Best Dive Sites

Our Favourite World Class Dive Sites

Here is a brief summary of the top dive sites that we have been lucky enough to dive on, accompanied by a few photographs where applicable. Please keep checking back to this page as we will update continuously as we dive more and more of the Worlds best sites. We are planning a diving trip to Mexico and possibly also Honduras sometime in 2011 so we will be able to then report back on the diving conditions in the Gran Arrecife Maya and also the Bay of Islands.

If you have experience of a diving site that you would like to tell people about then please leave comments at the bottom of this page. We would love to hear from you and would be very interested to read any comments about UK dive sites.

Pulau Sipadan Island Malaysian Borneo – Sabah.

This is by far the most impressive dive site that we have ever had the pleasure to dive. Sipadan Island is consistently rated in the top 5 World Class dive sites by many different Internet sites and diving magazines. If you are in Sabah or even in Mainland Malaysia then it is well worth finding time to include at least one days diving on this superb island. You can travel to (and stay at) Semporna where many dive operators offer speedboats out to Sipadan Island itself where there are some basic facilities i.e. toilets and a small sheltered area for having a packed lunch and even a slightly soggy table tennis table for fun and games during those surface intervals.

There are 13 specific dive sites on Sipadan Island (or Pulau Sipadan as it known locally) and if you can find the time you should try to dive them all. On of the most exciting aspects about diving Sipadan for us is the superb geography of the site as well as abundance of sealife (on our very first dive there I counted 30 sharks!), the Island has a sheer drop off straight down to 1800 metres with normal visibility being around 30 Metres. So even when at a depth of 40 metres yourself you can see a further 30 metres down and see Island walls disappear into the Abyss – the feeling of vertigo this gives is both thrilling and slightly scary at the same time.

Some of the sea species you will see when diving here include sharks (we stopped counting after seeing 30 sharks on our very first dive here), Turtles, Groupers, Nemos, Moray Eels some up to 1 metre long, Schools of Tuna, Barracudas….the list goes on and on. As well as sealife you will see many Japanese tourists with very high tech underwater photography equipment that at a first glance look like underwater aliens with the serious armoury of lighting and camera equipment, and rigs and jigs they carry.
I really wish I had taken my waterproof digital camera with me on this trip, I will do next time and will share the photos here.

Galapagos Islands

The name says it all. The Isla Galapagos of Ecuador are a World Famous conservation site with incredible wildlife and ecosystems. It is possible to take tours and cruises of these beatiful Islands, specifically a 4 day diving cruise of one of the outer islands called Darwin (what else) is where you will have the best chance of seeing some of the larger game such as Hammerhead and Whale sharks. This is a very expensive option however and so really is a once in a lifetime tour for most people. Travel to the Islands needs to be made by plane from either Quito or Guayaquil and at the time of writing the flight cost approximately $300 for an open ended return ticket.

We opted to make our dives from the Galapagos mainland and do dives from a good sized boat that was offered from some of the mainland compaines. Its always nice to dive from a good size boat with toilet and cooking facilities and all the mainland companies offered boats like these.

Our first 2 dives were at Gordon rocks which are located at the northern end of Santa Cruz islands. We were hoping to get to see HammerHead sharks at this location but no such luck on these first dives. The visibility was a little disappointing at just 8-10 metres and we only encountered white tips sharks and a few turtles.

Two days later we took a boat out to North Seymour a small Island norh of Baltra Island. Again the visibility was a little poor at
just 10 metres. However at the end of the 2nd dive we were rewarded with some incredible views of 3-4 circling White Tip sharks.

Our final dives were out on Kicker Rock which is a rock spike located off the coast of San Christobal Island. We were now absolutely determined to see at least one Hammerhead shark is this is really what diving the Galapagos is all about. Dive 1 was extremely murky and quite cold also., Visibility was down to about 5 metres and we only got to see the usual array of Nemos, Turtles and white tips etc,

For Dive 2 our Divemaster decided to take us to the other side of the channel on the edge of Kicker Rock and rather than go swimming around we held onto some rocks (in quite strong current) for about 30 minutes and hopefully let the hammerheads come to find us. The visibility was terrible, a really green pea souper and we didn’t hold out much hope. Finally towards the end of the dive we did see just one HammerHead shark about 6 metres away and I manager to get a tiny video clip of it. Checkout the clip below, but don’t blink otherwise you may miss it. Galapagos Islands mission accomplished

All these pictures of diving the Galapagos Island were taken using the excellent Panasonic Tz6 camera with the Panasonic DMW-MCTZ7E underwater housing.

White Tip Sharks North Seymour	Galapagos Turtle
Kicker Rock Galapagos	Video of Hammerhead Shark Galapagos Islands.  Still working on editing this video..so check back soon.

Similan Islands – Thailand

Some great dive sites are available on the Similan Islands off the coast of Koh Lak in Thailand. The most famous and a must dive is Richelieu Rock which you need to make sure is included on the itinerary of any Similan Islands diving trip.
We were lucky enough to witness 3 Leopard sharks playing a mating game ritual down at 30 metres on our very first dive – fascinating and enthralling to see.

