Top Diving Holidays 2008

Whether you're looking for a simple underwater experience or a hard-core wreck or night dive, diving holidays offer excitement and a different way of seeing the world.

Everyone knows about popular destinations such as Dahab in Egypt and Thailand but travelbite.co.uk has found some fantastic diving holiday destinations you may not have considered before.

Our experts have put together some tips for the best diving holidays around the world in 2008, including options for all budgets.

Exotic shipwrecks - Diving holidays in Brazil

With 4,578 miles of coastline, Brazil offers endless diving opportunities.

From deep water diving off the island of Fernando de Noronha in the north, wreck diving off both Rio and Sao Paulo states in the south, and freshwater cave diving in inland Bonito, there is something for everyone.

Due to hundreds of years of fighting colonists, slave ships and piracy, the coast of Brazil is scattered with wrecks, from 17th century galleons to present day helicopters.

The exotic coastal town of Arraial do Cabo in Rio State boasts 47 different wrecks, around 100 miles from Rio.

One of the most popular sites here, the 'Blue Grotto', features a 25-metre dive through wrecks, canyons and tunnels, with sightings of turtles, sea horses and moray eels.

The small island of Ilha Grande off the coast of Rio also boasts one of the most concentrated areas of shipwrecks in the world.

As a protected nature reserve covered in lush rainforest, it acts as a large breakwater, sheltering the surrounding waters from strong winds and marine currents and making an ideal diving area.

Dives to the wreck of a crashed helicopter and the remains of a 150-year-old European ship are popular and dolphins are sighted regularly.

Inland, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul is the town of Bonito, which is Portuguese for beautiful.

This area, near the border of Paraguay, is famous for its crystal clear waters thanks to the high concentration of lime in the surrounding soil.

There are many underground freshwater caves to dive, including Abismo Anhoas, which is accessible only by rappelling down a 72-metre cable.

Once in the cave divers find themselves surrounded by ten metre-high rock formations.

This dive has been likened to swimming through an underwater city. Unlike most cave dives, you can surface at any point, which makes the experience slightly less daunting.

Many of the dives are for specially trained cave divers because of the unknown depths and uncharted territory of the caves. Open water divers will be taken to a maximum depth of 20 metres in many of them.

For those who prefer not to dive, the area also offers some excellent snorkelling opportunities. The nearby Rio Sucuri is beautifully clear, and trips there involve floating along the river through dense rainforest, spotting huge shoals of colourful fresh water fish, otters and human-sized gold fish.

Francesca Elliott

Deep Blue - Diving in Lanzarote

Lanzarote is a small Spanish island located just off the West African coast that enjoys a big reputation in international diving circles thanks to its volcanic origin, which has created a genuinely unique terrain both above and below the waves.

Lanzarote was in fact subjected to the world's longest ever volcanic eruption.

This lasted six years from 1730 to 1736, covering around one quarter of the island in a sea of solidified lava that extended as far as the coastline and into the ocean to both the north-west and south-east of the main eruptions.

Today, somewhat ironically, the Volcano Park at Timanfaya is Lanzarote's number one tourist attraction, drawing in around 900,000 visitors every year.

And it is a similar story underwater as divers from across the globe visit to enjoy and explore the island's eerie underwater landscape. Those same eruptions have forged dramatic formations under the sea, including caves, solidified lava rivers and arches.

Add a couple of large reefs (the English translation of Arrecife, the capital city and sole island airport, is exactly that, reef) and stir in a couple of shipwrecks for good measure.

Then garnish with an abundance of tropical sub-aquatic species and you have all of the right ingredients for an ideal diving holiday.

Lanzarote was declared a Unesco protected biosphere back in 1994 - the first island in the world to enjoy such status.

As you would expect from such an unspoilt location the waters here are extremely clear, which means divers enjoy excellent visibility.

As a result diving in Lanzarote has become a very popular pastime - with loads of sun starved northern Europeans migrating south to open dive schools and shops across the island.

