If you enjoy scuba diving, Hawaii is a fantastic destination that offers great diversity for scuba divers. Hawaii is made up of over 100 individual islands, with scuba diving locations positioned most prominently on six of those islands.

While the journey from island to island is relatively short, the scuba diving at each location offers a new and distinct adventure. By planning a vacation to Hawaii, you can enjoy many diverse underwater explorations all within a defined radius.

While it’s possible to scuba dive on your own, it’s oftentimes a much better experience if you utilize a scuba diving company. These companies take you on guided scuba diving adventures, helping to ensure you find the best locations while being trained in keeping you safe. Prices are reasonable and most companies can cater to groups of any size.

For the six most prominent scuba diving islands, here are the most highly recommended scuba diving companies:

Hawaii
Hawaii, locally called The Big Island, has a variety of scuba diving companies that offer unique services. One of those companies, Big Island Divers, offers great packages that are perfect for scuba divers of any level of experience. Big Island Divers also offer scuba diving lessons to those new to the hobby.

Kauai
The island of Kauai offers world class scuba diving to many of its natural wonders around the island. The scuba diving company Kauai Aquatics Scuba offers a scuba diving service with particular attention to safety while it takes you on your guided adventures.

Lanai
On the island of Lanai, a great scuba diving company is Extended Horizons Scuba Tours. The company has been in business for over 20 years and has a great reputation with locals and tourists alike. Extended Horizons Scuba Tours offer packages to over 50 different locations.

Maui
If you are an experienced scuba diver, Ed Robinson’s Diving Adventures would be perfect for you. Ed Robinson’s Diving Adventures is a diving company that caters to skilled scuba divers who want to go on challenging dives.

Molokai
While Molokai is arguably the least visited of these six islands, it offers some of the area’s most beautiful underwater scenery. Molokai Fish and Dive takes you on scuba diving trips around the island’s vast yet secluded barrier reef.

Oahu
With Island Divers Hawaii, you can journey on scuba diving tours around the island of Oahu. A unique feature offered by Island Divers Hawaii is the option to go on guided tours of sunken ships around the island.

Whether you choose to dive at a popular tourist location or from a little known retreat, Hawaii’s diverse islands have so many options you will certainly find a dive suitable to your price range and level of expertise.

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This post originally came from Kathika Travel Blog. Stop by and read our most popular travel blog posts.

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Though connected to the United States, the Baja California Peninsula, also called Lower California and simply the Baja Peninsula, is part of Mexico. It is connected to the U.S. state of California and stretches a length of 775 miles (1250 kms) from northern Mexicali to southern Cabo San Lucas.

Spectacular vacation opportunities abound on the Baja Peninsula, thanks to its enviable position of separating the deeply blue Pacific Ocean from the aquamarine Gulf of California (Sea of Cortés). This region of Mexico offers visitors a veritable geographic playground: the Sierra Juárez mountain range, the northernmost range in Mexico, runs right through the peninsula. It is accompanied by the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, an even higher mountain range whose highest point, at 10,158 feet (2096 meters), is named Cerro de la Encantada (”Mountain of the Enchanted Lady”). In the south, the Tres Virgenes (”Three Virgins”) triplet of volcanoes captivates visitors, promising beauty without danger: they last erupted over 6515 years ago. More mountain ranges dot Baja, providing beautiful vistas, sweeping valleys, and stunning photo ops.

Inland scenery is alluring, but what the Baja Peninsula is most known for is its spectacular water sporting opportunities. If you’ve ever dreamed of wading into crystalline blue and aqua waters, white sand wedging between your toes, Baja is for you. If you’ve always wanted to see bright orange, blue, yellow, and purple fish, Baja is for you. If you’ve always harbored a desire to head out into the deep sea, drop a line in, and catch a monster fish, then Baja is for you. And if visions of scuba gear and amazing sea life dance in your head, Baja is most certainly for you.

The Sea of Cort&eacutes (Sea of Cortez) is a young sea, about 25 million years old, and is one of the word’s largest deep gulfs. Scientists have also identified it as being the most biologically rich in the world, both in terms of species variety and population sizes. The ocean temperatures range between 69°F (21°C) and 84°F (29°C) year-round, though visibility is best from July to October. Your scuba trip will depend on your diving preferences: if you want to see whale sharks, then visit in spring and autumn, during the algal blooms. If you’re after fantastic sightings of hammerhead sharks and manta rays, head on down during late summer and early autumn.

