employee or a regular customer. But statistically speaking, in a situation like this, it is more likely that an employee did it. That’s because people generally engage in this type of abhorrent behavior when they feel more comfortable in the environment they’re in.

I thought long and hard about whether or not I would write this review. You can look at virtually every other review I’ve ever written and you’ll notice they’re 5 star reviews. I’d much rather help folks than tear them down. So it is incredibly rare for me to ever write a review like this. But considering the fact that when I told the staff at Rainbow Reef about what happened, they seemed very much to blow it off and were only interested in me spending more money with them.

So to anyone else who may be like me, this is a warning to you about this place. Because not only did I get robbed here, I felt incredibly unsafe as soon as I got in the water (the height of the waves and strength of the current was something I didn’t know anything about.) I explained to these folks that I was extremely inexperienced, yet they seemed to only be focused on pushing me through the revolving door of business. Which is noticeable in the other less than positive reviews about this place.

I would bet that if they don’t take a good look at this aspect of their business, it’s eventually going to lead to someone getting critically injured or killed. And then it’s going to be a whole lot worse for them at that point than just dealing a few negative reviews.

Katie L.

We had a great time!! We were on a charter on the tropical voyager. Our captain and guides were very professional and fun. I appreciated their concern for wildlife and integrity in preserving the sanctuary. I rented my gear from them and it was smooth and all the gear was great. A very seamless process, I'll definitely be coming back! (And not just because I won a free dive trip from the wheel 😂)

Peter ". M.

The single best dive operation I have ever used. This is also a diver training center so you have excited students working on the boats so you always have someone to help and dive with. It is amazing to see everyone of their boats always full and the competition boats with 4 to 6 divers. I own a digital marketing company and can tell you that they know what they are doing across the board. I found them a few years because of their website and have many dives logged with them and have never had a bad experience. Make sure you make a reservation.

Nick M.

Did a ton of research of where my son and I should get our Open Water Cert while in Key Largo and this place did not disappoint! Jo our instructor did an outstanding job teaching and ensuring we knew the material. While we were unable to do a dive at a reef, she made the experience well worth it! Thanks Jo!

Daren F.

Katie is the bestest!!!! She went out of her way to help us when she had no reason to. Great smile great attitude and just flat out great!!!! Truly an asset to RR!
I don’t plan on diving Largo again but I will definitely send my students and fellow divers here… because of her!!!!