Diving near Orebic, Croatia?

[ColinB]

Hello,

I will be visiting Croatia in July, and I'm hoping to get some good diving in while I'm there. I'll be staying near Orebic (actually in the village of Borje) visiting family for about 2 weeks. Is there good diving near there, and if so, whom should I dive with. Is there somewhere else I should go while I'm in the country to get some more interesting dives such as Istria? I'm rescue dive certified and have a little over 100 dives at this point, mostly in cold water.
Please let me know if any other info would help and thanks for any advice!
Colin

 

[tamas970]

Hopefully our fellow SBoarder, ElChe will show up soon, he has extensive experience in Croatia.

I personally dived around Zadar and what I saw was quite interesting. Nicely grown walls, lots of colorful sponges, gorgonians - in general I'd say nice diving. As for fish I am mixed: there weren't so many, but I saw a HUUUUGE moray (1m maybe?) I didn't dare to approach Maybe it ate all the fish!

As for the dive centers, I see u are coming from the states: smoking can be a little disturbing in Croatia, to avoid it, it's better to sit on the bow, even though it is a bit shaky.

 

[ElChe]

From Orebic I wouldn't go anywhere. If it's the town in the Peljesac peninsula, it's neighboring the famous Korcula island where you can go easily by ferry. Lot of nice walls there, and you can dive several wrecks as well. Sadly I can't recommend any dive center but you'll find plenty in that area. The Istria is not more exciting- it's different, with a little bit worse visibility but there are more wrecks. And it's very far from Orebic, it would take 7-8 hours of driving! So I'd spend the holiday in the southern Dalmatian area, with some dives around Orebic and Korcula. The most famous wreck in the area is the S 57.
If you have more chance to visit another places, I'd prefer the other Dalmatian islands especially Vis, Brac or Hvar.

 

[ColinB]

Thanks for the advice. I'll focus on dive centers on Korcula. I'll be flying into Dubrovnik. Is it worht staying a day or 2 there for diving? Or stopping on the way to Korcula? Maybe in Zuljana or Ston?

Thanks again for your help,
Colin