Several dives are available up and down the shores of the Baja Peninsula: Gordo Banks near Cabo San Lucas boasts a deep dive site with sharks, manta rays, morays, and fish, and promises its sealife is twice as big as what you’re used to. The Cabo Pulmo Rocky Reef promises eels slithering between the coral, tuna schools swimming above your head, starfish and sea fans gracing you with their presence, and, thanks to the quick current, spectacularly colorful fish zooming in and out of your view.

The Baja Peninsula is beautiful, colorful, and truly a wonderful vacation experience, especially for scuba divers. Start your research and book your trip as soon as possible!

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The Florida Keys offers some of the most spectacular scuba diving in the United States. Located on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula extending to 90 miles north of Cuba, most of the waters are protected by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Within this area of 2,800 square nautical miles is the only living coral reef in North America and the 3rd largest in the world. The National Marine Sanctuary was created in 1972 to protect the cultural value of the coastal waters.

Diving in the Keys is excellent year round; however the hurricane season of June-October can make the waters choppy and a tad murky. During the winter months (October-March) water temps are in the mid 70s and you need a wetsuit. The remainder of the year, the water is considerably warmer and while you might not need a wetsuit to tolerate the temperature, it’s recommended that you wear one to protect yourself from skin abrasions and jellyfish.

With regards to dive gear, there are many different shops located throughout the Keys that rent gear, from the tanks and weights to wetsuits and masks, snorkels, and fins. Although, if you are afraid of catching people cooties, you would probably prefer to bring your own wetsuit and mask along for the trip. Just as there are many shops located in the Keys that offer rental gear, there are many more that take people out on dive excursions. Prices vary, but the degree of customer service and amenities tends to be better than those who charge less. There are generally 2 different types of boats: 6-pack and Big boats. A 6-pack boat means that there are 6 or less divers on board, and they are not subject to inspection. Big boats can carry more divers, but are subject to Coast Guard implemented inspections. The Big Boats tend to be the safer option since they are required to have a specified amount of safety gear including life rafts, certified fuel tanks, and annual inspections of the safety equipment.

Regardless of your skill-set with diving, the Florida Keys offers you a dive experience to meet your level. Many dive shops offer Resort courses, which include 4 hours of training after which you go for a dive in the company of the instructor (less than 40 ft. water), and afterwards you can go on as many dives as you wish in shallow water as long as you are accompanied by your instructor. For more advanced divers, there are classes for levels going up as far as Divemaster or instructor. For these types of classes, reservations are recommended.

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If you’re thinking about a scuba diving vacation then think about the land of the Irish. Situated on the continental shelf and off the western edge of Europe, Ireland is perfect for scuba divers. The Maharees Islands, The Brandon Cliff face and the Blasket Islands are listed as the best places to dive in Ireland and Jacques Cousteau himself listed the northern side of the Dingle Peninsula as one of the best diving spots in the world. Ireland’s dive season generally reaches from March to October with water temperatures during that period ranging from 45 – 59 degrees Fahrenheit. Dry suits are recommended but semi-dry suits work well also. And if you’re looking for variety and some amazing sites then you’re in for a treat. Variety is truly the spice of life in Ireland’s diving scene, you can explore wrecks, gullies, caverns, drifts and shore dives. The floor topography off of Ireland’s shores is as amazing as the above sea landscapes with inlets, pinnacles, and rock formations to thrill even the most experienced divers. If you hit a day with optimum conditions visibility can stretch to 100 feet and sometimes even deeper. The clear water draw schools of bright flashes as multitudes of wrasse, mackerel, pollack, and sunfish flit in and out of view. Crustaceans and kelp forests round out the live experience and fill your dive with a serenity that can only be discovered in the most beautiful waters of the world. If you’re in the Maharees you may even be lucky enough to enjoy a dive with the local dolphin pod. .

The waters off of Ireland are littered with shipwrecks and just as plentiful are the myths and urban legends attached to these wrecks. If you’re a history buff you’d be best served by doing your research before accepting local legends as fact. Unfortunately, winter storms can be quite fierce on the shores of Ireland and the wrecks closest to land are quite shattered. More experienced divers can head into deeper waters to find more intact ruins.

If you’re a new diver then a trip to Waterworld, http://www.waterworld.ie/diving_courses_pre.html, might be the perfect introduction to the deep. Waterworld is Ireland’s premiere diving, leisure and activity center and provides lessons and refresher courses for divers of every experience level. The centre is open year round so even on the off-season you can get a taste of the sea when the ocean itself isn’t too hospitable.

