Your starting point for scuba diving: learn to dive, choose your gear, and find your next dive destination.
Region guide · 6 destinations
Indo-Pacific scuba diving means the greatest variety of reef life on Earth. The Coral Triangle, which includes Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo, has more species of coral and reef fish than anywhere else. East across the Pacific, remote islands and atolls offer sharks, clear lagoons, coral passes and historic wrecks.
At a glance
Reef diving in the Indo-Pacific is simply richer than anywhere else. A single dive can show you hundreds of species, from tiny nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses to manta rays, reef sharks and big schools of fish. Divers who love photography often end up here, because so many of the small creatures live nowhere else.
The other side of that richness is current. Much of the best diving is on points, channels and passes where the water moves fast and brings the food that feeds the reef. It is exciting diving, but it calls for good buoyancy control, a reef hook in some places, and a guide who knows the tides. Several of these destinations are better after you have some experience, and often an advanced certification.
Distance is the other factor. These are long-haul trips for most divers in the Americas and Europe, so most people plan one or two weeks, often with some time on a liveaboard.
The destinations
Indonesia sits at the heart of the Coral Triangle. Raja Ampat has some of the richest reefs ever surveyed, Komodo National Park adds strong currents and manta rays, and the Lembeh Strait is the home of muck diving, searching sandy slopes for strange small creatures. In Bali, the USAT Liberty wreck at Tulamben is an easy shore dive.
Indonesia scuba diving guideSipadan, off Borneo, is famous for turtles, barracuda and big schools of jacks, and the number of divers allowed each day is limited by permit. Nearby Mabul is known for macro life. On the east coast of the peninsula, islands such as Tioman and the Perhentians are relaxed places to learn, outside the monsoon months.
Malaysia scuba diving guideFrench Polynesia is shark country. In the passes of atolls such as Rangiroa and Fakarava, incoming tides carry divers past grey reef sharks, often in large numbers. Tahiti and Moorea offer gentler reef and lagoon dives.
Tahiti scuba diving guideRarotonga and Aitutaki offer clear water, reef dives just outside the lagoon and a quiet, small-island pace. The Cook Islands set aside their entire ocean territory as the Marae Moana marine park. It is a good place to combine diving with a relaxed island holiday.
Cook Islands scuba diving guideThe Marshall Islands are a place of remote atolls and wartime history. Bikini Atoll's lagoon holds the ships sunk in the 1946 nuclear tests, including the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. These are deep dives for advanced and technical divers, and access is limited. Majuro and other atolls also offer reef diving.
Marshall Islands scuba diving guideNew Zealand's diving is temperate. The Poor Knights Islands Marine Reserve has arches, caves and subtropical fish carried south by warm currents. The Rainbow Warrior was sunk as a dive site near the Cavalli Islands, and in Fiordland a dark freshwater layer lets black coral grow unusually shallow. Plan for a thick wetsuit or a drysuit.
New Zealand scuba diving guidePlanning
If most of your dives have been on calm Caribbean reefs, the drift and pass dives of the Indo-Pacific can feel very different. It helps to arrive with solid buoyancy control and some drift experience, and many divers take an advanced course first. Our guide on how to learn to scuba dive explains what comes after the entry-level course.
Liveaboards reach remote reefs, such as the outer islands of Raja Ampat or Komodo, that day boats cannot. You dive three or four times a day and the boat moves while you sleep. Land-based trips are more flexible and better for non-diving partners. Many divers combine the two.
Monsoon winds shape the diving seasons across Southeast Asia, and some areas close or become rough for part of the year. In the South Pacific, the southern winter is drier, and humpback whales visit several island groups in the middle of the year. Check each destination guide for its best months.
Many of these places are a long way from a recompression chamber. Dive conservatively, stay well within the limits of your computer, carry dive insurance that covers evacuation, and leave plenty of time before your flight home. Our scuba diving safety guide covers the essentials, and the gear guide explains why a personal dive computer matters on multi-dive days.
Questions
The Coral Triangle is an area of ocean across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands. It has the highest diversity of reef-building corals and reef fish in the world.
Some of it is. Sheltered bays, muck diving sites and lagoon reefs can be gentle. Many of the most famous sites have strong currents, though, and are better once you have experience. Good dive centers will match the sites to your level.
No. Both have land-based resorts and day trips. A liveaboard reaches more remote sites and lets you dive more each day.
From Red Sea wrecks to Caribbean walls.