Up-to-date list of "world's top scuba destinations" that are not "wiped out" yet?

[farsidefan1]

OK, my 2 cents. Big stuff, Palau or the Bahamas, Weird, Lembeh strait, Ugly, mirror (speaking for myself).

 

[vladimir]

I'll dispense with the disclaimers and give you a list to work with:

[-]Galapagos Islands[/-] Water temperatures below 80ºF, far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Cocos Island[/-] Far from any population, non-diving activities.

[-]Raja Ampat[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Papua New Guinea[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Palau[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Chuuk[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Sipadan[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Lembeh[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

[-]Coral Sea[/-] Far from population, non-diving activities.

Bali

Hmm...I recommend Bali...or a reconsideration of your criteria.

 

[gekodivebali]

Bali is great for diving. Sharks and mantas are to be found around July. Sunfish if lucky as it's a bit early in the season. Great macro too and a few wrecks.
Interesting and unique culture on the island. Nice people. July is not too crowded yet as high season starts in August.
Activities on land include temple and water palaces visits, hiking in natural areas, rafting, cycling and mountain (volcano) hiking. Obviously some of those activities are not recommended on a diving day.
If you're looking for parties, you may find it in Kuta and Seminyak but this is far from the diving areas (2-3 hours). May be better off to dive with a shop closer to the action abd keep a couple days for party at the end of your trip ;-)
You're welcome to pm if you want more info.

 

[cardzard]

While its not a list, I can tell you the BEST SCUBA EVENT of the year is going to be held in Bonaire this year by ScubaBoard.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/invade-bonaire-2013/437012-invade-bonaire-2013-package-deal.html

 

[Rich Keller]

The best reefs I have seen in a long time were in Turks & Caicos while diving from the Beaches resort there.

 

[drbill]

Unfortunately, the Casino Point Dive Park in Avalon here on beautiful Santa Catalina Island (off the coast of SoCal) has been seriously degraded... but not necessarily by the thousands of divers that dive it each year. The appearance of an invasive Asian seaweed, Sargassum horneri, in the winter of 2005-06 has rendered the dive park an ecological disaster in the late fall through late spring due to the dense growth of this noxious weed. It is so thick it is extremely difficult to see anything on the bottom through its dense understory... of course that gives many species (lobster, octopus, etc) the cover they need to venture out undetected. During the summer and early fall things are back to normal as the damned pest is an annual alga and dies off.

 

[Ayisha]

I like Vladimir's list which fulfills almost all of your criteria. I loved diving in Belize around the atolls and the coral and sea life is very healthy, colourful and abundant, but the critters don't meet your weird or ugly criteria. French Polynesia was really healthy as well with lots of pelagics, but it also doesn't meet your weird or ugly criteria. Lembeh and Raja Ampat would probably fit your criteria the most, but your distance to population and non-diving criterion should be re-evaluated!

 

[Hutch12]

Personal reccomendations;

Philippines - Moalboal, fab diving, little else
Malapascua, good diving including very high chance of thresher sharks, small quiet island, some small, quite bars / resteraunts
Closest large population to these 2 is Cebu City, with some large hotel resorts, Shangri-La, Hyatt etc

Barrier Reef - Excellent Diving on outer reef, nice towns in Cairns and Port Douglass plus Rainforrest activities

Sipedan - World Class diving, rainforrest activities and culture activities a short and cheap flight away. Would have to split time, Diving / other

Bali - Fantastic diving in Komodo, best accessed by Liveaboard, so would require split time again, or there is some good day boat diving to go with the beach / rainforrest / culture activities on Bali. Be careful on Bali, some spots / towns have been "wiped out" by mass tourism, Kuta for example.

Palau - Excelent Diving, lots of big stuff and great shark, manta action, little else to do on the islands. Some WWII stuff on Pellilu Island

Thailand - I have only dove te Simmillans can be done either L/B or day boat, average diving, not real big stuff for most of the year but excellent access to nightlife and culture if diving day boat.

 

[juicyblue]

The Great Barrier Reef is amazing, but really really expensive (especially if you're not Australian). You need to make sure you avoid the 'tourist trap' dives, and get to the outer reef.

The best way I found to do that was through one of the island resorts or a live-a-board. But, a liveaboard in the Whitsundays is going to set you back a serious, serious amount of coin.

As far as diving resorts in the whitsundays go, check out Heron Island. Very diving focused, and a beautiful resort. Hayman is also good for Diving, as it's not a hugely popular activity on that island, so if you take one of the dive charters you generally get totally personalised service!

Outside of Australia, if I was looking for a combination of party vs diving, I would go for Koh Tao, Thailand. They have some great dives (Sail Rock and Chumporn are my favourite), it's cheap and a good social vibe.

For the diving itself, I'd go to Vanuatu. SS Coolidge and the Blue Hole on Santos (which I haven't done but am hoping to this year!) and also some good dives on efate too. Really cheap, amazing culture, loads to see (waterfalls, beaches, volcanoes) and just a beautiful part of the world.

 

[Hutch12]

For a liveaboard on the Barrier reef, you cant go far wrong wit Mike Ball's Spoil Sport. Fantastic boat and crew plus hoice of 7 day or 4 day. They take you right out to the outer reef and rbbon reefs, infact on one of the days I was on board the water was very calm and we dove a site on the very outer wall of the GBR. Another plus point is that each and every site we dove we were the only boat there, infact through out our 3/4 day trip we did not see another dive boat, which cannot be said for some of the other popular liveaboard destinations in Indo Pacific who tend to swarm the same sites.

A little pricey but well worth it.