This is heaven for divers as intense competition forces prices down. Would-be Jacques Cousteaus can take the plunge and learn to dive for as little as €99 (around £65).

One of the best schools on the island - Lanzarote Dive College - is operated by Tim Spittle and Bart Prinsen in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote's southern-most resort.

As one of the only beach based dive centres on the island, the team here are fortunate enough to enjoy direct access to the Atlantic.

They offer expert PADI approved tuition in English, Dutch, German and Spanish to all levels of proficiency, whilst offering the highest possible levels of safety.

According to Tim, the waters around Lanzarote are alive with a great array of species but the encounters that divers really get excited about are usually with angel sharks and giant Atlantic electric rays.

For more information see the Lanzarote Guidebook, the in-depth Lanzarote tourist guide.

Nick Ball

Affordable paradise - diving holidays in Malaysia

The Perhentian Islands are a little slice of affordable paradise off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia and the perfect destination for a tropical diving holiday.

Beautiful white sand beaches line the two lush palm covered islands – Perhentian Besar (Big Island) and Perhentian Kecil (Small Island) – and development is low-key with no roads, vehicles or large buildings.

Besar is more upmarket and family-oriented, while Long Beach on Kecil is the backpacker hangout with plenty of restaurants, laidback partying in the evening and cheap accommodation.

The Perhentian Islands have been described as the best value diving in south-east Asia and certainly beat anything this diver saw in Thailand.

Near the coast the waters of the South China Sea are like clear green glass and visibility is excellent during the season.

Swim past cliffs of amethyst-coloured coral, dodge the toothy triggerfish and drift silently through huge schools of glittering golden trevally.

Turtle sightings are common, as are black tip shark, huge puffer fish, razorfish, octopus, schools of barracuda, fusiliers, squid and a moray eels hiding in caves.

The maximum diving depth at the various dive sites is approximately 24 metres and there are a couple of wrecks to explore for experienced divers - an upside down Vietnamese ship and the Sugar Wreck, which has two cranes still attached to its deck.

Another highly recommended dive site is at the nearby island of Palau Redang, which takes around 40 minutes to reach in a speedboat.

Diving is from small wooden skiffs run straight off the beach for about 20 minutes and then backroll entry into paradise.

The best time to go is from April to October as outside this period the monsoon makes the seas too rough to cross from the mainland and the island essentially shuts down.

One of the best things about the Perhentian islands is their remoteness. It is possible to fly to the town of Kota Bharu on the mainland from Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia or you can catch buses from KL or Penang.

Then you need to catch a taxi or bus to the coastal town of Kuala Besut, which takes around an hour. From here there are regular speedboat services to the islands (half an hour) until around 18:00 local time.

It is advisable to book accommodation by telephone ahead of your arrival, unless you will be getting there early in the day.

Wooden hut accommodation with en suite bathroom on Long Beach is priced from around £12. There are more expensive resorts on Perhentian Besar.

Take supplies of mosquito repellent, sun cream, sunglasses and a hat as there are no shops. Alcohol is expensive by Asian standards as this is an Islamic area but still only around £1.50 for a beer.

There are a number of professional and friendly dive companies on Long beach, which run the full range of diving services and PADI courses.

For information on a recommended dive company see Turtle Bay Divers.

Natasha von Geldern

Exotic Caribbean - diving holidays in Belize

The diving sites off the warm, Caribbean Belize Cayes are some of the best in the world.

Opportunities for all levels of diver are endless along the 185 miles of barrier reef, which has now been made a Unesco world heritage site.

The main diving bases can be found at Ambergris Caye or the less developed but cheaper Caye Caulker, both of which are easily accessible by boat from Belize City.

A popular dive spot from the Cayes is the marine reserve of Hol Chan, Mayan for 'Little Channel'. With a maximum depth of 30 feet it is suitable for all levels of divers and is full of fish.

