Favourite Dive Location You've Been to?

[kimmerscuba22]

Would love to hear about your favourite spot! Why is it your fave, what did you see?

I've had some great experiences in the Caribbean, a birthday dive in the Georgia Aquarium but the Great Barrier Reef certainly spoiled me. Lived there for a year and every day I reminded myself how lucky I was to have that in my backyard!

 

[ColoDale]

Fiji, Taveuni area. Fantastic walls. Postcard topside views. Nice people. Plenty of fish, soft corals, sharks, blue ribbon eels. Water temps were good enough to dive in surf shorts. Longer time to get to from North America though.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Vancouver Island is my favorite destination so far. I don't see how I can find a better location for seeing marine life.
A beautiful end of an era

 

[Malpaso]

Turks and Caicos

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...eat-week-diving-tci.html?highlight=dive+provo

 

[drrich2]

I don't have one universal favorite. I liked Key Largo with Rainbow Reef Dive Center for 4 dives/day, low cost airfare & dive package, nice, shallow & in places really fishy reefs, with an option for deep wreck diving, all without leaving the U.S. so good healthcare was available for our then baby daughter, and topside attractions for wife & mother in law. Trip report.

I enjoyed diving the Lighthouse Atoll region of Belize with the Sun Dancer 2 live-aboard, for a fine all-inclusive 'they take great care of you' way to cram 26 dives into a week, about as easy as boat diving gets. Lots of good diving, good food, great service and low bother. Trip report.

I love Bonaire for 'do it yourself, when, where, how & how many' shore-diving with about the easiest navigation this side of a quarry, fine viz., good sea life (though haven't seen a shark in 8 trips, and not known for much big stuff aside from tarpon, green morays, barracuda, tiger grouper & cubera snapper; some sea turtles). Plus the water's warm all year and it's below the hurricane belt so there's little need to confine trip planning to certain times a year.

My favorite destination depends on what I'm after; big stuff, sharks, boat diving, shore diving, fishy lush reef, etc...

Richard.

 

[drbill]

I don't think I've been to a dive destination I didn't like. Overall I'd say Palau is my current favorite followed by the Philippines and Tahiti. I enjoy diving anywhere because I love to learn about different ecosystems regardless of their structure and even unhealthy ones offer a learning experience. Enjoyed the Great Barrier Reef and Fiji as well as Caribbean destinations like the Bahamas and Belize. Of course when we have kelp there's nothing like diving right off the shores (or a boat) here on my own island.

 

[dmoore19]

My favorite dive spot so far has to be Bloody Bay Wall off of Little Cayman. A 10 day trip on the Cayman Aggressor with a group that I have been around before and a couple of new friends made. Lots of fish, squid, sharks, turtles and the usual Caribbean cast. 39 dives. The trip included plenty of shallow dives with a mix of deeper wall dives and couple of wrecks and an overall variety of things to be seen. Great food, great service. Have not had the pleasure of some of the places mentioned above but look forward to catching a couple of them. I don't remember diving a place I didn't enjoy, though I have only seen Caribbean diving and have only scratched the surface of possibilities.

 

[TSandM]

I've given a couple of days of thought to this, because it's a good question, and I can't answer it. Each place has such different things to offer. Overall, I love the diving off the Pacific Coast of North America, which is diverse, colorful, and dramatic, but it's cold and the viz is not always great. Puerto Galera in the Philippines has stunning reefs, great structure, and tons of critters, but so did Bunaken in Indonesia, and Byron Bay in Australia. The Socorros were big, largely barren rocks, but the stuff in the blue water made up for it. I will NEVER forget dancing with 20 foot mantas! The reefs off Puerto Aventuras aren't as colorful and densely inhabited as the Philippines, but the topside scenery is stunning, and then you have the cenotes nearby.

Basically, it's all good . . .

 

[kimmerscuba22]

Gotta love the fact that you thought about this and came back to it - it's apprecaited. Sounds like you've been on some great trips! The Philipines are on my bucket list for sure. Which cenetoes have you dove? I've been through a few of them and find them awe-inspiring, somehwat errie but absolutely amazing!

I've given a couple of days of thought to this, because it's a good question, and I can't answer it. Each place has such different things to offer. Overall, I love the diving off the Pacific Coast of North America, which is diverse, colorful, and dramatic, but it's cold and the viz is not always great. Puerto Galera in the Philippines has stunning reefs, great structure, and tons of critters, but so did Bunaken in Indonesia, and Byron Bay in Australia. The Socorros were big, largely barren rocks, but the stuff in the blue water made up for it. I will NEVER forget dancing with 20 foot mantas! The reefs off Puerto Aventuras aren't as colorful and densely inhabited as the Philippines, but the topside scenery is stunning, and then you have the cenotes nearby.

Basically, it's all good . . .

 

[Hintermann]

I have been to some of the premier dive spots around the world and to date my favourite is the liveaboard trip to Komodo on board the Mermaid I. Great boat, great crew and a combination of varied dive sites with rich coral and a multitude of large and small stuff from manta rays to nudibranchs. Seeing the Komodo Dragons on a land trip was just the icing on the cake.