The world's great liveaboard dive sites, in depth
The marquee sites divers travel across the world for — what makes each one special, the marine life and conditions to expect, the best season, and how to dive it. Written by divers, for divers.
Red Sea
Diving Red Sea →
Brothers IslandsTwo volcanic pinnacles in open water where sharks, walls and shipwrecks meet.
Elphinstone ReefThe Red Sea's most electric shark wall, a lone reef adrift in open blue off Marsa Alam.
Daedalus ReefThe lone striped lighthouse where the open Red Sea delivers its sharks.
SS ThistlegormThe most famous wreck dive in the world, and it earns every bit of the reputation.
Abu NuhasFour ships on one reef, a century of maritime disaster laid out in clear northern Red Sea water.
Palau
Diving Palau →
Blue CornerPalau's legendary reef-hook wall, where the current does the swimming and the sharks do the rest.
German ChannelThe man-made cut through Palau's reef where mantas queue up to be cleaned.
Ulong ChannelHook in at the mouth, watch the sharks hang in the blue, then let go and fly.
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Peleliu CornerThe corner where three currents meet — and the fish come to feed.
Thailand
Diving Thailand →
Richelieu RockThailand's greatest dive site is a lone pinnacle in the open Andaman — and it earns the title.
Koh BonA lone granite spine on the edge of the Similans, and the most reliable place in Thailand to hang in the blue and wait for oceanic mantas.
Koh TachaiA granite dome in open water where the current runs the show and the big animals follow it.
Galápagos
Diving Galápagos →Komodo
Diving Komodo →%20-%20Large%20(1).jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Batu BolongA tennis-court of rock in the channel, wrapped in the healthiest coral in Komodo.
Castle RockA submerged seamount in northern Komodo where the current does the hunting for you, and grey reef sharks line up to watch.
Crystal RockA pinnacle that breaks the surface at low tide, wrapped in sharks and swept by current you can lean into.
Manta AlleyA narrow channel cut through rock at the far south of Komodo, where mantas stack up in the current like planes waiting to land.
Raja Ampat
Diving Raja Ampat →%20-%20Large.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Cape KriThe reef that broke the record for fish in a single dive.
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Blue MagicA submerged pinnacle in open water where oceanic mantas glide out of the blue.
Manta SandyA shallow sand channel in the Dampier Strait where reef mantas queue up to be cleaned — and you get a front-row seat if you can hold still.
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Melissa's GardenSome reefs impress you with a single big animal. Melissa's Garden impresses you with the sheer, unbroken health of the coral itself.
Socorro (Revillagigedo)
Diving Socorro (Revillagigedo) →Roca PartidaA speck of rock in the open Pacific where the big animals come to you.
The BoilerDiving The Boiler in Socorro is the closest most of us will ever come to being greeted underwater. Giant oceanic mantas here seek out divers, not the other way around.
Cabo PearceA lava ridge that runs off Socorro's east coast into open ocean, where giant mantas queue at cleaning stations and dolphins come looking for you.
Cocos Island
Diving Cocos Island →Maldives
Diving Maldives →Hanifaru BayOne funnel-shaped bay, a clashing current, and sometimes two hundred manta rays wheeling through plankton at once.
FuvahmulahNowhere else in the Maldives puts you knee-deep in a sandy shallow with a dozen tiger sharks cruising an arm's length away.
Fotteyo KanduA channel mouth honeycombed with soft-coral caves, patrolled by grey reef sharks and swept by current that means business.
Truk Lagoon
Diving Truk Lagoon →
Fujikawa MaruThe Fujikawa Maru is the wreck that turns first-time visitors into Truk Lagoon obsessives.
San Francisco MaruThree battle tanks still stand on her foredeck, 50 metres down in the dark of Truk Lagoon.
Shinkoku MaruA 152-metre fleet tanker turned coral garden, and the most alive wreck in the Ghost Fleet.
Nippo MaruA Japanese light tank still sits on the deck, turret pointed into the blue.
Solomon Islands
Diving Solomon Islands →
Leru CutA jungle-walled fissure in the Russell Islands where the midday sun pours through in solid shafts — the single most photographed scene in Solomon Islands diving.
Grand Central StationOne reef. Nearly 280 fish species. This is why Grand Central Station is the busiest dive site in the Solomon Islands.
