Top 5 Summer & Winter Scuba Diving Destinations
Top 5 Summer Destinations
1. Mexico, Cozumel
Ranked no.1 by PADI as dive destination and featuring on almost every diver’s must-dive destination list, the island of Cozumel off the Mayan Coast of Mexico is a feast for any divers eye. Famous for its drift diving, Cozumel is a lazy diver’s paradise with currents that range from gentle 1/2 knots near some dive sites to fast, strong currents only for experienced and adventurous drift divers. The island is a mere 28 miles / 45 kilometers wide and is surrounded by gorgeous reefs and pristine clear waters. Cozumel is actually a conglomeration of many different coral formations and personalities, as a series of separate reefs make up the over 20 highly popular crying areas of Cozumel, including a labyrinth of tunnels, dramatic swim through canyons lying amidst the towering coral plateaus teeming with marine life
2. Netherlands Antilles, Bonaire
Bonaire of the Dutch Antilles located in the southern Caribbean near Aruba is world renowned for its excellent scuba diving and is consistently rated among the best diving and locations in the world. The island itself is actually the peak of submerged mountains, so deep sloping reefs surround most of the spectacular coral within a few hundred yards. The Bonaire Marine Park protect the environment from the high water mark to a depth of 200 feet maintaining this reef’s integrity
Rated by many publications as the best place to dive in the Caribbean, the Grand Cayman is a part of the Cayman Island and is also ranked 3rd on PADI network’s list of favorite scuba destinations. Diving conditions in the Cayman is second to none, with its astonishing clear underwater visibility usually ranking from 150′ to 200′. It’s renewed primarily for their abundant wall and wreck diving sites. This world class dive destination has sites such as the Strawberry sponge wall, snapper reef and the MV Capt. It’s quite popular for non-divers sites too like Stingray City, where you can float through shallow waters and come face-to-face with strigrays the size of table tops
At the mention Belize scuba diving and as a diving destination everyone talks about the Blue hole diving, but there’s a lot more to this diving hotspot than just that. The barrier reef around Belize is 185 meandering miles (298 km) of unspoiled beauty. It varies from 8 to 16 miles (13-26 km) from the mainland to less than one mile (1.6 km) offshore from Ambergris Caye. Belize even has three atolls with more than 160 miles of walls and reefs suitable for diving. With divers flocking to the blue hole’s Lighthouse reef, the rest are secluded unspoiled and untouched, a far cry from the major dive centres and other popular marine life destinations of the Caribbean
5. Malaysia, Sipadan
Sipadan Island, off the coast of Sabah, Malaysia is simply unbeatable in its beauty and wealth of marine life that inhabit this coral island, formed by living coral to growing to top of an extinct volcanic come in the heart of the indo-pacific basin. The island itself is a pinnacle rising from 600 metres from the seabed in the Celebes Sea. Home to some of the best dive sites in the world, Sipadan is most renowned for Barracuda Point
Top 5 Winter Destinations
1. Malaysia, Sipadan Island, Barracuda Point
Barracuda Point can be an intimidating experience. Fish stream along like traffic here, as if the street of New Delhi have descended underwater. During these chaotic scenes, you may find yourself in the centre of a giant barracuda tornado, while hammerhead sharks and flapping rays nonchalantly cruise past
2. Australia, Queensland, Yongala
Considered the best wreck dive on the planet, the century-old SS Yougala shipwreck is an impressive 110 metres in size and sank after a tropical cyclone in 1911 with 124 passengers on board. The eerie wreck was found in the 1950s and is not surrounded by history, but also two-metre giant groupers, trevallies, manta and eagle ray, plus rare bull, tiger and leopard sharks
3. Egypt, Rea Sea, SS Thistlegorm
This is the most popular wreck dive in the world. The SS Thistlegorm was a 128-meter-long British transport ship, which was attacked and sunk 1941 on its way from Glasgow to Alexandria. The ship was carrying a variety of rifles, motorbikes and trucks, plus armored cars, trailers, vehicle parts, radios and rubber boots. All  of this sits at the bottom of the ocean, including the ship itself complete with the large hold where the German bomb hit
4. Micronesia, Palau, Blue Corner Wall
Reef sharks will hover above you as a school of big eye jacks work their way through the strong current. Below you’ll find a canyon, with a canyon, with a good change you’ll see spotted eagle rays, huge tuna, snapper, wrasse and pass and even hawks bill and green turtles too
5. Thailand, Surin Island, Richelieu Rock
There is nothing quite as exhilarating as swimming next to a whale shark. Sightings in this spot are so regular the locals have called it a “Whale magnet”. Even if you don’t see a whale shark you’ll spot myriad pelagic schools of giant trevallies and dog-tooth tuna
Â