The World's Top 100 Dive Sites

Posted Apr 3rd 2006 7:28AM by Willy Volk
Filed under: Dive Sites, Organizations, Beginners, Experts, Wreck, Parks, Beach, Boat, Red Sea, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Ocean, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Southern Ocean, Lakes

Thistlegorm Of course, lists get made to provide insight into other's thoughts. But since others are, by definition, NOT YOU, people naturally review those lists and disagree with them. Perhaps you think Tim Simond's list of the best places to dive in style overly favors warm-water diving. Maybe you believe John Boyle's three favorite dive sites are lackluster. Personally, I found Nick Hanna's recent Top Ten Dive Sites to be short-sighted. Everybody disagrees with everybody else...but at least the list made you think. That's the beauty of lists.

Recently, Scuba Diving News announced its Top 100 Dive Sites. Compiled by a group of its readers, none of the sites are bad sites. But, surprisingly, only one Caribbean site (Belize's Blue Hole) cracked the Top 20. Having done most of my diving in the Caribbean and Southern Africa, I was a bit surprised at the relative UNDER-representation of those areas in the list. But it got me thinking. And that's what the list was supposed to do. Scuba Diving News' Top 10 are as follow:

Yongala, Australia
Thistlegorm, Egyptian Red Sea
Blue Corner Wall, Palau, Micronesia
Barracuda Point, Sipadan Island
Shark and Yolanda Reef, Egyptian Red Sea
Navy Pier, Australia
Manta Ray Night Dive, Kailua Kona, Hawaii
Big Brother, Egyptian Red Sea
Liberty, Bali, Indonesia
Elphinstone Reef, Egyptian Red Sea

Good list? Bad list? What do you think?

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. I can attest to the fact that the Manta Dive in Hawaii is awesome... I have since dove with Mantas in Mexico which was, in some ways, a better experience... but the consistent quality of the dive in Hawaii and the high likelyhood of seeing these awesome creatures, typically on a night dive, is not to be missed...

Posted at 9:30AM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Dennis Festerling

2. I think the list is ridiculous. There's much more to diving than just tropical waters.

Posted at 2:08PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Jernej

3. You know, my comment still stands on Mantas in Hawaii... but I read the complete top 100... and not a single cold water fresh or salt site... that's bull. I like warmer water as much as the next, but come on.

Posted at 4:38PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Dennis Festerling

4. I agree with Jernei's comments. There's a lot more to diving than Tropical waters. There are a lot of great cold water dives. Cold water diving doesn't get the attention because it's not considered "Destination" diving. I've dove the cold water wrecks spread out through British Columbia, Canada and I would put those dives up against some the best Caribbean diving I've done.

Posted at 11:39AM on Apr 4th 2006 by J. Randy Griffin

5. Yeah, where is Catalina on there? I've had dives on Catalina that beat alot of the warm water diving that I've done.

Posted at 4:09PM on Apr 4th 2006 by Bill Reals

6. These lists are allways subjective. I have dived Shark and Yolanda reefs a couple of times, but I can hardly imagine them besting divesites at Manado, Fiji, Papua New-Guinea and the likes of Palau. I am a cold water diver (Netherlands) , but I do yearn for Bali, the Red Sea or Manado! When I started diving 4 years ago Sipadan was #1

Posted at 6:19PM on Apr 4th 2006 by Arne Kuilman

7. I don't know many of the other dive sites, but I agree with the good position of the Thistlegorm, Egyptian Red Sea. I was there for two times and it was fantastic.

Posted at 7:18AM on May 6th 2006 by Rene

8. WHile there is a dearth of cold water sites Scapa FLow is on there and I don't think anyone would describe that as warm water.

Posted at 11:55AM on May 26th 2006 by Josh

9. I have been to a lot of dive sites including some of the top 10 mentioned, but the reef hook dive on the blue corner in Palau was just the best

Posted at 8:49AM on Sep 21st 2006 by Elisabeth Rosentreter

10. I've dived the Yongala, and while it was amazing and is one of my favourite dive sites ever (I did my Advanced dives up there), it doesnt qualify as #1 in the world in my books.

Lembeh Straits had the most consistently amazing dive sites. I did around 20 dives in that little area and nearly every dive took my breath away.

Posted at 5:54PM on Jan 16th 2007 by Cindy

11. I have dived in Australia, Thailand, Belize, Dominican, and Cozumel and I can definitely say Diving in Thailand or Australia in general is head and shoulders better than any carriben diving I have done. The diversity in aquatic life and vibrancy of coral in The Andaman Sea Thailand or Great Barrier reef is no compariso to any caaribean diving I have done.

Posted at 8:39PM on Feb 6th 2007 by Matt

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