The 10 Best Diving Spots In The World

Where are the best diving spots in the world? If you are a scuba lover, we are sure you have wondered in which places scuba diving is the best in the world. In this article, we reply this question.

To enjoy your scuba vacation, you are willing to travel hundreds of kilometers and discover the best place for scuba diving. It has beautiful underwater landscapes, fills your eyes with impressive marine life, and, above all, this diving place is perfect for living unique experiences. Anything else would be disappointing, wouldn’t it?

That is why we have compiled 10 of the best diving spots in the world for you. In the following lines, you will find:

• the best scuba diving among large pelagic,
• the best places to scuba dive on impressively colored coral reefs,
• the best diving in the world in wrecks submerged in crystal clear waters and,
• the best places to dive in rock formations so beautiful they look like a movie set.

Take a look at the table of contents

Best Caribbean Diving

1. Cozumel National Park (Mexico)

The Mexican Caribbean is an incredibly rich area, so it is not surprising that several of the best diving spots in the world are located within its waters. The best Mexico diving is in Cozumel. Not in vain, Cousteau considered it the best place to scuba dive and declared it many times.

Cozumel’s seabed is part of the Great Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, which is the second-largest barrier reef in the world. In this environment, the Cozumel National Park is the jewel in the crown. The Santa Rosa Wall, Punta Tunich, or Palancar are some of its best diving spots because of their reefs. You can learn more about the latter in the article Palancar Reef, A Paradise for Scuba Divers.

Deep walls dotted with caves and fissures, hundreds of species of coral, marine life everywhere, and wonders wherever you look, make these Cozumel reefs some of the best dive locations in the world.

As if that was not enough, among its natural treasures, there are endemic species like the splendid Cozumel toadfish, giant anemones, and fire coral.

To enjoy one of the best diving spots in the world, it is better to do it in good company.

Did you know that Dressel Divers Cozumel was chosen as the best dive center in all of Mexico by the readers of Dive magazine?

In addition, you can combine stay and diving packages. Dive it all, up to five dives a day, from the Iberostar Cozumel dive resort, that feels like a true small diver town.

2. Cenotes diving (Riviera Maya)

Some of the best diving spots in the world are not in the sea but in the middle of the Mexican rainforest. We are referring to the cenotes, which are hundreds of interconnected underground wells.

Divers and snorkelers can explore their fresh, and translucent water. Maybe you are wondering What makes cenotes some of the best places in the world to scuba dive? The answer is simple. Diving in a cenote is a magical experience.

When you go into their depths, you will enjoy scenes from another world, incredible lighting effects, including haloclines, which are the result of the union of water from freshwater rivers and salty seawater.

Another world’s best spot for diving in Riviera Maya

You can dive into the cenote all year around. However, this Yucatan area does not only offer cave and cavern diving.

Playa del Carmen, during the winter months, becomes another of the best diving spots in the world. It happens from November to March exactly. We are talking about the bull shark season. It is a dream come true for any diver looking for exciting underwater experiences.

3. Great Blue Hole (Belize)

What makes Belize’s Great Blue hole one of the best diving spots in the world is that this sink hole is the greatest in the world. The Blue hole is 300 m/ 984 ft wide and 123 m/ 403 ft deep. In the middle of turquoise waters, this dark blue circle looks like a portal to another dimension.

It is 100km/ 62 m away from the coast so, it is a really exclusive diving place because there are very few companies that offer Belize Blue hole diving.

There are few marine animals to see because there is not much water exchange and oxygen concentration there is low. The most remarkable thing is “the cathedral” an area full of stalactites and unique rock formations.

Best places to scuba dive in the Pacific Ocean

 4. Komodo National Park

This Park was declared a World Heritage Site more than 30 years ago. Also, it is fed by cold, nutrient-rich water currents flowing from the Pacific. What is the result of marine life being protected and well-fed? One of the best diving spots in the world.

With seamounts and colorful coral reefs, you can encounter giant jacks, Napoleon fish, turtles, barracudas, etc. The north area of Komodo National Park is one of the best diving spots in the world for shark diving. If you are a wreck lover, visit Rabaul, you will find ships and planes sunk in the Second World War. There is no wonder this is one of the best places in the world to scuba dive.

When to dive in Komodo

Although the water temperature can dip below 77ºF (25ºC), if you dive with a good wetsuit to keep warm you will be able to dive all year around.

5. Raja Ampat (Papua Nueva Guinea)

Another of the best dive sites in the world is Raja Ampat, also called Four Kings. It is in East Papua.

According to the experts, this location concentrates 75% of all the species of coral known up to this moment in the world, and as a consequence, the marine life there is abundant. The best places to dive are all about diversity and abundance. There you will be able to see manta rays, many different spices of sharks, Spanish mackerel, tuna, barracuda, huge schools of fish, and pretty much everything in between.

The best time of year to dive in Raja Ampat is from October to April.

6. Palau (Micronesia)

Palau is one of the places with the best diving in the world for many reasons, one of them is manta rays come there to mate from December to May, another one is the Palau’s Shark Sanctuary. Besides, among other species, you can see napoleon, and unicorn fish, several species of sharks, schools of barracudas, and tuna, luminous oysters, remains of aerial battles…

But if there is one magical place to dive in Palau, it is Jellyfish Lake. There are 10 million stingless jellyfish.

7. Tubbataha National Park (Philippines)

Tubbataha National Park has 1,000 km2, and UNESCO declared them a World Heritage Site in the early 1990s. As a result, you can only visit the park from early March to mid-June, and you will have to do it on a liveaboard cruise.

In these conditions, indeed, its seabed is exuberant. However, what makes Tubbataha one of the best places to scuba dive in the world is the large number of schools of fish that visit it In addition to the spectacle of hundreds of animals moving in unison, you will be able to enjoy the great predators, which are very attractive to them when they are searching for food.

Best scuba diving places in the Indian Ocean

8. Ras Mohamed National Park; Red Sea (Egypt)

The rich currents of the Red Sea make Ras Mohamed National Park one of the best diving spots in the world. Thanks to them, interactions with sharks are frequent, and schools of fish come there in summer to reproduce.

Did you know about 20% of the species are endemic there? On the other hand, in this national park, you will find immense coral gardens and dramatic walls full of gorgonians.  If you are a wreck fan, it will not let you down either.

9. The Thistlegorm, Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt)

The Thistlegorm was a British freighter sunk by Third Reich bombers on October 6, 1941, and is one of the most famous wrecks in the world.

The wreck sits upright on the seabed at 33m.

It is one of the best diving spots in the world because you not only dive in a boat but also swim among the motorcycles, trucks, and cars it was transporting to the North African campaign when it sank.

You can also see vintage boots, old hospital and radio equipment, and many other supplies.

One can dive through the wreck using the internal interconnecting doorways at a maximum depth of 25m.

10. Maaya Thila – South Ari Atoll, (Maldives)

Maaya Thila is protected as a Marine Reserve by the Maldivian government, which makes it one of the best scuba diving places in the Maldives Islands.

This dive site is an underwater island. Its diameter is a hundred meters wide. It has a shallow top reef going down vertically, the top of which is covered with vibrant coral reefs with regular marine life. This diving spot is famous for its stunning array of blue and purple soft corals.

Many divers prefer to dive at this site at night when many giant trevallies and some white tips sharks hunt. This site is accessible for beginners to expert divers all year round.

Maaya Thile is a very remarkable diving spot, but the Maldives its islands are full of diving destinations which are worth a visit.

You already know our selection with the 10 best dive sites in the world. Now, tell us which best places in the world to scuba dive are on your wish list?