Best Topside Experience Dive Destinations

The Maldives is synonymous with luxury diving, where overwater bungalows give way to channel dives teeming with grey reef sharks, eagle rays, and the archipelag...

Turks and Caicos delivers stunning wall diving along the Columbus Passage, where the continental shelf drops thousands of feet into the deep Atlantic. During wi...

The Cayman Islands offer a polished Caribbean diving experience with legendary sites like Stingray City — where you kneel on sand surrounded by friendly souther...

Monterey Bay is a mecca for macro photography and cold-water enthusiasts, offering dense kelp forests, flamboyant nudibranchs, and the chance to dive alongside...

Vis Island, Croatia's most remote inhabited island, was a military base closed to tourists until 1989, leaving its underwater world remarkably preserved. The Bl...

Stretching over 1,400 miles along Australia's northeast coast, the Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest coral reef system and one of its most iconic natur...

Silfra is unlike any dive on Earth — you float between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in glacial spring water filtered through lava rock for de...

The Galapagos Islands offer diving encounters found nowhere else on Earth — schools of 300+ scalloped hammerheads at Darwin and Wolf Islands, marine iguanas gra...

The Channel Islands off Southern California offer a diving experience unlike any tropical destination — towering kelp forests that filter golden light, playful...

The Azores sit in the middle of the Atlantic where volcanic seamounts create oases of life that attract blue sharks, makos, mantas, and even sperm whales. Blue...

Gozo punches far above its weight as a dive destination, offering the Mediterranean's finest underwater topography with dramatic caves, swim-throughs, and the i...

Fiji has earned the title 'Soft Coral Capital of the World' — its reefs explode in electric pinks, purples, and oranges that create some of diving's most photog...

Cozumel's reputation as the drift diving capital of the world is well earned — gentle-to-moderate currents carry divers effortlessly along spectacular walls and...

Zanzibar and neighboring Mafia Island offer an intoxicating blend of Swahili culture and Indian Ocean marine life, headlined by reliable whale shark encounters...

The Egyptian Red Sea is a pilgrimage for wreck divers, anchored by the legendary SS Thistlegorm — a WWII supply ship frozen in time at 100 feet with motorcycles...

Palau's underwater realm is a greatest-hits compilation of diving experiences: the legendary Blue Corner wall with its shark-filled currents, the ethereal Jelly...

Roatan sits on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef — the world's second largest — and delivers an astonishing value proposition: world-class wall diving at budget-fri...

Utila is the Bay Islands' budget option — $35 two-tank dives on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the world's second largest. From March to May and August to Octob...

Belize's barrier reef stretches 300km and includes three offshore atolls — Turneffe, Lighthouse, and Glover's — each offering distinct diving. The UNESCO World...

Saba rises from the sea as steeply below the surface as above — volcanic pinnacles covered in massive sponges and healthy corals plunge into deep blue. The Saba...

Dominica is the only country where sperm whales are resident year-round, and Champagne Reef — where volcanic gases bubble through the coral, creating a fizzing...

St. Lucia's diving happens beneath the dramatic twin Pitons — UNESCO volcanic spires that create a stunning above-water backdrop. The Soufriere Marine Managemen...

Tobago's Speyside coast is home to the world's largest recorded brain coral and regular manta ray encounters at cleaning stations — both rare finds for the Cari...

Little Cayman's Bloody Bay Wall is consistently rated the best wall dive in the Caribbean — and possibly the world. The wall starts at a mere 20ft and drops ver...

The Corn Islands are Nicaragua's Caribbean secret — a pair of islands with healthy reefs, warm water, and virtually no dive crowds. Big Corn and Little Corn off...