Koh Phi Phi – Thailand

There are several very good dive sites around Kho Phi Phi, it is well worth a visit for the diving and also for the Island itself. Phi Phi offers some very good nightlife as well as challenging rock climbing and great sunset views from the famous viewing point. The best diving is around the Bida Islands – Ko Phi Phi Nock and Koh Phi Phi Ley (Phi Phi Ley also has the Beach at Maya bay which is famous for being the beach which was used in the cult classic film The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

It is extremely likely that when diving around the Bidas you will encounter large Leopard sharks along with Turtles, Clown Fish (Nemos), sea snakes, moray eels, snapper, bannerfish, trigger fish, groupers…etc. The visibility is generally 20-30 metres and generally the conditions are great for the newly qualified open water diver to build diving confidence while seeing a great variety of sea-life at the same time.

The King Cruiser Wreck

As with the Bida Islands this dive site can be dived by taking a boat from Koh Phi Phi where almost all of the dive operators offer a boat out to this wreck which is about 90 minutes from Phi Phi itself. The King Cruiser is an old Car ferry that sank many years back and it is lying on its side in between 20-35 metres of water. It is  a good first wreck dive as almost all of the wreck can be seen by staying at around the 22 metre level although on some days there can be some current so its well worth asking your Dive operator to check the current charts to find a day that will suit your ability.

Canyon and Blue Hole Dahab Egypt

These two dive sites are the two biggest draws to the beautifully relaxed Bedouin resort of Dahab on the eastern coast of the Sinai. Even if you dont want to dive, Dahab is a wonderful place to just relax and really enjoy a properly relaxed holiday. The hardest part maybe trying to leave.

Canyon Dahab

The Canon is a large fissure in the sea bed that allows divers to go right down inside it to a depth of 30 metres, it is a very atmospheric dive especially as all the expelled air from the numerous scuba divers that visit there gets trapped underneath
the canyon roof and so as you swim over the top you can see the air bubbles slowly seeping through the porous rock and escape up onto the surface. Around the Canyon, there is a nice wide open landscape coral garden with plenty to see.

Blue Hole Dahab

Be very catious with the Blue Hole and the Bells (this is a very popular drift option from the Bells down to the Blue Hole), as the memorials on the wall on the way to the Bells state, many very experienced divers (a very large percentage of these have been qualified to instructor level) have lost there lives on the drift dive from the Bells to the Blue Hole so please only go with a reputable instructor and dont dive deeper than your experience level allows. As you go down into the crevice that is the Bells you will exit onto a wall with no visible bottom and drift dive along this wall where the feeling of depth is awesome as you can never see the bottom which is some 300 metres down. There is a lot to see along the wall on the way to the Blue Hole and we were lucky enough to see two mating octopuses as well as Nemos, Groupers and all the usual Red sea aquatic life. Eventually you drift into the Blue hole and are literally surrounded by Blue, there seems to be now up or down as you are surrounded by truly blue water in all directions, a wonderful feeling of freedom almost like skydiving through the water. A very nice drift dive indeed.

Sail Rock off of Koh Pah Nang Thailand

A rock off of Koh Pah Nang where during three dives we saw Titans, Triggerfish, Boxfish, Anchorfish, Barracuda, Moray Eels, Snappers and Groupers – to name but a few!

Koh Tao – Thailand

Koh Tao is a dive factory, full stop. It is a very good place (and very cheap) to learn to dive and to gain your PADI Open Water or SSI qualification. It is also a lovely Island with a very special, peaceful vibe with some good but mellow nightlife and a peaceful way of life that becomes hard to give up.

The diving itself is not as diverse or as enriching as the other sites we have mentioned here but we include it in our list as it really is a wonderful part of Thailand and we would encorage anyone what wants to gain their dive certification to give it a visit as it is one of the most cost effective places to learn to dive. Once you are trained and have a few good dives under your belt then you can move onto the more advanced sites such as Koh Phi Phi or Koh Pha Nang.

Koh Chang – Thailand

Koh Chang is a lovely Island in the Gulf of Thailand just an hour or so from the Thai mainland and is in fact only about 7 hours total distance from Bangkok. It is starting to really get onto the travellers roadmap as it is a good sized Island with many resorts and plenty of activities and nightlife to keep visitors entertained. It is also only a short boat trip from the tropical paradise of Koh Mak.

We did just two dives from this Island with ScubaZone who had an officed based at Lonely beach. The dive sites they took us to were Hin Luk Bat and Hin Rap. These two dives were fairlty standard, beginner level dives. Visibility of around 10 metres, very little current and warm water so only a sorty wetsuit was required. They werent exactly memorable dives (just several schools of fish and 2 yellow Stingrays seen) but the price of the dives was fairly reasonable and – although we didnt see any – Whale Sharks have been reported to have occasionally been seen at these sites, so cross your fingers and take the plunge.