Choiahoy’s dream trip departing from New York City -
1 - Bonaire – It is just a tiny bit east of NYC, so it’s fair game. We’ve been there twice in two years and love everything about that island.
2 - Malta – It’s on the list mainly because I just couldn’t justify passing over the entire continent of Europe. And I’m a sucker for ancient ruins. But I could see this stop getting bumped.
3 - Red Sea – Considering Sharm El Sheikh or maybe Dahab. Open to suggestions.
4 - Maldives – has been a long time dream.
5 - Indonesia – maybe Bali? Or a liveaboard? We haven’t done a liveaboard before and this might be a good place for our first.
6 – Phillipines – considering Cebu Island or perhaps a liveaboard?
7 – Palau – the pictures I see are jaw dropping. No way this one gets bumped.
8 - Hawaii – I have to visit my mom on this trip or she’d kick my ass. And we love every one of the islands, above and below water. It was a trip to Hawaii that made us decide to become divers.
9 - Galapagos – see number 4
10 - Mexico – I’m kind of cheating by lumping Cozumel and the Riviera Maya into one, but you possibly could do both in a week. We fell in love with diving the cenotes the last time we were there.
Maybe Malta gets bumped for Chuuk, the Great Barrier Reef, or Cocos Islands. Or Thailand or Fiji. Truly too many places.
Looking forward to reading your lists.
My dream trip.
starting in the Netherlands:
1) The Britannic. It's a bit on the deep side but I have the skills to dive her if we could !#%!%!$ get permission.
2) Lake Malawi. I'd like to go back. In terms of aquarium fishes Cichlides are the king of the fresh water aquarium fishes and they are only native to this one lake. I've dived there before in about 1989 and I'd LOVE to go back (loved East Africa too)
3) The Red Sea. I've been there many times before and I'll go there many times again. God's aquarium. It MUST be on everyone's list.
4) The Maldives. I've never seen a whale shark or a manta ray. The closest I came to seeing a whale shark was two guys in Egypt (newbie divers) who said they saw an enormous fish where we had been diving about 20 min before. They had a camera and took some pictures to see if someone could identify it.....FFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK....... I would need to spend at least a season there.....
5) The Philippines. When I was younger my dive fantasy was to get lost in the Philippines on a sail boat and never come back. It still is.
6) The great barrier reef. Enough said.
7) Antarctica. The seals, the penguins, the ecosystem untainted by humans.
8) British Columbia. The west coast of Canada has some of the best cold water diving in the world. Full stop. GPO's, Wolf eels.... seals, a complete cornucopia of biodiversity and *literally* anywhere you flop overboard is a good dive!
9) The Yucatan. This includes the Gulf but also the Centoes and (gasp) the caves. I've never dived in a cave but there is one place in the world that could entice me enough to take a cave course it would be Akumal, for reasons of diving but also since the geological history of the area IS the history of Earth. The end of the dinosaurs and the beginning of the era that lead to mammals and humans. How could someone look at that without feeling impressed.
10) Iceland. A land forged from the belly of the earth and blessed with the best visibility on the plant. What diver wouldn't want to look up and clearly see the surface from 60m? There isn't much to see there under water (which explains the visibility) but as a diving experience I would like once in my life (and as someone at the end of their fantasy tour about to return to the turbid waters of the Netherlands) to have literally unlimited visibility.
R..
Searcraigh you best be picking me up on that trip to my old stomping ground at Ningaloo too btw 