Devil's HighwayHook onto the reef, hang in the current, and look up: a dozen reef mantas wheeling overhead in the blue.
Twin TunnelsTwo lava chimneys, a dark descent, and a doorway that opens onto blue water and circling sharks.
Philippines
Diving Philippines →
Monad ShoalA dawn descent to the one seamount on Earth where thresher sharks show up almost every morning.
Amos RockA slope that tips over into a wall, a current that switches on the action, and reef sharks materialising out of the blue — Amos Rock is Tubbataha diving distilled.
Delsan WreckTubbataha's best-known wreck site isn't really about the wreck at all.
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Gato IslandA banded sea-snake sanctuary with a coral tunnel bored clean through the island, and reef sharks asleep in the shadows.
Sea of Cortez
Diving Sea of Cortez →
El Bajo SeamountThe seamount that made schooling hammerheads famous, and still runs blue water thick with pelagics when the season lines up.
Los IslotesA rocky islet off Espiritu Santo where curious sea lion pups turn an easy shallow dive into the most joyful twenty metres in the Sea of Cortez.
Las AnimasA bare knuckle of rock two hours out from La Paz, wrapped in current and, on the right day, a slow-turning wheel of hammerheads.
Gordo BanksA deep blue-water seamount off Baja where scalloped hammerheads school over open ocean.
Oman
Diving Oman →Lima RockA limestone stack rising off Ras Lima on Musandam's Gulf of Oman coast, its walls hung with fans and patrolled by tuna — Lima Rock is the dive that makes Musandam worth the journey.
Octopus RockA lone stack of rock, three kilometres off Lima, that packs more life onto its flanks than sites ten times its size.
The AquariumThe signature reef of the Daymaniyat Islands, where a single shallow dive seems to hand you everything Oman has to offer.
Police IslandA shallow, sun-drenched coral garden threaded with swim-throughs, where turtles sleep in the crevices and stingrays tuck under the rock ledges.
Fahal IslandA limestone island 20 minutes off Muscat where reef sharks rest on the sand and a limestone arch pulls you through the rock.
Al MunassirAn 84-metre warship sitting upright on the sand, guns still in place, twenty minutes off Muscat.
Myanmar
Diving Myanmar →Black RockA lone limestone fist rising from open ocean, 188 kilometres from anywhere, where oceanic mantas queue up to be cleaned.
Shark CaveA daylight canyon you can swim through, with sharks resting in the shadows at the far end.
Western RockyA daylit tunnel bored clean through an island, with a fat nurse shark asleep in the middle of it.
North TwinA tree-topped island at the far edge of the map, where granite pinnacles fall into blue water thick with sharks and rays.
Silvertip BankA flat-topped seamount 125 kilometres out in the Andaman Sea, where the reef ends and the open ocean begins.
Seychelles
Diving Seychelles →Astove WallA vertical reef that falls away from ankle-deep water into a kilometre of blue, on one of the most remote atolls in the Indian Ocean.
Aldabra PassesThe tidal channels of Aldabra Atoll deliver one of the wildest drift dives in the Indian Ocean — a liveaboard-only ride on the flooding tide, shoulder to shoulder with green turtles, giant groupers and reef sharks.
Cosmoledo AtollThe Seychelles' healthiest coral, ruled by potato groupers and reef sharks, 1,000 km from anywhere.
Shark BankA lone granite tower in open blue water off Mahe, patrolled by eagle rays, big stingrays and, in season, whale sharks.
Brissare RocksA granite tower a few kilometres off Mahé, so thick with fish you sometimes lose sight of your buddy behind the shoals.
Saudi Arabia
Diving Saudi Arabia →Shib HabilA shallow reef off the Saudi coast where dozens of young whale sharks gather each spring, and almost no one is there to see them.
Sha'ab AmmarA horseshoe of reef in an empty sea, where the walls fall into blue and the hammerheads come to you.
Gorgonia ReefSea fans the size of doorways, and a wall of barracuda in the blue behind them.
Mar Mar IslandA dramatic drop-off, coral in near-perfect health, and a calm anchorage under a sky with no light on the horizon — Mar Mar Island is the Saudi Red Sea still finding its own reputation.
Danak IslandA vegetation-crowned islet in the far southern Farasan Banks, ringed by an unspoiled plateau that falls into open blue.
68 dive-site guides and growing.
