ATOL & TTA protected · PADI 5★
Dive holidays, built by divers
Tailor-made diving holidays, liveaboards and group trips, ATOL protected and planned by working dive instructors.
Tell us where, when and what you want to dive. We will show you the trips we would put you on ourselves.
- ATOL & TTA protected
- PADI 5★ centre
- Award-winning
- UK dive travel experts
Booked, priced and running
Ready-to-go dive trips
Start here
Activities
Most divers book a trip because of one animal, one wreck or one skill. Pick the activities you are after and the list below rearranges itself around them.
14 trips match
Red Sea, Egypt
‘Best of the Red Sea’ liveaboard: Shark Week
Central Atolls, Maldives
Maldives ‘Shark and Rays week’ liveaboard
Malta & Gozo
‘Best of Malta and Gozo’ diving holiday
Micronesia
Truk Lagoon ‘Wrexpedition’ with Paul Toomer
Larnaca, Cyprus
Toomer's Tec Tours: Cyprus Tech Week
Red Sea, Egypt
Toomer's Tec Tours: Red Sea liveaboard
Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Raja Ampat liveaboard
Bahamas
Bahamas tiger and great hammerhead shark diving
Iceland
Silfra, whale watching and northern lights, Iceland
Galapagos, Ecuador
Galapagos diving holiday
Lembeh Strait, Indonesia
Lembeh Resort, Indonesia
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
Camel Dive Resort, Sharm el Sheikh
Paphos, Cyprus
Paphos, Cyprus
Central Atolls, Maldives
Spirit of Maldives liveaboard
Nothing matches that combination yet
Clear a filter or two and the list will refill. We also build trips that are not on this page, so tell us what you are after and we will price it.
These fourteen trips are live now, priced from our own contracts rather than a search engine. Our Red Sea diving holidays sell out first, usually by the spring before departure, so November dates are worth holding early.
Anything here can be rebuilt around you. Our coral reef holidays are the easiest to extend with extra nights, and we will price a longer stay in the same email.
Sharks are the reason most of our regulars rebook. Our shark diving holidays run to the Red Sea offshore reefs, the Bahamas and Galapagos, and we brief every group properly before anyone gets in the water.
Wreck divers get the better end of the deal from October onwards. Our wreck diving trips cover Truk Lagoon, the Zenobia in Cyprus and the Um el Faroud in Malta, wrecks our instructors know well enough to brief dive by dive.
Overhead environments we keep to small groups with two guides. Cave and cavern diving in Malta and Gozo suits confident Open Water divers with tidy buoyancy, and it is the best introduction to the overhead we know in Europe.
Technical divers have their own series. Toomer's Tec Tours run with twin set, sidemount and CCR support, led by Paul Toomer, and training can be added on the trip.
Four questions, three trips
Dive matchmaker
Answer four questions and we will show you the three trips we would actually put you on. It is the same shortlist our team builds by hand when you ring us, only faster.
Be honest about your logbook, because it changes the answer. Our Maldives diving holidays split hard between gentle atoll reefs and fast channel drifts, and the wrong boat can ruin a good week.
Season matters just as much as skill. If you are chasing whale shark encounters, pick big animals and leave your months flexible, because the aggregations move year to year.
The matchmaker needs JavaScript. Every trip it would recommend is listed above with its dates, price, level and a link through to the full itinerary.
Before you fly
Your kit, sorted
Every Oyster holiday comes with a personal kit list written by the instructor running your trip, so you take what the diving actually needs. Rent from us or buy from our dive shop, and we will service and test it before you fly.
We pack for these destinations ourselves, which is why the lists are short. A 3mm shorty is plenty in Sharm in July, and nobody needs two torches in the Maldives.
Example offer for prototype: book a holiday, get 10% off your kit list.
Tropical kit bundle
3mm suit, travel fins, mask and a compact torch for the overhangs.
Drysuit and cold-water kit
Drysuit, undersuit, dry gloves and a sealed regulator set for Silfra.
Travel BCD and reg package
Under 5kg on the scales, so your baggage allowance goes on camera gear.
Why divers stay with us
Why divers book with us
Planned by divers, not a call centre
Our instructors run the group trips, and much of what we sell we have dived ourselves, so the advice is first-hand where it counts. Paul Toomer leads the technical expeditions and Dr Elke Bojanowski, the marine biologist known as the Shark Lady, hosts our Red Sea shark week.
Your money is protected
Every flight inclusive holiday we sell carries ATOL and TTA protection, so your payments are covered from deposit to departure. We are a PADI 5 star centre based in the UK, and you talk to the same person from your first email to your final invoice.
Join a group or go tailor-made
Our Oyster group holidays come out of the dive club, plenty of divers join solo, and nobody is left on the boat without a buddy. If you would rather set your own dates, we build tailor-made itineraries around you instead.
Asked before every booking
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Red Sea liveaboard cost from the UK?
A week on a good Red Sea liveaboard costs between £1,600 and £2,100 per person from the UK, including flights, transfers, full board and around 17 dives. Our November Shark Week on Scuba Scene is £1,950 per person. Nitrox, marine park fees and crew tips are the usual extras, and we put those in writing before you pay a deposit.
What qualification do I need for a Maldives liveaboard?
Advanced Open Water with roughly 30 to 35 logged dives is the realistic minimum for a Maldives liveaboard on the shark and manta itineraries, because the channel dives are current driven. Boats running the gentle central atoll reefs will take Open Water divers with around 20 dives. If you are close but not quite there, we can add the Advanced course on board.
Are Oyster Diving holidays ATOL protected?
Yes. Every flight inclusive holiday we sell is ATOL protected, and we hold TTA membership covering the trips that do not include flights. Your payments are protected if anything happens to us or to a supplier before you travel, and your ATOL certificate is issued the moment your booking is confirmed.
When is the best time to dive with hammerheads in the Red Sea?
October and November are the best months for hammerheads in the Red Sea, when the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone all sit on the same itinerary. The Brothers in November is the best hammerhead diving we know in Egypt. Water sits around 26C, the boats push further offshore, and the schooling peaks before the winter winds arrive.
Can beginners join an Oyster Diving group holiday?
Yes, several of our group holidays are built for newly qualified divers. Camel Dive Club in Sharm el Sheikh, Paphos in Cyprus and Lembeh in Indonesia all suit Open Water divers with fewer than 20 dives, and an Oyster instructor travels with the group. Liveaboards to the Brothers or the Maldives channels are not the place to start.
Tell us what you want to see. We will build the trip.
Send us the animal, the month and your logbook. We will come back with two or three options, honest about what each one gives you and what it costs.