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Azores6 dive sites
The Azores are Europe's great open-ocean scuba diving destination, four hours from Paris. At Ambrósio, a shoal north of Santa Maria, mobulas circle by the dozen a meter from you. The blue sharks of Condor Bank, near Faial, come in groups of five to fifteen under the boat.
Go in August or September, at the peak of the mobula season, when the water reaches 23 or 24°C. Each offshore trip is decided the day before, depending on swell and wind, and only if enough divers sign up. With a week there, you get two or three chances to go.
A coastal dive costs €55 to €65, and dive centers require one, the checkout dive, before the offshore sites. The Condor Bank trip lasts five to six hours and costs €199 to €220, for a single dive. The day at Princess Alice gives you two dives for €250.
Azores Airlines flies nonstop from Paris to Ponta Delgada in four hours, from April to October. For Pico, Faial or Santa Maria, you take an inter-island flight of an hour at most, or a single Air France ticket via Lisbon. You stay inside the European Union, so an EU ID card is enough and you pay in euros.
AzoresPelagicAmbrósio 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.
AzoresReefBaixa do Sul is a long rocky ridge in the middle of the channel between Faial and Pico, ten minutes by boat from Madalena.
AzoresPelagicCondor Bank is a seamount 17 km off Faial whose summit stays 185 m down.
AzoresReefThe Formigas and Dollabarat form an isolated rocky bank 43 km from Santa Maria, a nature reserve since 1988, where you meet bold groupers, tuna, barracuda and mobulas in the clearest water in the...
AzoresReefThe Madalena islets are two tuff rocks 930 m from the harbor, the remains of an underwater volcano whose flooded crater forms a sheltered bay 20 m deep, home to groupers, morays and stingrays,...
AzoresPelagicPrincess Alice Bank is a seamount that rises from 1,500 m down to 30 m below the surface, 45 nautical miles southwest of Faial.
Divers come to the Azores for the open ocean. You drop into the blue above a seamount, Condor Bank or Princess Alice Bank. At Princess Alice, the current brings in schools of tuna, bonito and amberjack.
At Condor Bank, blue sharks show up on more than 90% of trips, from July to mid-October. In August and September, you rarely miss the mobula rays of Princess Alice Bank. On days when the sea rules out the offshore sites, you dive the coast, in lava tunnels and flooded craters.
For Condor Bank and Princess Alice Bank, your base is Horta, on Faial, or Madalena, on Pico. From either port, Condor is only an hour away by boat. Princess Alice Bank takes a full day, with up to three hours at sea each way. The CW Azores dive center, in Madalena, only takes Advanced divers aged 18 or over with 50 logged dives to these two banks.
The channel between Pico and Faial has its own sites, a few minutes from the harbor. At the Ilhéus da Madalena, the sheltered bay between the islets is a flooded crater no deeper than 20 meters. You can dive it from Open Water, with a guide. Advanced opens up Baixa do Sul, where bonito and barracuda gather in the current.
On Santa Maria, the Mantamaria dive center takes you to Ambrósio from Advanced or 25 logged dives. The RIB takes 40 to 45 minutes from Vila do Porto, and you are back by early afternoon. Your non-diving companions see the mobulas too, snorkeling. Farther out, in the open sea, the Formigas and Dollabarat are for Advanced divers at ease in strong current. This isolated reef has the clearest water in the Azores, and you meet fearless groupers, mobulas and sometimes a hammerhead.
Offshore trips start in June on Santa Maria and run until October. On Pico and Faial, you have to wait for July, apart from a few departures from Lajes do Pico in late June. The mobulas arrive in late June, at Ambrósio as at Princess Alice Bank, and stay until mid-October. At Princess Alice, visibility reaches 40 meters in late summer. At Condor Bank, a mako shark, far rarer than the blue sharks, makes a quick pass. Around Santa Maria, whale sharks also show up in August and September. With luck, you meet one at Ambrósio.
Coastal diving starts again in April on Pico and Faial. Late spring is the best time for nudibranchs on the Pico coast, but the water is only 17°C in May.
You stay on land, not on a liveaboard, because every trip leaves from the harbor and comes back the same day. On the coast, the dive price includes tank, weights and guide. Full gear rental is extra, €20 to €39 a day. Ten dives cost €440 in Madalena and €464 in Vila do Porto.
A dive at Ambrósio costs €99 to €102 depending on the center. At Mantamaria, the €44 site supplement is waived once you book eight dives. Budget €199 to €220 for the day at the Formigas, two dives included.
At Condor Bank and Princess Alice Bank, you descend and ascend along the boat's line, because the current can pick up suddenly. Offshore, as in the channel used by the ferries, nobody dives without a DSMB. The Formigas are 70 minutes from the harbor, and a dive computer is essential there. From April to June and in October, you dive in a 7 mm wetsuit or a semi-dry, with a hood. In high summer, a 5 mm does the job.
As soon as you arrive, do your checkout dive and book Ambrósio, where the buoy only takes a few boats. If the sea cancels a trip, you still have days to make it up. The boat drops you in the water ten meters from the mobulas. You do not approach them closer than three meters, but they come to you on their own.
Hotels, apartments and rooms around Vila do Porto (Santa Maria), the starting point for dives at the Formigas and Dollabarat, with current prices.
