Those who don’t scuba dive are getting only one angle on all of the planet’s best views. The world simply appears different down in the quiet of the deep—and through the underwater looking glass of a scuba mask. With more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface covered by water, the best places in the world to go scuba diving are as varied and interesting as any topside wildlife or nature attraction.
Here are 13 of the very best, from Fiji’s storied Rainbow Reef and the current-washed passes of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia to the many sun-dappled coral reefs and shipwrecks closer to home in the Florida Keys. Dive in for inspiration, and then dive down in these places for the best scuba diving adventures in the world.
1. Tuamotu Archipelago (aka Tuamotu Islands), French Polynesia
For scuba divers, a trip to Tahiti is best spent going through as many tanks as they can in the atoll passes of the Tuamotu Archipelago. On the incoming tide at Rangiroa’s famed Tiputa Pass, on the atoll’s northwest side, the visibility turns clear and illuminates a spectacle of schooling fish that might include unicorn fish and pompano, as well as surprise appearances by the atoll’s resident dolphins (they often play with divers underwater). Rangiroa Diving Center makes the short boat trip to Tiputa Pass daily.
For exploration farther afield on Rangiroa, family-run eco-outfitter Tereva Tane e Vahine whisks travelers 16 miles south across the lagoon to the Blue Lagoon for daylong trips that include lunch, snorkeling with lemon sharks, and isolated sandbar strolls.
Also in the Tuamotus, Fakarava’s south pass, Tetamanu, is famed for its wall of hundreds of gray reef sharks, while the north pass, Garuae, houses thousands of fish within Ali Baba Canyon. Elsewhere in Tahiti, dive with blacktip reef sharks around Moorea and the main island of Tahiti, or snorkel with humpback whales in those waters and around Bora Bora, too, from around August to early October. Mobydick Tahiti has onboard acoustic systems that let you listen to humpback songs underwater before diving in.
Tobago is home to the world’s largest brain coral and an underwater wreck.
Photo By Aline Doodn/Unsplash
2. Tobago
Trinidad’s beachier and wilder sister island, Tobago is a favorite among scuba divers. Nutrients from the Orinoco Delta make Tobago’s waters particularly enticing to the abundant marine life lured here and helps the island’s barrel sponges grow especially huge, too. Visitors can even get the ultimate underwater photo stretching their arms and legs out in a superman pose while practicing their neutral buoyancy above the world’s largest brain coral (16 feet in diameter), in the waters off Speyside, with Tobago Dive Experience.
Closer to the airport in the island’s south, base at Coco Reef Resort & Spa, Tobago’s grande dame oceanfront resort. The on-site dive shop, Undersea Tobago, runs daily trips to dive nearshore reefs as well as the wreck of the Maverick, a former passenger ferry sunk in 100 feet of water that’s now home to free-swimming eels and octopuses.
Scuba dive closer to home around the Revillagigedo Islands below the tip of Cabo San Lucas west of mainland Mexico.
Photo by Leonardo Gonzalez/Shutterstock
3. Socorro and Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico
“If you dream of magical manta encounters and being surrounded by schools of hammerheads while being buzzed by an orca, then the Revillagigedo Islands are perfect for you,” says Julie Andersen, senior director of global brand and media for PADI. For experienced divers, high-adrenaline diving awaits in these remote volcanic islands that can be reached only by liveaboards (where you sleep on a boat that’s your dive platform) that venture some 285 miles south off the tip of Cabo San Lucas on trips that range from 5 to 17 nights.
November to May is the best season to dive at this spot. January into April is especially so, as this is when humpback whales are often seen migrating through the waters of the Revillagigedo Islands. Take part in citizen scientist expeditions aboard the 16-passenger Quino el Guardian, a former research vessel that’s among many dive liveaboards—including those from equally recommended Nautilus Adventures—cruising this incredible place.
The UNESCO-protected Raja Ampat Islands is home to three quarters of the world’s coral species.
Photo By Public_P/Shutterstock
4. Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Pretty much at the bull’s-eye of the marine world’s biodiversity in the Coral Triangle, where the Indian and Pacific oceans meet, Raja Ampat lies in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua. The UNESCO World Heritage–listed destination composed of roughly 1,500 islands is a far-flung place many experienced divers dream of visiting at least once in their lives.
