I’ve already made a post about my trip dream list, but I have so many scuba trips that I want to experience I thought I’d make a dive list. There are a lot of really awesome dive sites around the world, from sunken ships to barrier reefs filled with exotic fish to underwater museums. All of these can be found on https://www.padi.com/exploration with more information, details on how to book, and certified dive shops that you can book with. These are 5 of the best dives in the world:
1. Aqaba, Jordan
In 2019, Jordan unveiled the first underwater military museum available to diving tourists. Among those military items deliberately sunken, an act called scuttling, are various tanks, an ambulance, a military crane, a troop carrier, an anti-aircraft guns, and a combat helicopter donated by the Jordanian Royal Air Force. The Tristar Lockheed aircraft is a pretty cool diving spot at 15-27m. The whole museum has about half settled at 15-20m with 8 objects at that depth. The other half is at 20-28m. The museum allows for visitors to snorkel or ride in a glass-bottom boat as well, but obviously the scuba option is the most luxurious in my opinion.
As far as deliberately sunken artifacts for the creation of dive museums, Jordan’s site is pretty cool, but it’s not the only one. Also in 2019, Turkey scuttled a 59m long Airbus A330 off the coast of Edirne to promote tourists to take scuba trips there. Bahrain went even bigger, and scuttled a 70m long Boeing 747 to promote their underwater theme park.
The sunken museums do more than promote more tourism, they also promote higher-value tourism, with scuba diving tourists spending 4-5x the amount that regular tourists spend. These museums also act as artificial reefs, which promote marine life in areas that have generally featureless bottoms, and prevent erosion and block trawling nets.
2. Blue Hole, Belize
I spent a week in Belize getting my beginner scuba certificate (Shout out to Frenchie’s for being great). I dived in the Belize Barrier Reef, which is the second largest barrier reef in the world after Australia’s. Belize is also home to the famous Blue Hole, a giant hole off the coast that is 124m deep. I really wanted to dive there too, but I didn’t have time to get my advanced certificate to do it! Worth the trip though. The Belize Barrier Reef is beautiful and we saw some cool marine life. I was also able to fly over it and take some cool pictures, as you can see on the right.
The best time to dive is between March and June when the whale sharks arrive in Placencia. These whale sharks arrive around 2 days before the full moon until 10 days after. They can be seen by divers and snorkelers alike. Learn more here.
Here’s some more information on all you can do and see off the coast of Belize: https://www.padi.com/diving-in/belize/.
3. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
This was the first scuba dive I ever did, and how I got so interested taking scuba trips. At the time I didn’t have a PADI certificate, and I never really thought about scuba diving. But, we didn’t have anything else planned so we went for it!
I did a discovery dive, where you can dive with an instructor down to a maximum depth of 8-10m. Even though it was shallow, I was still able to see whitetip sharks and stingrays sleeping on the ocean floor! It was beautiful. The group that did the full real dive were able to see seahorse and hammerhead sharks! So cool! I definitely want to go back and experience that. The Galapagos Islands are generally a great place to visit anyway!
4. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
An obvious classic, this reef is off the coast of Queensland, Australia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can see a number of amazing marine life such a clownfish that look like Nemo in Finding Nemo, giant clams, maori wrasse which is definitely on my bucket list. There are also more common animals, like sharks, turtles, and whales. The best part is you can see a lot of these all in one dive!
December-February has great visibility and warmer water, while June-November pays off with minke/humpback whales and coral spawning.
5. MS Zenobia Wreck, Cyprus
Referred to as the Titanic of the Mediterranean, this dive site is said to be the best wreck dive site in the Mediterranean and is voted one of the top 10 best dives in the world. The water is so clear you can see the wreck even from the surface, so you can also enjoy it by snorkel or glass-bottomed boat.
The most interesting thing about the 172 meter long wreck is that there was never any investigation done on why the ballast tanks were pumping so much water into it, causing it to sink. There also wasn’t ever any insurance collected from the owners of the 100’s of millions of dollars worth of cargo. It all remains a mystery to this day.
The seabed is between 16 meters and 42 meters. The dive is off the coast of the Cyprus town of Larnaca, but even dive shops in Paphos on the other side of the island will organize tours. Divers need the advanced open water certification in order to dive this site. You can find more information in Atlas Obscura and this dive shop.
6. Red Sea, Egypt
The Red Sea that borders Egypt has centuries of shipwrecks, historic monuments, and abundant sea life which makes for great scuba trips. Best of all, it is the home of the sunken city of Heracleion, that is the site of such monuments as the Lighthouse of Alexandria and Cleopatra’s palace. You can also see hammerhead sharks at Marsa Alam, a resort town in Egypt. Advanced divers can dive the wreck of the Cypriot Lara, the Thistlegorm Wreck which sank in WWII. You can find more information in this blog.