Groupers, snappers, parrot fish, barracudas and nurse sharks have all been seen here, and a dive trip usually includes shark ray alley, a shallow outcrop of coral only eight feet deep.

These sandy shallows are where fishermen used to stop and clean their catch on the way back to the mainland, attracting many sharks and manta rays.

Snorkellers and divers can get up close and personal with the marine life here. Nurse Sharks, which can grow up to six feet, can be a little intimidating at first but experts assure divers they do not eat people.

Turneffe Island is another colourful site. With no steep walls, this is a good place for those not comfortable in deeper water.

Dolphins, turtles and reef sharks can all be seen here, as well as the white spotted toad fish which is endemic to Belize.

However, Belize is most famous for the Blue Hole, an iconic dark blue sphere surrounded by turquoise sea that is the staple image of many a Belizean guide book.

This is the main draw card for many of the country's visitors, who come expressly to dive it.

The Blue Hole is a limestone sinkhole 400 metres across and almost 150 metres deep and is part of the Lighthouse Reef, around 60 miles from mainland Belize.

Originally it was the opening to a system of dry caves but it became submerged with the passing of the last Ice Age and for most people is essentially a bottomless pit.

The walls are sheer until around 110 feet, when formations of stalactites begin to appear. There is little movement in the water and visibility can reach 200 feet.

The deeper you go, the less life you will see, with only the occasional Blacktip or Hammerhead shark appearing.

This is a rare dive but is much deeper than those with open water dive certificates should go and is recommended for experienced and specialist divers only. There is nothing to hold on to should you start to ascend or descend too fast.

Francesca Elliott

Undiscovered marine sanctuaries - diving holidays in Oman

You may not have considered the Sultanate of Oman as a diving holiday destination before but this Middle Eastern country has over 1,700 kilometres of Arabian Sea coastline.

An abundance of marine life and superb visibility means the diving spots are world class and there are a range of sites and depths for all abilities up to 30 metres.

Dive sites close to the capital Muscat include Bander Knayran Cave Site, Fahal Island, Cemetery Bay and the Dimaniyat Islands, with wrecks, reefs and a variety of coral in pristine waters.

Rays, turtles, barracuda, sunfish and spinner, common and bottle-nosed dolphins can be seen. In fact there is said to be a 75 per cent chance of seeing dolphins while diving.

The temperate waters of the Straits of Hormuz are abundant with sharks including the hammerhead, reef, nurse and large whale sharks.

Experienced divers can take advantage of the deeper waters, atmospheric night dives and wreck dives.

Favourite dive sites include the Daymaniyat Islands, a marine nature conservation reserve about 18 kilometres off the Batinah Coast.

Bandar Khayran is just 20 minutes by boat from Muscat and has fjord-like entrances with numerous bays.

Fahal Island, four kilometres offshore from Muscat, features a swim-through cave and a wreck at 30 metres.

The rugged Musandam Peninsula is well known for the Fjords of Arabia and registered dive sites including Zazurat Simi (which features a plane wreck), Tanakan, Ra Rukein and Khor Hablayn.

Most diving companies are attached to the five-star hotels and beach resorts along the coast.

If you don't want to scuba dive, the shallow reef along Oman's coastline makes for great snorkelling.

A diving holiday in Oman also offers the opportunity to experience the tradition culture of a truly Arabian country, including desert safaris, forts and castles to explore, ancient rock paintings, delicious food and fascinating souks.

The best time to visit Oman for a diving holiday is between October and April, when temperatures average between 25 and 35 degrees C during the day and between 17 and 19 degrees C at night.

Oman is a relatively easy country to visit, with 30 day tourist visas available on arrival at the airport.

A number of international airlines fly to Seeb International airport, which is located 40km from Muscat city centre, including Gulf Air, Lufthansa, Thai, British Airways, Kuwait Airways, Swiss and Emirates.

For more information see www.omantourism.gov.om.