Dive sites

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

A gray manta ray gliding to the left over a reef of leather corals, surrounded by damselfish in the foreground, in blue-gray water.

Blue Magic

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Blue Magic is a pinnacle in the middle of the Dampier Strait, in Raja Ampat, rising from 30 m to within 7 m of the surface.

A sea turtle rising diagonally through the blue, front flippers raised and its dark shell covered in algae, in front of a school of fusiliers on the left.

IndonesiaReef

Batu Bolong

Komodo

5 to 30 mAdvancedFrom April to November

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Batu Bolong is a rock between Komodo and Tatawa, coated in coral from the surface to beyond 70 m, the densest site in the park.

Costa RicaPelagic

Bat Islands (Islas Murciélago)

Guanacaste and the North Pacific

15 to 35 mAdvancedFrom June to October

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 5 to 27 m

The Bat Islands are an archipelago in Santa Rosa National Park, 45 minutes by RIB from Playa Flamingo.

Seen from the front, a diver with arms spread glides above a thick school of blue-striped yellow snappers covering the reef, in deep blue water.

MaldivesReef

Banana Reef

Malé atolls

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 30 m

Banana Reef is a banana-shaped reef 20 minutes by speedboat from Malé and one of the first dive sites in the Maldives.

The flat, wooded island of Balicasag on the horizon, with its white lighthouse and fringe of pale sand, seen from a bangka whose white outriggers fill the foreground, under a cloudless blue sky.

PhilippinesReef

Balicasag Island

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom January to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 30 m

Balicasag is an islet ten kilometers from Panglao, in Bohol, ringed by a plateau from 5 to 18 m and then a wall, and protected since 1985.

A school of scalloped hammerheads in silhouette in blue-green water, seen from below, about twenty animals

Costa RicaPelagic

Bajo Alcyone

Cocos Island

25 to 40 mAdvancedFrom June to November

LiveaboardCurrent: strongVisibility 10 to 30 m

Bajo Alcyone is a seamount with its summit at 25 meters, off Cocos Island, 36 hours by boat from the Costa Rican coast.

A tight school of silver snipefish, small fish with long tube-shaped snouts, fills the whole frame diagonally, lit by the sun at top right in blue water

AzoresReef

Baixa do Sul

Pico and Faial

6 to 50 mAdvancedFrom July to September

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Baixa do Sul is a long rocky ridge in the middle of the channel between Faial and Pico, ten minutes by boat from Madalena.

Two divers hovering in the deep blue above a garden of plate and table corals, surrounded by yellow and black striped sergeant majors, their bubbles rising toward the surface.

PhilippinesReef

Apo Island

Visayas: Cebu, Bohol and Negros

5 to 40 mOpen WaterFrom December to May

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 20 m

Apo Island is a volcanic island south of Negros, where fishermen and Silliman University created one of the Philippines' first marine sanctuaries in 1982.

A mobula ray seen from the side swims to the left, olive green back and white belly, two remoras stuck under its body and its sickle-shaped wing dipping down, in clear blue water

AzoresPelagic

Ambrósio

Santa Maria

5 to 46 mAdvancedFrom July to September

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 40 m

Ambrósio is a shoal three nautical miles off the north coast of Santa Maria, where dozens of mobula rays rise from June to October and circle a meter from divers holding the buoy line.

The upright bow of the Giannis D, covered in growth, with three divers at the foot of the wreck in blue water full of bubbles

EgyptReef

Abu Nuhas wrecks

Central Red Sea, Egypt

4 to 32 mAdvancedFrom March to November

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 15 to 30 m

Four cargo ships, the Carnatic, the Kimon M, the Chrisoula K and the Giannis D, were lost on Abu Nuhas reef between 1869 and 1983.