Whether you’re an avid diver or looking to get certified and play around on your next yacht charter, we wanted to share some of the best places to explore the wide world beneath you. Check them out below!
Cyprus, Mediterranean
This beautiful island offers the best diving in the Mediterranean, with warm waters right through until October and sensational visibility. Its real appeal for divers, however, is the magnificent shipwreck of the MS Zenobia, a football stadium-length ferry which sunk on its maiden voyage in 1980, taking its cargo of over 100 lorries to the seafloor. Today, divers can sit in the cabs of the trucks where they sit still tied to the deck and explore the narrow corridors of the ship’s interior, floating through rooms that still have thick carpet on the floors and glass in the windows. Other dive sites of note in Cyprus include the wonderful cave network in the northeast of the island which teems with octopus and cuttlefish and the reefs off the south coast.
The British Virgin Islands, Caribbean
The BVIs are one of the world’s great yacht charter destinations, for reasons that go far beyond the enchanting tropical scenery and classy resorts. Beneath the surface, this archipelago offers some sensational diving, the best-known of which is Wreck Alley, where four vessels were scuttled close to each other to create a diver’s paradise. Other highlights of BVI diving include the boulder field at Bronco Billy’s, the wreck of the RMS Rhone made famous by the movie The Deep, the vast Horseshoe Reef around Anegada, and Indians rock formation off Norman Island.
Belize, Caribbean
The Blue Hole dive site of Belize very regularly appears on the list of top 10 dive sites in the world, and this 300m deep sinkhole is home to some fabulous sea creatures, such as the Caribbean reef shark. However, that’s not all there is to diving in Belize, which has the second-largest barrier reef in the world after Australia. Ambergris Caye in particular is tipped to be even better than the Blue Hole for its astonishing array of sea life- although there’s something impressively eerie about that Blue Hole dive that you’ll remember until your dying day. Belize is a pristine environment tipped to soon become a yachting hotspot, so get there quick before the crowds.
The Maldives, Indian Ocean
A string of sugar-white atolls scattered far out in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives offers some of the best diving to be found on our glorious planet. A yacht charter is the ideal, (some say the only) way to do this glamorous archipelago justice, as you float from one astonishing coral reef to the next. Expect pods of whales, dolphins in vast numbers, hammerhead sharks circling in huge vortexes, and a collection of tropical fish and coral so dazzlingly colourful that your eyes simply won’t know where to look first. Highlights include the Baa Atoll, where you can see congregations of up to 150 manta rays flying through the water with consummate grace.
The Bahamas, Atlantic Ocean
The swirling shades of blue of the Bahamian sea are worth a yacht charter alone – the aquamarine and turquoise, the emerald, sapphire, and deep navy – all the colours of blue imaginable encircling the blinding white sands of the tropical Bahamas. However, it’s what’s under the surface that wins the Bahamas an entry on this list—and in particular, the sharks. The Bahamas are one of the great sites in the world for diving with sharks at night, with the bioluminescence lighting up the scene with almost heartbreaking beauty and the action of the sharks feeding and thrashing lending just a frisson of fear.
