Diving Holidays

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How to Pick Your Next Diving Holiday

Deciding where to go for your next diving holiday can be a little tricky these days. Should you take the easy route and enjoy something closer to home, only to be swamped by hundreds of others at the dive site or go long haul, escape the masses and go in search of the garden or eden – only to find the visibility is poor and the flight times overbearing.

Egypt has long been the first port of call for today's traveling diver, and why not? It's just a four hour flight, almost guarantees good, sunny weather and generally the visibility is unsurpassed by anywhere in the world. Combine that with colorful coral reefs and a wide diversity or marine life and you pretty much have the perfect ingredients for a diving holiday. Trouble is so many others have the same idea, even traveling through the deep south on safari boat now won't mean you'll get the dive sites to yourself.

Divers who want to experience solitude at the sites now must face up to the fact that things aren't as they were and in order to recreate those experiences of adventure, travel and discovery you are going to have to travel. Dive holidays in Asia have the potential to reignite these feelings, here's my top three locations to fulfill your needs of an all round great diving holiday.

1. Sulawesi – Located east of Borneo and north of Bali. Fly Singapore Airlines London to Manado (with a short stop in Singapore). Then just 1-2 hours from the airport and you can be diving on a spectacular wall, surrounded by one of the most diverse marine systems on earth. Beautiful.

1. Komodo – Fly London to Bali. Various airlines. Dive holidays in Komodo can be spectacular and not too difficult to organise. Catch a safari boat from either Sanur or Benoa in Bali. The boat will travel overnight then, after a quick early morning breakfast its diving time.

1. Pulau Weh, Sumatra. Just a short flight from Kuala Lumpur you‘ll find the island of Pulau Weh. Offering truly superb dive sites far from the crowds.

There's a huge amount of information on dive holidays in Indonesia, on the web, through articles written by journalists and on forums. These days it's not so difficult to get off the beaten track, it just takes a little more effort, and more often than not you'll be rewarded.

About the Author

I am owner and tour leader for adventure travel company Dive Safari Asia. We create and lead a variety of expedition style holidays across SE Asia's most remote and exciting marine locations. For photos, video footage, destination guides and details of our tours visit Diving Asia.

Essex School of Diving Holidays


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