Its waters are home to roughly 75 percent of the world’s coral species and over 1,500 different species of fish. Simply put, the views in Raja Ampat are the stuff of dive dreams—pristine pastures of corals, manta ray encounters, and schools of tropical fish so thick they nearly block out the sun.
Base on land in a local village at Meridian Adventure, which won PADI’s Green Star award for its environmental efforts, or at the inimitable Misool Eco Resort with its on-site conservation center. Aqua Expeditions offers luxury sailings through Raja Ampat aboard the Aqua Blu from December to February. And experienced liveaboard divers love the high-end Indonesian vessels operated by Dive Damai for a boutique floating dive base.
PADI praises the Galapagos Islands for their great visibility and “whimsical geological formations”.
Photo By Somphob Boonlaim/Shutterstock
5. Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
The Galápagos Islands, a storied destination for nature lovers, has so much more to offer when experienced as a certified scuba diver. Andersen says to bring the whole family here—dive sites promise something for beginner and advanced divers alike. For the latter group, she says, channels around the islands work like pelagic highways, attracting more than 3,000 different marine species.
Plan to dive by liveaboard boats to visit the most legendary sites, including Darwin’s Arch. “It’s a paradise for any diver, with hundreds of hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, eagle rays, dolphins, Galapagos sharks,” says Jenny Waack, founder of Galapagos Shark Diving, which leads shark conservation dives in the Galápagos. “I once finished a safety stop there with a group of dolphins and boobies staring down from the surface.”
Ecuadoran company Ecoventura’s 16-passenger Galapagos Sky offers expedition cruising and dive trips year-round to Wolf and Darwin islands, as well as other sites known to attract mantas, eagle rays, and whale sharks. GalAgents Galapagos Cruises also has one of the best fleets of dive boats in the Galápagos, with day cruises, liveaboard yachts, and catamarans to choose from.
Several small ship expeditions will show you the best of the Azores islands’ underwater beauty.
Photo By Hanneke Wetzer/Shutterstock
6. Azores
“A reformed hunting ground for sperm whales is now known for their abundance,” says Andersen about the Azores islands, another hot spot for intrepid scuba diving, where conservation efforts have led to the protection and rebound of the deep-diving cetaceans. This autonomous region of Portugal, located roughly 1,000 miles off the mainland in the mid-Atlantic, is known for clear waters surrounding nine volcanic islands. And, while it’s rare to see sperm whales while diving, there are plenty of other highlights.
“The region’s location at the meeting point of warm and cold ocean currents creates a unique ecosystem,” says Arlindo Serrão of Portugal Dive, which works with local operators to showcase the best underwater views around islands like São Miguel, Pico, and Faial. Book a berth aboard the eight-passenger Water and Wind catamaran and sail to Azores dive sites, including Princess Alice Bank, where huge schools of jack, tuna, and barracuda cloud the seamount. For land-based diving, Haliotis Diving Center operates guided boat trips from Santa Maria. Once you get hooked on diving Portugal’s islands here, consider making Madeira and Porto Santo’s great wreck diving your next Portuguese offshore stop.
The waters around Poor Knights Island have been praised by none other than Jacques Cousteau.
Photo By Guy Cowdry/Shutterstock
7. Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand
Off the coast of the North Island, the Poor Knights Islands (Tawhiti Rahi in Māori), now a marine reserve, are volcanic remnants of part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The waters here drew praise from Jacques Cousteau as one of the world’s best diving destinations. The islands became a marine protected area (MPA) in 1981 and have been considered a major success story since, thanks to the completely regenerated marine ecosystem where cold- and warm-water animals live together.
Bathed by subtropical currents, the waters here harbor abundant kelp forests and interesting tropical fish not usually found this far south, including mosaic eels, red-banded shrimp, and Lord Howe coralfish. The most breathtaking sight, however, might be the schooling blue and pink fish at Blue Maomao Arch that flood the sightline alongside clouds of kingfish, snapper, and other species.
