Bucket List dive

[firebirdude]

Anywhere in the world. What would be your ultimate reef dive location? And why? Or if you've already done it, what was it? We're talking reef/coral locations here.

I realize it's going to be a matter of opinion. Hence the discussion. :)

[mike61289]

Great Barrier Reef obviously. Lately I've also been looking into Hawaii, Red Sea, Black Sea, and the Lembeh Strait.

I just went diving for the first time last year in Turks and Caicos and it was amazing! I dived everyday that I was there and loved it!

[ace_92101]

There aren't that many left on my list. For those that I've already checked off the list, I'd include at the top the Great Barrier Reef/Coral Sea, Fiji and the Red Sea. The Coral Sea has amazing visibility and coral growth. The live aboard I went with would refund the trip if the visibility fell below 100 feet. Gin clear water with amazing coral coverage and diversity. Fiji for the soft coral. The Red Sea for the fish and ovrerall diving.

For ones I haven't done yet, I'd include three. The Maldives for the overall great diving/stilt hotel experience. When I get the time, I want to take the United Airlines "Island Hopper" across the Marshall Islands/Palau. The last one isn't known for great diving, but I've always been interested in diving there. Ascension Island.

[firebirdude]

There aren't that many left on my list. For those that I've already checked off the list, I'd include at the top the Great Barrier Reef/Coral Sea, Fiji and the Red Sea. The Coral Sea has amazing visibility and coral growth. The live aboard I went with would refund the trip if the visibility fell below 100 feet. Gin clear water with amazing coral coverage and diversity. Fiji for the soft coral. What spots specifically/where did you stay? I stayed in Townsville and did the John brewer reef area. Not sure if it was just where I was taken, but I was pretty disappointed.

To say Great Barrier Reef isn't specific... at all. It's 130,000+ square miles. :)

[ace_92101]

What spots specifically/where did you stay? I stayed in Townsville and did the John brewer reef area. Not sure if it was just where I was taken, but I was pretty disappointed.

To say Great Barrier Reef isn't specific... at all. It's 130,000+ square miles. :)

I stayed in several locations in Queensland, including Cairns and Townsville. I liked Cairns a lot more. I dove a liveabord, so northern GBR including Cod Hole, Ribbons Reef and Osprey Reef.

[iReef1234]

I dove at the GBR 2 years ago and it was amazing. I actually liked snorkeling better; I wasn't rushed and could see the small cool things.

The boat ride was 1.5 hours to the reef, so maybe if you didn't take that long the reef wasn't in as good of shape. Oz is having some problems maintaining the GBR as a marine park/reserve.

[snorvich]

What turns you on? Large animals? Bizarre animals? Coral? colors?

[myaerica]

I would recommend the raja ampat.

[ScubaSteveZ]

Bonaire is hopefully the next off the list for me. That is the only place my local dive shop talks about

[Deinonych]

GBR, Fiji, Komodo and Andaman Sea (Thailand) immediately come to mind. We're hoping to scratch Fiji off the list later this year. I've heard great things about St. Lucia in the Caribbean as well.

[G_Sanab922]

When I get the time, I want to take the United Airlines "Island Hopper" across the Marshall Islands/Palau. The last one isn't known for great diving, but I've always been interested in diving there. Ascension Island.

Thanks for mentioning this. I'm going to look into it.

[DivingTheWorld]

Fiji is/was on our bucket list. We're going for a week of diving this year for our 10 year anniversary. On my bucket list still is the Galapagos Islands and Papau New Guinea.

Our favorite spot for diving is Palau (we've done 3 trips there over the years). I'd rank Palau as the best diving location I've been to.

I've dove GBR Australia (Cairns, Cod Hole, etc.), Similan Islands, Thailand, Belize, Roatan, Cabo San Lucas, Cayman Islands, Palau, Guam, Maldives, Maui, Lanai, and all over California.

[Deinonych]

Fiji is/was on our bucket list. We're going for a week of diving this year for our 10 year anniversary.

Nice. We're going for our 25th. Where are you planning to stay? We're leaning toward Savusavu.

[icy1155]

For a bucket list dive I'd have to say Kingman Reef.

[solidcore]

palau, or east end grand cayman

[Speckled Grouper]

We have dove
GBR, Liveaboard to Ribbon Reefs, Cod Hole etc
QLD, Keppel Bay
Papua New Guinea, Kimbe Bay
Indo, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Bali, Wakatobi
Kosrae
Marshall Islands
Guam
Kiribati
Fiji, Bligh Waters
Hawaii, Kona, Oahu
Maldives
Belize
Curacao
Bonaire
Dominican Republic

Trips this year:

Wakatobi in January

Cozumel in July

December....Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora and Rangiroa....

Favorites are Papua New Guinea, Komodo and Fiji

[solidcore]

wow, what a contrast :)

Wakatobi in January

Cozumel in July


Ive done Palau, Maui on the pacific side but still like the Caribbean.

[travis9791]

Papau New guinne would top the list for me.

[Speckled Grouper]

wow, what a contrast :)

Wakatobi in January

Cozumel in July


Ive done Palau, Maui on the pacific side but still like the Caribbean.

