10 Breathtaking Diving Spots (PHOTOS)

While we hike and walk and explore every mountain, forest and shore of our beautiful planet, there is a vast and mysterious world covering three quarters of the earth that we still know little about - the oceans.

Full of glittering fish, colorful corals, menacing sharks, and hundreds of strange, beautiful creatures that seem have come out of some fantastical dream, these 10 scuba diving and snorkeling spots around the world will leave you breathless.

 

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Similan Islands, Thailand

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Spot

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Hm. Gorgeous!

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Comments

[OneSweetGay]

06:47 PM on 11/16/2010

Sometimes I think the travel section makes up its lists by asking the question "What lists can we fit the Galapagos Islands into?

[hidesert47]

09:09 AM on 11/15/2010

Got certified at age fifty-six, and I've made a good dent in that list. I figure i have a couple of good decades left in me ... if the dives are still there.

[Amalek]

04:27 AM on 11/15/2010

I have done five of those in my life.  Gave up diving at 50 though, too hard on an old mans body.

[mekongkayak]

10:40 PM on 11/12/2010

Thanks!
Now more people will visit and more dwindling habitat will be "loved to death"....Unless you ride a bike to work and avoid McD's-type food (that's the MINIMUM), PLEASE STAY HOME..You have not earned the right to visit. Please change your habits.
Flame away....

[eric14]

11:12 AM on 11/14/2010

I promise not to go down the Mekong on a kayak.

[Somali]

09:23 PM on 11/12/2010

I have to go to one of these spots in the next 6 months. I am thinking of Similan Islands, Thailand, any suggestions?

[Amalek]

04:28 AM on 11/15/2010

Similan is offshore of Phuket, a major Thai resort.  You can dive it on day trips.  Phuket is way too much fun.  Sun, girls, parties.   Be careful, you may not come home.

[Chubbster]

08:17 PM on 11/12/2010

These are beautiful but honestly scuba diving and exotic dive travel has to be one of the most expensive hobbies there are.

[Butterfly M]

08:19 PM on 11/12/2010

Nah. Flying is far more expensive.

[Butterfly M]

08:17 PM on 11/12/2010

How come Bonair is not here?

[rjmtx]

07:21 PM on 11/12/2010

What, no freshwater sites? I'll say Blue Hole, Devils River, TX.

[zzeltar]

07:18 PM on 11/12/2010

Haliburton you stay the heck away from these spots. As a matter of fact stay away from everything!

[BarryOB]

06:13 PM on 11/12/2010

There's a good dive in Portland, OR called the Low-Brow Lounge...

[zzeltar]

07:19 PM on 11/12/2010

You need a good pair of beer goggles and a snorkel!

[delta7777]

06:08 PM on 11/12/2010

.
Sardinia has many of the most beautiful dive sites in the world,
particularly notable for aquatic cave diving.
excellent diving facilities are available around the island.
Sardinia itself is extraordinarily beautiful, which may be
why the Saudis particularly favor the Costa Smeralda
as a choice tourist site. Other parts of the Island are
equally beautiful, and of course, very much more reasonable cost.
.

[Pretrib]

05:30 PM on 11/12/2010

Grand Cayman could be added here.

[Amalek]

04:32 AM on 11/15/2010

I am surprised it was not.  The Wall is perhaps the most famous dive in the world.

I have dived five of these locations and probably a hundred more.   My most spectacular dive was one most people consider pedestrian - Molokini crater in Hawaii.   One time I visited the visibility was the clearest I have ever seen.  Truly gin clear water and when we got in the water it seemed you could reach out and touch the bottom a hundred feet below.

[Paula Ann]

04:48 PM on 11/12/2010

reef off of north jeddah.....will probably stay fantastic until the ksa lets in mobs of tourists.

[amaboss52]

04:34 PM on 11/12/2010

My favorite place is off the coast of baja, not mentioned here and I won't be spillin the beans either. But it is truly beautiful and isolated.

[Jeff Larkin]

04:14 PM on 11/12/2010

The reason these are such exotic places is cause most people don't know of them! Now that their locations have been posted sure they won't last much longer.

[Amalek]

04:34 AM on 11/15/2010

I had some favorite places off the coast of Malaysia that I dived a lot 30 years ago.  I returned a couple of years ago to find the seabed barren.  All the coral was destroyed by fisherman or taken by collectors.  There was little left to see.

[hidesert47]

09:11 AM on 11/15/2010

To a serious diver, there is nothing secret about any of these locations.