The area is a “no-take” zone where fishing, mining, extraction, and other interference are prohibited. The best operator to dive with is Dive! Tutukaka, which is New Zealand’s first PADI Adaptive Service Facility and works to make the sport more accessible to everyone. The shop also mentors and trains locals living in the area to be guides and guardians of their backyard coastline, helping to instill in everyone the economic value of keeping the Poor Knights Islands protected as an MPA. Stay nearby in a quiet valley at Lodge 9, a boutique dive lodge with a cedarwood sauna and upcycled decor elements made from marine debris.
8. Fiji
Slip on a mask and roll off a dive boat in Fiji, and some of the world’s most colorful and bountiful soft corals await. The waters here are home to 42 percent of the world’s coral species, according to the Coral Reef Alliance.
To see the underwater colors and corals at their most mind-blowing, make for the aptly named Rainbow Reef, which runs between the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni in the Somosomo Strait. For daily two-tank dives on the reef, base at Paradise Taveuni or Fiji’s first PADI Eco Center, Sau Bay Resort & Spa, where mangrove and coral planting and village beach cleanups can be incorporated into your stay. Migrating humpback whales are often seen in these waters between June and October. And PADI and Fiji launched an initiative called “Bula Blue” to increase conservation efforts in this storied part of the South Pacific.
Off Viti Levu’s southern coast, in Beqa Lagoon, divers marvel at the sight of tiger sharks, nurse sharks, bull sharks, lemons, and more. “What makes this dive site even more magical is that the massive shark gatherings will take place among the vibrant hues of healthy coral,” Andersen says. Coral reefs to visit include the Great Astrolabe Reef around Kadavu Island and Namena Marine Reserve, between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, the country’s largest no-take reef.
Elsewhere in Fiji, pair topside relaxing and diving with a stay at an eco-minded property like Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort, Six Senses Fiji, or Vomo Island, all of which run coral restoration programs and have resident marine biologists to help with deeper diver education, including youth programs.
Goliath grouper fish (pictured) can be spotted on a dive at the Florida Keys.
Photo By DNADiving/Shutterstock
9. Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are the ultimate underwater smorgasbord. Here, divers can knock off their very first open-water ocean dive after getting certified as easily as they can go for an advanced certification (perhaps testing their tech diving skills in the bowels of a wreck).
Part of the third-largest living coral barrier reef system in the world, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is home to 6,000 animal species, many of which swim above spur-and-groove reefs (corals separated by channels of sand) that rarely dip below the 45-foot mark.
Wreck divers delight in descending into the rusty world of the many wrecks sunken in these waters, both on purpose and in storms. Dive nine of them on a road trip through the Florida Keys along the Florida Keys Wreck Trek, starting with the 510-foot-long Spiegel Grove, a former U.S. Navy landing ship covered with corals and teeming with fish life that was sunk off Key Largo in 2002 to form an artificial reef.
Consider giving back to the area by volunteering with the Coral Restoration Foundation for projects that might involve outplanting corals onto the reef or building coral trees on land (the latter doesn’t even require dive certification).
Palau’s Jellyfish Lake has been threatened in recent years by climate change and overtourism.
Photo By frantisekhojdysz/Shutterstock
10. Palau, Micronesia
Snorkelers know Palau mostly for its famous Jellyfish Lake, which has suffered from the effects of over-tourism and climate change and where the jellyfish haven’t been appearing in the same numbers as yesteryear. For scuba divers, heading underwater offshore in these remote waters of Micronesia roughly 800 miles southwest of Guam is the ultimate thrill, with wall and drift dives being the runaway highlight (usually served up with massive schools of fish and scores of sharks, too).
The currents can move so swiftly at famous Palau dive sites, like Blue Corner, that divers need to use a reef hook to attach to a dead part of the reef just to stay put to enjoy the show. The spectacle that unfolds can be likened to an underwater wildebeest migration—where the wildebeest are tropical fish and the predators are sharks.