The diving in Cozumel will actually be secondary this time. We are also going to Cancun to snorkel with the Whalesharks!

Palau is on the bucketlist for sure....

[Speckled Grouper]

Papau New guinne would top the list for me.

Papua New Guinea cannot be described by words. Lobos the size of a Bus, Bubble Coral the size of a Semi. Hairy Mushroom Mountains....Acros with half inch polyp extensions....and all of that in bathtub warm water...INSANE!

[tommyboynj]

Man, i miss diving. Young kids kinda got in the way. I was lucky enough to live in St Maarten for 3 years and worked next to dive shop. We dove once a week for 2 years and only paid for air. I was lucky to dive most of that island, st barts, Anguilla and Saba. Saba was incredible. Now the kids are older the wife and i are gonna take some refresher courses and start back up. The funny thing is my mother in law came to visit us and got certified at the same time. She has been addicted for 15 years! You name it shes been. Palau, Galapagos, Fiji, GBR. She does 1 big trip a year and 3 smaller ones. Id say Galapagos would be the top of my list.

[ladyshark]

Just curious, don't mean to highjack the thread, but how do people afford to travel to the Australia area for multiple scuba trips? Specials deals I should check out?

[Deinonych]

Just curious, don't mean to highjack the thread, but how do people afford to travel to the Australia area for multiple scuba trips? Specials deals I should check out?

Find a good travel agent (seriously).

[snorvich]

Papau New guinne would top the list for me.

Milne Bay is superb but the north is also excellent

[DivingTheWorld]

Nice. We're going for our 25th. Where are you planning to stay? We're leaning toward Savusavu.

Sorry, didn't check this thread for a while!

We're staying at Sau Bay across from Taveuni Island. Looks like we'll be staying on the same island!

[DivingTheWorld]

Just curious, don't mean to highjack the thread, but how do people afford to travel to the Australia area for multiple scuba trips? Specials deals I should check out?

Save, save, and save some more. I loved the diving in Australia, but the country and people are even better. If you go, plan to stay for a while and tour around. Diving is just one part of the experience.

[Nate1984]

I would say The Great Barrier Reef. I dive commercially in the Gulf of Mexico, I would love to make a dive somewhere that did not involve work lol. I have only made there SCUBA dives in my whole life. I really want to do more.

[Deinonych]

Sorry, didn't check this thread for a while!

We're staying at Sau Bay across from Taveuni Island. Looks like we'll be staying on the same island!

Nice. We just booked our flights and hotel a couple weeks ago. Definitely staying on Vanua Levu, just east of Savusavu. Can't wait!

[Jake_The_Snake]

Bikini Atoll

[MadCnty]

Papua New Guinea... Enough said... ;)

[myaerica]

Just curious, don't mean to highjack the thread, but how do people afford to travel to the Australia area for multiple scuba trips? Specials deals I should check out?

Own A company is how I afford to go diving all over the world. I still say papua (raja ampat)is the best, google it its home to something like A 1/4 of all the worlds fish and coral.

[fabjr]

The highest tropical marine diversity in the world is off Northern Sulawesi in Indonesia. The Carribean is nearly the lowest.

The Red Sea, Indian Ocean and its nearby seas Including IndoPac are unquestionably the best for both quantity and quality of marine life and (possible) visibility. The south and western Pacific Islands are close behind.

There are well understood and well documented geological reasons for this. I have been fortunate to dive all of these areas and more (non-tropical). My personal experiences support these observations very well.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef would be in that latter category as long as you stay away from the most popular dive sites that suffer from too much diving pressure. Many of those areas have become somewhat mediocre.

Western Indian Ocean drops off to mediocrity and the Atlantic is just not in the same league. The Med is Dead is not just a cute phrase. It is a tragic truth. There can be excellent visibility in saphire clear water virtually devoid of interesting critters.

I personally like the Red Sea a lot for a quick, short trip. A couple of weeks on a small (6-10 divers) liveaboard in the Maldives is a great trip offering beautiful and varied scenery, dive types, benthic and pelagic fish, corals and other critters, but their smaller liveaboard generally only average 2 dives per day plus a couple of night dives per week. These may not be the very best dive locations but I like them.

The area around Papua New Guinea/Borneo is high. quality. My all time favorite is a sequence of 3 or 4 IndoPac trips on small liveaboards, 1 week each, separated by a few to several days ashore to help preclude, or even cure, ear infections and get in some extended decompression and some local culture between intensive diving schedules. I do not like large liveaboards, at all. On a long trip like this it is wise to extend the time before flying by an extra day or two, particularly the farther away you are from being a 19 year old. Our dive charts were originally based on very healthy young males. Some of us no longer fit that fitness model.

The main thing is to dive safe and dive fun with safe divers. Good diving to all, where ever you choose to get your nitrogen fix. All diving does not have to be at the best ever locations. Some of my most outstanding dives have been in low vis with not a huge amount of critters around. But maybe I saw something for the first time that I had wanted to see. Or I got to move amongst huge shoals of Moorish Idols (Red Sea in May/June)or witness some really interesting behaviors like a harem of giant Stellar Sea Lions swarming all around us in Alaska at night, admittedly in low vis, frigid water...and dangerous...adrenaline rushes...exciting!

