Dive sites

Cave or cenote Pass Pelagic Reef Shore dive Wall Wreck See the map

A blue shark with a long silver-gray body, pectoral fins spread, passes through the deep blue beneath a diver in a black wetsuit who is photographing it

AzoresPelagic

Condor Bank

Pico and Faial

5 to 15 mExperiencedFrom July to September

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 30 m, often more

Condor Bank is a seamount 17 km off Faial whose summit stays 185 m down.

Close-up of an anemone with green, purple-tipped tentacles, nestled in the orange-red folds of its column, approached from the right by a pink anemonefish with a white stripe

ThailandPelagic

Chumphon Pinnacle

Gulf of Thailand: Koh Tao

14 to 36 mOpen WaterFrom March to September

BoatCurrent: moderateVisibility 20 to 30 m in season, 5 to 10 m in November and December

Chumphon Pinnacle is a granite pinnacle 10 kilometers northwest of Koh Tao, with its top at 14 meters covered in anemones.

A huge school of fish in silhouette, seen from below against the sunlight sparkling under the surface, in deep blue water.

IndonesiaPelagic

Castle Rock

Komodo

4 to 30 mExperiencedFrom April to October

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Castle Rock is a seamount in the north of Komodo National Park, rising from beyond 60 m to 4 m below the surface.

A diver in a black wetsuit facing the camera, framed by red sea fans and orange soft corals where small anthias swim, against blue water.

IndonesiaReef

Cape Kri

Raja Ampat

5 to 40 mAdvancedFrom October to April

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Cape Kri is the eastern tip of Kri Island, in Raja Ampat: in 2012, ichthyologist Gerald Allen counted 374 fish species there in a single dive, a world record.

A sea turtle with a narrow, hooked beak swims over sand and branching coral in the clear, shallow water of the lagoon

FranceReef

Cap La Houssaye (Réunion)

French Indian Ocean: Réunion and Mayotte

4 to 18 mTry diveFrom April to May and from July to December

BoatCurrent: lightVisibility good, best in the morning when the sea is calm

Cap La Houssaye, a basalt point north of Saint-Gilles harbor, marks the northern edge of the Réunion Marine Nature Reserve.

A whitetip reef shark seen from above gliding diagonally just above the sand, the white tips of its dorsal fin and tail clearly visible, along algae-covered boulders in green water.

Costa RicaCave or cenote

Caño Island

South Pacific: Osa and Caño Island

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 12 to 24 m

Caño Island is a biological reserve 16 kilometers off the Osa Peninsula, closed to fishing since 1976.

A tight school of yellow snappers with bright yellow fins, seen side-on in blue-green water, on the Cabo Pulmo reef

MexicoReef

Cabo Pulmo

Sea of Cortez: La Paz and Cabo Pulmo

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom June to November

BoatCurrent: moderateVisibility 6 to 18 m, up to 30 m in the fall

Cabo Pulmo is the only coral reef in the Sea of Cortez, made a national park in 1995 at the request of the village fishermen.

A green turtle swimming to the right in open blue water, two yellowish remoras under its plastron, next to a column of divers' bubbles and small fish.

IndonesiaReef

Bunaken, Lekuan walls

Sulawesi: Bunaken and Lembeh

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom March to October

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 15 to 25 m

The Lekuan walls are three vertical walls off southern Bunaken, dropping from the surface to 40 m.

Big Brother from the sea: a flat, pale islet topped by its lighthouse, with a white liveaboard moored in front

EgyptPelagic

Brothers Islands

Southern Red Sea, Egypt

10 to 40 mExperiencedFrom April to November

LiveaboardCurrent: strongVisibility 25 to 40 m

The Brothers are twin islets about sixty kilometers off El Quseir, sitting on walls that drop into several hundred meters of water.

A reef manta ray seen from below, very close, its white belly spotted with black and its cephalic fins unrolled, surrounded by fish in the blue

FrancePass

Boulari Pass (New Caledonia)

New Caledonia

13 to 18 mAdvancedFrom April to November

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 30 to 40 m in the cool season, from April to September

Boulari Pass cuts through the barrier reef between Grand Récif Aboré and Kué Reef, south of Amédée Lighthouse, about forty minutes from Nouméa.