Galápagos Islands
Ecuador
The most biodiverse marine ecosystem on earth. Hammerhead sharks in schools of hundreds, sea lions that want to play, marine iguanas that ignore you. Snorkelling here changes your relationship with the ocean.
Strap on a tank. The ocean is waiting.
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Shore diving, day-boat diving, and multi-day dive packages for all certification levels. Dive Globally is the accessible counterpart to Dive Liveaboards — covering PADI Open Water courses in warm, clear Caribbean waters, guided reef dives in the Maldives and Bali, wreck diving off Malta and the Florida Keys, night dives on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and drift dives in Palau's Blue Corner. Whether you're earning your first certification or logging your 500th dive, this SI connects you with dive resorts, dive operators, and guided experiences at every major dive destination on Earth.
TravelWell Expedition Index
Ranked by TravelWell's editorial team on access, uniqueness, ecological integrity and the particular quality of being somewhere that makes you reconsider what travel actually is.
Galápagos Islands
Ecuador
The most biodiverse marine ecosystem on earth. Hammerhead sharks in schools of hundreds, sea lions that want to play, marine iguanas that ignore you. Snorkelling here changes your relationship with the ocean.
Palawan
Philippines
El Nido and Coron offer two distinct ocean adventures: pristine reef snorkelling and wreck diving of exceptional quality. The limestone karsts rising from turquoise water make even the surface beautiful.
Maldives
Maldives
The world's finest diving and snorkelling infrastructure. Whale sharks at South Ari Atoll, mantas at Hanifaru Bay, night dives on reef walls that drop to 40 metres of visibility.
Papua New Guinea (Milne Bay & Kimbe Bay)
Papua New Guinea
Milne Bay and Kimbe Bay hold coral triangle reefs that marine biologists describe as the most species-rich in the world. Muck diving, pygmy seahorses, and encounters that are genuinely rare.
French Polynesia (Fakarava & Rangiroa)
France (French Polynesia)
The two great Tuamotu atolls: Rangiroa for shark passes, Fakarava for wall diving in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The passes fill with hundreds of grey reef sharks on the outgoing tide.
Komodo
Indonesia
The manta rays at Komodo are not incidental — they come in such numbers that divers hover in the current watching cleaning stations serve fifty at once. The dragon encounters on land are the support act.
Norway (Fjords & Arctic)
Norway
Sea kayaking through fjords with waterfalls falling from above, whale watching off the Lofoten Islands, and the midnight sun on the ocean at 70° north. Norway is Europe's ocean adventure capital.
Hawaii (Big Island)
United States
Manta ray night dives off Kona are one of the great ocean experiences: mantas with ten-foot wingspans feeding on plankton clouds, circling the lights of your torches.
Cape Town & Gansbaai
South Africa
Great white shark cage diving at Gansbaai is the world's most reliable encounter. Seal Island at dawn, the shark approaching the cage, the moment of absolute clarity.
New Zealand (Bay of Islands & Kaikōura)
New Zealand
Dolphin swimming, whale watching (sperm whales all year off Kaikōura), and a coastline that rewards kayakers for weeks.
Cocos Island
Costa Rica
Cocos Island National Park, 36 hours by boat from the mainland, is one of the world's top three dive destinations: hammerheads in massive schools, tiger sharks, whale sharks. Not for the faint-hearted.
Azores
Portugal
Blue whales, sperm whales, and dolphins gather in the deep water off Faial and Pico at concentrations that rival anywhere on earth. The Azores is the world's finest whale watching destination.
Tofo Beach
Mozambique
The whale shark aggregations off Tofo are the largest consistently reliable gathering of whale sharks in the world. Swimming alongside a 12-metre filter feeder is its own category of experience.
Providenciales, Turks & Caicos
Turks & Caicos Islands
The third-largest coral reef system in the world. French Cay draws bull sharks and hammerheads (November–March). Bight Reef is accessible from the beach. Grace Bay Wall drops to 60 feet of visibility.
Raja Ampat
Indonesia
The coral triangle epicentre. More species per square metre than anywhere else on earth. Walking sharks, pygmy seahorses, and a sense of diving in a place still being catalogued.
Belize (Great Blue Hole)
Belize
The most famous dive site in the Atlantic: a circular sinkhole 300 metres across and 125 metres deep. Stalactites hanging from the ceiling 30 metres down, bull sharks in the blue.
Tonga
Tonga
The only country in the world where you can legally swim with humpback whales. A snorkel, a boat, and a fifteen-metre cetacean two metres away: one of the great wildlife experiences on the planet.
Socorro Islands (Revillagigedo)
Mexico
Giant pacific mantas, whale sharks, humpback whales, silky sharks — the Socorro Islands are Mexico's Galápagos. Live-aboard only, 24 hours from Cabo.
British Columbia
Canada
Orca watching in the Broughton Archipelago, grizzly bear viewing from kayak in the Bute Inlet, and a coastal wilderness that makes British Columbia North America's finest ocean adventure destination.
Silfra Fissure
Iceland
The only place on earth you can snorkel or dive between two continental tectonic plates — the North American and Eurasian. Visibility of 100+ metres in glacial meltwater. An experience that cannot be found anywhere else.
TravelWell Expedition Index destinations are selected and ranked annually by our editorial team. Rankings reflect access difficulty, ecological uniqueness, operator quality and the irreplaceable quality of the experience. Destinations marked with a guide link have full TravelWell coverage.
PADI courses, day-boat dive trips, and the world's best reef destinations for divers of every certification.
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