[Deinonych]

The highest tropical marine diversity in the world is off Northern Sulawesi in Indonesia. The Carribean is nearly the lowest.


+1

The Caribbean is convenient for us, but I much prefer diving in the Pacific. Indonesia is definitely on my list of places to dive!

[kryppy]

Papua New Guinea is most certainly one of the best places in the world to dive but getting there is not fun, having to stay locked in your resort to avoid cannibals is not the greatest deal and the constant threat of mosquito born diseases means taking meds that will probably trash your stomach if the horrible food doesn't. Raja Ampat is an incredible and a truly magical dive experience. You will see fish that have not been described yet for sure! Getting there is terrible and you will definitely want to bring your own food if you are not into rice and hot spices. All things considered, Fiji is a place you do not want to miss and the accommodations and services available are awesome right along with the truly incredible diving.

[steallife904]

Done pretty much all of the carribean and dove and snorkeled in Hawaii (Kona). Hawaii was by far the best I have ever seen.

Still on the list is GBR. And I believe Marshall Islands was my other bucket list. I have seen documentary's showing a reef I believe is in the marshall islands where there are tons of clams like maxima clam and etc.... correct me if I am thinking of the wrong place.

[snorvich]

Papua New Guinea is most certainly one of the best places in the world to dive but getting there is not fun, having to stay locked in your resort to avoid cannibals is not the greatest deal and the constant threat of mosquito born diseases means taking meds that will probably trash your stomach if the horrible food doesn't. Raja Ampat is an incredible and a truly magical dive experience. You will see fish that have not been described yet for sure! Getting there is terrible and you will definitely want to bring your own food if you are not into rice and hot spices. All things considered, Fiji is a place you do not want to miss and the accommodations and services available are awesome right along with the truly incredible diving.

PNG is super; many of the "problems" above can be avoided using a live aboard. Been there six times. Larium is harsh, but doxycycline is not.

[Deinonych]

PNG is super; many of the "problems" above can be avoided using a live aboard.

My thoughts exactly.

[snorvich]

The highest tropical marine diversity in the world is off Northern Sulawesi in Indonesia. The Carribean is nearly the lowest.

The Red Sea, Indian Ocean and its nearby seas Including IndoPac are unquestionably the best for both quantity and quality of marine life and (possible) visibility. The south and western Pacific Islands are close behind.

There are well understood and well documented geological reasons for this. I have been fortunate to dive all of these areas and more (non-tropical). My personal experiences support these observations very well.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef would be in that latter category as long as you stay away from the most popular dive sites that suffer from too much diving pressure. Many of those areas have become somewhat mediocre.

Western Indian Ocean drops off to mediocrity and the Atlantic is just not in the same league. The Med is Dead is not just a cute phrase. It is a tragic truth. There can be excellent visibility in saphire clear water virtually devoid of interesting critters.

I personally like the Red Sea a lot for a quick, short trip. A couple of weeks on a small (6-10 divers) liveaboard in the Maldives is a great trip offering beautiful and varied scenery, dive types, benthic and pelagic fish, corals and other critters, but their smaller liveaboard generally only average 2 dives per day plus a couple of night dives per week. These may not be the very best dive locations but I like them.

The area around Papua New Guinea/Borneo is high. quality. My all time favorite is a sequence of 3 or 4 IndoPac trips on small liveaboards, 1 week each, separated by a few to several days ashore to help preclude, or even cure, ear infections and get in some extended decompression and some local culture between intensive diving schedules. I do not like large liveaboards, at all. On a long trip like this it is wise to extend the time before flying by an extra day or two, particularly the farther away you are from being a 19 year old. Our dive charts were originally based on very healthy young males. Some of us no longer fit that fitness model.

The main thing is to dive safe and dive fun with safe divers. Good diving to all, where ever you choose to get your nitrogen fix. All diving does not have to be at the best ever locations. Some of my most outstanding dives have been in low vis with not a huge amount of critters around. But maybe I saw something for the first time that I had wanted to see. Or I got to move amongst huge shoals of Moorish Idols (Red Sea in May/June)or witness some really interesting behaviors like a harem of giant Stellar Sea Lions swarming all around us in Alaska at night, admittedly in low vis, frigid water...and dangerous...adrenaline rushes...exciting!

I agree with all. I have spent a lot of time on live aboards as I was fortunate enough to travel with Chris Newbert. Most interesting (and cold) diving was just south of Australia where the image in my avatar was captured. Had to keep an eye out for great whites.

[jk1nole]

Just curious, don't mean to highjack the thread, but how do people afford to travel to the Australia area for multiple scuba trips? Specials deals I should check out?

Exchange rate is the best right now that it has been in a long time. $1 USD = $1.36 AUD. That is awesome. When I went for my honeymoon in 2011... it was $.95 USD = $1.00 AUD. FML.

Can't wait to go back. I was too new to diving to fully appreciate the GBR at the time.