The surface of planet earth is more than 70% water, which provides a lot of places to explore. And yet there is less than 1% of the population that scuba dive and only about 2.5% that snorkel. (Source: 2022 Diving Fast Facts, Diving Equipment and Marketing Association)
I consider myself fortunate to be part of this small community exploring the underwater world. However, the oceans are vast and there is always more to see and experience.
More than 80 percent of the ocean has never been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans.
National Geographic
I have dived the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans; the Andaman, Caribbean, Mediterranean, and South China seas; the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of California, and the Gulf of Thailand; and the three largest reef systems, the Great Barrier, the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef, and the Florida Reef. From my dive travels, these are my top dive destinations.
However, there are bucket list places, I have not yet been to and I feel that needs to be noted, including the Galapagos, Cocos Island, The Red Sea, Komodo, Tubbataha, and many more. To non-divers, many of these places are probably unfamiliar. But divers may say, how can you put together a list of your top destinations when you haven’t been to these places!
I am still diving and exploring our vast underwater world, so this list will continue to evolve. Every dive destination is unique and the life beneath it is ever-changing, and anywhere I can blow bubbles is a wondrous place.
The Coral Triangle
The Coral Triangle is where the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet and includes Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This is where the most diverse marine life can be found.
My favorite types of dives are warm water, coral reef dives where I can find lots of little and unique critters – macro diving as we call it because we need a macro lens to capture photos. So it’s no wonder that two of my top five dive destinations are in the Coral Triangle.
Raja Ampat
Raja Ampat in Indonesia is one of the most remote and hardest places to get to, and at the time I was traveling from neighboring Singapore. The journey, which included multiple flights, getting stuck in Makassar for the night, and a 2-hour boat ride from Sorong to the resort, was well worth it.
In Raja Ampat, there are both land-based and liveaboard options. There are many advantages of liveaboards, including getting to sites that are more remote and inaccessible. However, I prefer land-based resort accommodations whenever that is an option without sacrificing too much on the accessible dive sites. It was also a good thing we chose Sorido Bay Resort because we arrived a day later than planned and the boats don’t wait.
The resort has a famous house reef, Cape Kri, with the largest number of species counted on a single dive, including wobbegongs and the elusive mandarin fish. If you go for a dusk dive, you can find the mandarin fish in a beautiful mating dance.
The daily boat diving was remarkably diverse and easily accessible from the resort. On one dive, it’s swimming with reef mantas and if lucky, oceanic mantas. The next dive, we are searching in critter heaven for anemone fish, pygmy seahorses, nudibranch, tiny shrimp, and ghost pipefish.
The most memorable dive was a channel dive between Waigeo and Gam islands called The Passage. It’s a shallow (max 18-20 ft) current dive and resembles diving in a winding river. There are plenty of places to tuck into to take a closer look at the macro marine life. The topside scenery in this area is stunning with rocks jetting out from pristine blue waters.
Wakatobi
Wakatobi is a dream dive destination, and Wakatobi Dive Resort is superb. To get there, there is a private charter flight that departs from Bali a couple of times a week. If you want a liveaboard, there is a luxury yacht, the Pelagian. We took a tour of the yacht and would happily return to dive from it.
This is a dive destination that boasts the most coral reef biodiversity found in the world. And as a diver, you will be spoiled by the pristine diving, the marine life you encounter, and the attentive service. This is the epitome of luxury, resort diving.
The Pacific Ocean
The three dive destinations that round out my top five are in the Pacific Ocean. Being the largest ocean, there are lots of places in the Pacific to explore underwater.
Rainbow Reef in Fiji
The Rainbow Reef is located in the Somosomo Strait near the island of Taveuni. Fiji is known as the “soft coral capital of the world” and was so-named by Jean-Michel Cousteau.
The Rainbow Reef, as you can imagine has some of the most vibrant and colorful reefs I have ever seen. One of the most famous dives here is the Great White Wall. This dive needs to be timed with the tides and the currents. But if you get it right, it’s a white blooming coral as far as the eye can see, it’s snow underwater.
Because of the colorful coral reefs, there is a healthy marine ecosystem, with sharks and turtles, multitude of reef fish, variety of eels, octopuses, and nudibranchs.
Garden Island Resort provides wonderful accommodations closest to the Rainbow Reef. A short 15-minute boat ride will get you to spectacular dive sites on the reef.
Palau
Palau is known for its rock islands, which are as beautiful on the surface as it is under the surface.
Because of these islands, the diving in Palau is primarily walls, drop-offs, holes, caverns, and channels. The currents can get a bit tricky. The German Channel, created when Palau was a German colony, is a hot spot for oceanic mantas.
Palau has some of the most memorable dive sites. Peleliu Cut/Corner, where the Philippine Sea meets the Pacific, creates currents that attract an abundance of sharks. Chandelier Caves with four chambers that you can pop out of the water to take a look around. Also, not exactly a dive site, as you swim/snorkel, Jellyfish Lake is truly unique being the only place in the world where you can swim with jellies without getting stung.
We stayed at Palau Royal Resort and dived with Fish ‘n Fins. There are liveaboard options, which arrive at the dive sites before anyone else, but we were able to get to the top dive sites from a land-based resort.
Rangiroa
Rangiroa is the largest atoll in French Polynesia, where there are barely strips of sand remaining for accommodation to stay in while diving in this wild place.
The dives here are in the pass and the lagoon, and it’s known for large pelagic encounters with dolphins, reef sharks, silvertip sharks, and huge schools of barracuda.
The dives in the pass are timed perfectly with the incoming tides. Otherwise, you may be swept into the Pacific Ocean. The most memorable dive here was a wild current dive in the Tiputa Pass going close to two knots on a roller coaster ride into the lagoon. I didn’t see a thing going that fast, but it was fun.
This dive trip was part of our honeymoon, so while diving we stayed at the Hotel Kia Resort and Spa and dived with Six Passengers. Then we ventured to a private island, Motu Teta, for a few more days. If you have the time, it is worth the visit.