A little bit of warning, the tides and currents can be quite treacherous at times, a quick check with local dive offices can prevent any mishaps. The Irish Underwater Council offers scads of information for interested divers. Visit http://www.cft.ie/index.htm to learn about current events, hazards and news updates so you’re as informed as possible

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You want to go scuba diving in a beautiful exotic location. You know that you want to go to a foreign area, a place where the weather is beautiful and the culture is rich. And you know that you want to go to a place that’s known for its diving because you want to make sure that the experience is as safe as possible while exposing you to interesting underwater plant and animal life. You’ve narrowed down your choices to somewhere in the Caribbean, but you’re not quite sure where you want to go. You might want to start looking closer to Mexico.

Cozumel is an island located just off of the coast of Mexico in the Caribbean Sea, an island which is known for its diving and which is filled with plenty of other rich activities to supplement your scuba diving expedition. Cozumel became known for its scuba diving opportunities in the middle of the 20^th century when author Jacques Cousteau fell in love with the area and shared information about that love with others. The rich coral reefs of the area preserve much of the plant and animal life that is so interesting in the area. Scuba diving in Cozumel lets you see exactly the kinds of natural wonders that you want to experience when going diving. There are more than twenty five different reefs in the area from which you can go scuba diving. These range from shallow reefs to deep underwater caves. Perhaps the best thing about going scuba diving in Cozumel is that it’s a place that you can go as a diver at any level. Since it’s so well-established as an area for divers, and it’s such a high-tourist area, there are services to help beginning scuba divers learn everything that they need to know to dive safely in the area. And because it’s such a great place for diving, experienced scuba divers go back again and again to gain new insights into the area and to reach new depths in the water there.

Before you go scuba diving in Cozumel, you should check the expected weather in the area. It rains there from May through September so it’s best to go just before or after that if you can plan your trip that way. But don’t worry, even if you have to go during the summer, you can find days that aren’t raining to make your dives. And on the days that are too rainy, you can explore the island. It’s rich with history, beginning with the Mayan culture that once inhabited the area, and is filled with many sights. Head there in February to experience the brilliant Carnaval (South America’s version of Mardi Gras) or go at Christmas to see the area lit up for the holidays. While some times are better for scuba diving than others, Cozumel is a great destination at any time of year.

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Scuba Diving Cozumel

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You’ve all heard of the Great Barrier Reef, but let’s look at some statistics about how great it truly is: the world’s largest coral reef, it covers over 130,000 square miles with its 3,000 reefs and 900 islands, all stretching for 1,600 miles along the Queensland coast in north-eastern Australia. That’s an impressive bit of reef, so you can be sure there are some incredible scuba diving opportunities on the Great Barrier Reef. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced diver looking for a few new experiences, the Queensland coast has something for you. Here are a few of the best options for a scuba trip to the reef:

Learn to dive in the Whitsundays: If you want to begin your diving career, but at the same time explore the surrounds of the reef and the relaxing island resorts found on its southern end, try learning to dive in the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Scuba Centre offers dive courses in various locations as well as three-day live aboard dive cruises sailing from Airlie Beach to the Whitsundays.

Live aboard a dive boat off Cairns: You can find deals for between two days and a week where you can stay out at the reef and make multiple dives, rather than returning to Cairns each day to sleep. It’s cheaper, for a start, and seems to be a more authentic dive experience if you’re actually sleeping above the reef as well. Diving Cairns also offers learn-to-dive courses that include some live aboard time.

Dive on a wreck off Townsville: Pro Dive Townsville offers regular Great Barrier Reef dives as well as a special series of trips to the wreck of the SS Yongala. A luxury vessel that sank in a cyclone in 1911, it’s considered the best wreck dive in Australia; most of the ship is still intact and you can still see chairs, lights, bottles and even human remains.

Take a remote diving trip from Port Douglas: If you’re up for more adventure, you can try an expedition trip from Port Douglas, further north of Cairns. Expeditions with Undersea Explorer range from six to nine days in length and will take you further afield than a regular Cairns dive; for example, you might get to dive on the Osprey Reef with its dramatic 3,000 feet drop-offs or you can get closer to the Coral Sea and dive at Raine Island where you’ll see turtles and tiger sharks.

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