Dive sites: reef

A group of oriental sweetlips striped black and yellow, with black-spotted yellow fins, hovering above the reef in front of anemones and triggerfish

MaldivesReef

Kuda Rah Thila

Ari and Rasdhoo atolls

12 to 30 mAdvancedFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 20 to 40 m

Kuda Rah Thila is a small coral block in the Dhigurah channel, in South Ari, with its top between 12 and 16 meters.

A reef manta ray seen head-on, its white belly and gill slits visible, passes above the sand in blue-green water, with small fish on the reef at right

ThailandPelagic

Koh Tachai Pinnacle

Andaman Sea: Similan, Surin and Lanta

12 to 40 mAdvancedFrom November to April

LiveaboardCurrent: strongVisibility 10 to 35 m

Koh Tachai Pinnacle is two granite pinnacles between 12 and 40 meters, south of the northernmost island of Similan National Park.

A large potato grouper, gray marbled with black, seen from above, resting on the pale sand of a gully between two coral-covered rock walls, in a cloud of small silver fish

TanzaniaPass

Kinasi Pass

Mafia Island

6 to 26 mOpen WaterFrom September to February

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 10 to 30 m

Kinasi Pass opens Chole Bay to the ocean, in Mafia Island Marine Park, and you drift it along two walls where schools of trevallies and barracudas cross paths with potato groupers.

MaldivesPelagic

Kandooma Thila

Malé atolls

12 to 30 mAdvancedFrom November to April

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 20 to 35 m

Kandooma Thila is a small pinnacle in South Malé Atoll, with its top at 12 or 13 meters and the sand at 35 or 40.

An oceanic manta, wings spread, gliding head-on toward a diver who lights it with a torch, a remora on its black back with white shoulders and bubbles rising in the blue.

Costa RicaReef

Islas Catalinas

Guanacaste and the North Pacific

10 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom December to April

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 6 to 24 m

The Islas Catalinas are a volcanic archipelago 30 minutes by boat from Playas del Coco, with more than twenty sites open to Open Water divers.

Panorama of the two ocher tuff islets of Madalena on a dark blue sea, the long flat Ilhéu Deitado on the left and the upright Ilhéu em Pé on the right, with the white town of Horta and the green hills of Faial behind

AzoresReef

Ilhéus da Madalena

Pico and Faial

20 mOpen WaterFrom June to September

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 15 to 30 m

The 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,...

A diver in a black wetsuit, lying on a sandy bottom between two rocks covered in brown algae, writes on a white slate, with the outlines of kelp standing out in the blue behind him.

FranceReef

Glénan Islands

Brittany and the Atlantic coast

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom June to September

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility clear, with turquoise glints over the white sand

The Glénan Islands are an archipelago of granite and white sand off Concarneau, where clear water hides kelp forests, walls and about ten wrecks.

A cloud of orange anthias above a hard coral reef, in clear blue water

EgyptReef

Giftun Islands

Central Red Sea, Egypt

5 to 30 mOpen WaterFrom March to November

BoatCurrent: variableVisibility 20 to 30 m

Giftun Kebir and Giftun Soraya are two desert islands off Hurghada, ringed by reefs less than an hour and a half away by boat.

A slender white lighthouse with a red door stands on the low, rocky islet of Formigão, its dark rocks fringed with brown algae, above a gray, rough sea under an overcast sky

AzoresReef

Formigas and Dollabarat

Santa Maria

5 to 50 mAdvancedFrom July to September

BoatCurrent: strongVisibility 20 to 40 m, sometimes more

The 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...

A gray reef shark swims above a wall covered in black coral bushes, with a second shark in the background in blue-green water

MaldivesReef

Fish Head (Mushimasmingili Thila)

Ari and Rasdhoo atolls

8 to 30 mAdvancedFrom November to April

LiveaboardCurrent: strongVisibility 15 to 30 m

Fish Head is a pinnacle in North Ari Atoll, with a plateau between 8 and 15 meters and sides that drop to 40 or 50 meters.