Best Scuba Diving Locations in the World

Team Out of Town Blog Hub (Outoftownblog.com) – A thrilling water sport with exciting terrains all over the world, scuba diving features on most people’s bucket lists of things to try in their lifetime.

And if you’re looking for adventure, exercise, and communication with nature, these top scuba diving destinations deliver all of these, every time.

We put together this list of the best scuba diving destinations in the world, to inspire you to reach new heights, and depths, with this exhilarating underwater sport. So let’s dive into our top picks.

Barracuda Point, Malaysia

Barracuda Point on Sipadan Island is one of the top dive sites in the world. This is the only oceanic island that is part of Malaysia, located in the Celebes Sea, off the east coast of East Malaysia.

Explore living corals that formed over an ancient and extinct volcano, or the huge shoal of thousands of barracudas that give this dive site its name.

If you are a true adrenaline junkie and thrill-seeker, this reef is the perfect place for spotting and diving with Sharks.

Panglao Island, Philippines

The Municipality of Panglao in the province of Bohol, Philippines, is a great destination for diving with whale sharks. Several dive centers here cater to shark diving.

Don’t miss out on the beauty of this island town. It offers white beaches, crystal clear waters, marine biodiversity, and some of the most sought-after dive sites in the world. Panglao hosts an annual Dive Festival offering underwater photography contests and championship dives.

Key Largo, Florida Keys

The Florida Keys reef is about 4 miles wide and 170 miles long and is the third-largest natural reef system in the world. As Key Largo has the 2nd largest artificial reef in the world, it is a fantastic destination for snorkeling and scuba diving.

Boat rentals in Key Largo offer a wide selection of vessels, with or without a captain. This is the place for shallow dives, deep reef dives, wreck exploring dives, drift dives, and awesome night dives. The Hannah M. Bell and Acorn shipwrecks are located in fairly shallow water and easy to see.

Sixty miles south of Miami, Key Largo Scuba Diving offers some of the best scuba diving in the world. Wet suits are not always needed. Water temperatures at depth are usually well above 80 degrees.

Visibility varies from day to day and between dive sites. The average is 40ft, although visibility has been known to sometimes exceed 100 feet.

Negros Oriental, Philippines 

Dauin town, the scuba diving and resort capital of Negros Oriental Island is located on the southern end of this province of the Philippines. Dauin offers mostly muck dive sites and a few man-made reefs, like the San Miguel Tire Reef.

This unique dive site was an unintentional result of a huge pile of car tires that landed here. It created an artificial reef, which in time began to attract a wide variety of fish

Most of these dives are shallow, and you’ll be able to go 40+ minutes on a tank of standard air. Your dive will last longer on nitrox, though, so you may want to get it here if you don’t yet have nitrox certification.

Some dive sites here are located in protected marine areas. You might have to pay a separate permit fee, especially if you’re using an underwater camera. When budgeting your dives, ask whether the fee quoted includes any permits.

When you engage in muck dives in Dauin, keep your fins and body away from the bottom, as brushing the silt up from the seafloor here will blot out visibility.

Kailua Kona, Hawaii

Experience the ultimate underwater thrill of a lifetime, swimming with manta rays at Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii.

These gentle sea creatures are attracted to the plankton drawn in by underwater lights that have been placed on the ocean floor. Come see for yourself why the Kona Manta Ray Night Dive is one of the most popular water activities in Hawaii.

A night dive is quite a different experience compared to a dive in the daytime. If you are not accustomed to this type of diving, you may want to first take a crash course in night dives.

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Read:

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