3 Unique Dive Destinations For Your Next Dive Vacation

Raja Ampat holds more than 1,000 documented fish species and half the world's known soft coral species. You'll dive manta ray cleaning stations, spot pygmy seahorses tucked into gorgonian fans (with the help of an experienced guide), and drift along walls adorned in soft coral. You can stay at dive resorts here or explore by liveaboard, with Indonesia liveaboards running dedicated itineraries through the region's more remote sites.

Komodo

Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, pairs strong, nutrient-rich currents with big animal encounters. You'll drift with manta rays, cruise through channels stacked with reef sharks, and hunt for macro life on muck dives. Topside, a visit to Komodo Island itself will give you a chance to spot the dragons that give the park its name. Indonesia liveaboards reach Komodo directly, and several extend their route to include Flores between April and August.

Alor

Alor and neighboring Flores reward you with colorful walls, thriving pinnacles, and sandy slopes packed with macro life, with far fewer divers than Raja Ampat or Komodo. You'll find nudibranchs, frogfish, and ghost pipefish on nearly every dive. Some Indonesia liveaboard routes extend into Alor and East Flores, so ask your Maduro dive travel specialist about pairing it with a Raja Ampat or Komodo itinerary.

Marine life highlights

• Oceanic manta rays
• Pygmy seahorses
• Rare frogfish species
• Nudibranchs and ghost pipefish

Where can you dive the Great Barrier Reef in Australia?

Cairns is your gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea beyond. Australia liveaboards visit three standout regions from there.

Osprey Reef and the Coral Sea

Osprey Reef sits in open water and holds some of the clearest, healthiest reefs in Australian waters. You’ll drift along dramatic walls, watch sharks fed at North Horn, and have a real shot at seeing dwarf minke whales, humpback whales, and dugongs depending on the season. Australia liveaboards run dedicated Coral Sea itineraries out of Cairns.

Cod Hole and the Ribbon Reefs

Near Lizard Island, Cod Hole puts you face to face with giant potato cod fed by guides for decades. The surrounding Ribbon Reefs, including Yonge Reef and Dynamite Passage, add pristine walls and regular encounters with Maori wrasse, turtles, and rays at nearby False Entrance.

The SS Yongala

Off Townsville, the SS Yongala wreck rests where it sank in 1911 after a strong typhoon. It now functions as an artificial reef, 100 miles from the nearest natural underwater structure. Expect heavy animal traffic: bull rays, guitar sharks, giant groupers, turtles, and sea snakes all use the wreck as a habitat.

Marine life highlights

• Reef sharks (of the 125+ species in Australian waters)
• Giant potato cod
• Dwarf minke and humpback whales
• Maori (Napoleon) wrasse

Where can you dive Belize's Mesoamerican Reef and Great Blue Hole?

Belize's barrier reef, the second largest in the world, splits into a handful of distinct diving regions, and Belize resorts and liveaboards reach all of them.

Ambergris Caye and Hol Chan Marine Reserve

Ambergris Caye sits closest to the barrier reef and gives you easy access to Hol Chan, where spur-and-groove formations shelter nurse sharks, southern stingrays, and dense schools of reef fish. Resorts located here put you a short boat ride from around 40 dive sites.

Turneffe Atoll

Turneffe is the largest of Belize's three atolls and stays comparatively uncrowded. You'll dive walls and patch reefs thick with horse-eye jacks and loggerhead turtles, with whale sharks and migrating whales passing by seasonally. Several Turneffe Atoll resorts offer direct access to the atoll's dive sites.

Lighthouse Reef and the Great Blue Hole