German Channel is a famed site for reliable manta sightings, and Ulong Channel has gorgeous walls of lettuce corals lining a sandy channel and a conveyor belt of marine life passing through. Long-standing operators that have Palau’s waters wired for diving include Sam’s Tours and Fish ‘n Fins. For more serious divers looking to complete as many as four or five dives a day, liveaboard options include the Palau Siren, the Palau Aggressor II, and the Ocean Hunter, which has two onboard jacuzzis. In October 2023, the 11-cabin Four Seasons Explorer, Palau catamaran moved to these waters after several years in the Maldives, so travelers now have a floating five-star base for diving, snorkeling, and paddling the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Rock Islands Southern Lagoon.
Celestia sails to Komodo National Park, Raja Ampat, and other destinations in Indonesia’s Coral Triangle.
Photo courtesy of Celestia
11. Komodo, Indonesia
Most travelers equate Komodo in the Indonesian archipelago with its fierce dragons, the world’s largest living lizards. You can visit them in your downtime between dives if you base yourself on land and head out with one of the many dive shops in Labuan Bajo like Blue Marlin Dive. Alternatively—and an excellent option if you’re traveling with non-divers, too—consider exploring the region by ship aboard the 7-cabin, custom-designed phinisi, Celestia, which launched in 2023. The Indonesian-owned and operated luxury schooner offers daily massages, private island-hopping, beach dinners, and snorkeling in addition to diving in the waters around UNESCO World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park, famed for its drift dives. At the site called The Shotgun, advanced divers ride currents past colorful reefs through a ripping channel shimmering with schooling fish, perhaps spotting sharks and manta rays along the way. There are solid dive sites in calmer waters for beginners here, too, including Sabolan Besar and Sabolan Kecil, where giant sea fans sway and you might spot sea turtles and cuttlefish. Opt for a comfortable base if you’re planning to stay on land like luxury resort AYANA Komodo Waecicu Beach or recently opened Marriott property, Ta’aktana, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Labuan Bajo.
Swim close (but not too close) to manta rays, whale sharks, and turtles on a trip to the Maldives.
Photo By SennaRelax/Shutterstock
12. Maldives
This low-lying archipelago renowned for its white sandy beaches and overwater bungalows needs no introduction to the honeymooning set. But for scuba divers, the Maldives is so much more than gourmet meals and spa sessions on repeat. The pristine reefs here are home to an abundance of marine life and endless “underwater cleaning stations” (pinnacles that draw large fish to have their gills, teeth, and carapaces cleaned by smaller ones) that attract resident manta rays, whale sharks, and turtles on the regular. The large UNESCO-listed lagoon called Baa Atoll attracts reef manta rays in large numbers and is one of scuba diving’s most epic experiences.
Many Maldivian resorts are taking the lead with conservation efforts. One to set your sights on is the PADI Eco Center Six Senses Laamu. The resort spearheaded the Maldives Underwater Initiative with a goal of identifying, surveying, and protecting more than 670 resident sea turtles and over 138 manta rays that call the coastlines here home. Additionally, Laamu Atoll has been named a Mission Blue Hope Spot for being at the intersection of marine conservation and economic development initiatives. Many of the resort’s PADI professionals and marine biologists are Maldivian locals who were trained through scholarship opportunities at the resort.
Egypt is a great place to travelers to practice regenerative diving, where their visits leave the dive sites better than before.
Photo By Jay Clue
13. Marsa Alam, Egypt
Regenerative-minded diving figures big in one of North Africa’s favorite diving destinations, Marsa Alam. Located on the western edge of the Red Sea in southern Egypt, the region’s dive tourism largely benefits the local communities here. All divers are encouraged to take part in a Dive Against Debris when they head out with PADI Eco Center Red Sea Diving Safari. The eco-conscious operator in business here since 1990 has three locations in Marsa Alam, including the village of Marsa Shagra, where access to the “house reef” just in front of the dive resort is controlled as one of many conservation efforts.
Colorful reef and drift dives are the lure in the waters around Marsa Alam, where more than 60 spectacular dive sites are a siren call to (wet)suit up. Elphinstone Reef consistently ranks among the world’s best dive sites thanks to its abundance of healthy soft corals (a favorite among underwater photographers) and frequent shark sightings, include the chance to see everything from thresher sharks to scalloped hammerheads.
