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Worldwide Diving Specials from Scuba Travel
Throughout all our worldwide destinations we are getting reports of incredible diving, from dolphins, hammerhead and whale shark sightings in the red sea, manta encounters in the Maldives, in Indonesia the diversity in dive sites: from endless hard coral reefs to current swept pinnacles covered in fish, black sandy slopes full of critters and volcanic bubbles as well as speedy channels where big fish congregate. It really is a wonderful time to go diving.
Check out our worldwide special offers and book yourself on a holiday to remember!
Scuba Travel offers full financial protection – ATOL and ABTOT bonded
Giant Mantas of Socorro Save £1100 from £2095 excluding flights
Visit Mexico’s Little Galapagos. It’s best known residents are the giant Pacific manta, who come to be cleaned by the Clarion angel fish. These are huge manta by any standards and can grow up to 7m from each wingtip. Just jump in and let one of the most magnificent shows on earth unfold before your eyes. But the remarkable pelagic sightings don’t stop there. Here you can dive with sharks in their droves. And then there are seasonal humpbacks and bait balls. What is there not to love about one of the world’s last true wildernesses?
Shark Quest Hurricane from only £995
The first few trips are back and everyone is delighted with the boat, crew and diving!
Hurricane stands out in the Egyptian Red Sea – and not just because she is one of the few steel hulled vessels. Many Red Sea liveaboards are compared to Hurricane, but few are as enduringly popular. She has won the prestigious “Liveaboard of the Year” award no less than 5 times (including 2017 & 2016).
- 13th June – Shark Quest £995! 4 spaces at this price
- 1st November – Shark Quest £1395
Your holiday includes flights from Gatwick to Marsa Alam. All fees, 12 L tank & weights and FREE NITROX
Siladen Resort – Introductory Offer
Sildaen Dive Resort & Spa in Manado Indonesia. Luxury dive resorts don’t need to cost the earth. The boutique Siladen resort sits on 300m of white sandy beach in the heart of Bunaken national park and prides itself on the 5 star experience at a price that you can afford.
This is a hidden oasis of perfection that effortlessly combines dive escapism with serious eco friendly credentials. While away the hours underwater with over 50 dives sites in world famous Bunaken only a short boat ride away. And when the diving is don, soak up the breathtaking sunsets from your lounger beach facing the Manado Tua volcano.
- Introductory offer – save £300!
- From £2195 including flights from Heathrow
Your holiday to Siladen includes flights from Heathrow to Manado with Singapore airlines, airport transfers, 7 nights garden view villa (full board, 2 people sharing), 17 air boat dives. Local taxes are prepaid.
Palau Rock Islands Aggressor- Save £1200
Palau is a distant land filled with adventure. The best way to see as much as possible of this idyllic destination is from the decks of a liveaboard. So jump aboard the Palau Rock Islands Aggressor for a dive holiday with distinction. Submerse yourself in an underwater cave or snorkel with stingfree jellyfish in their thousands… these are only some of the exquisite dives you can do over the course of the week’s discovery. Pristine reefs, Second World War wrecks and an abundance of marine life await.
Dive up to 4 times a day on reefs, walls and wrecks. And in between you have the creature comforts that Palau Rock Islands Aggressor is so famous for.
Caribbean Explorer 2 save up to £400
Discover the diving of Saba and St Kitts on board Caribbean Explorer 2. St Kitts is well known as being one of the most picturesque Caribbean islands and has incredibly varied diving to boot. Saba Island is home to exhilarating wall dives with pelagics and swirling fish balls. Virgin reef systems and coral gardens as well as shark dives and drifts await. And with up to 5 dives a day, your Caribbean liveaboard delivers one diving thrill after another.
if you are looking for a true Caribbean getaway for your next diving liveaboard, then the Eastern Caribbean itinerary is the choice for you.
Carpe Vita 11th August save £300 plus free Nitrox
Carpe Vita goes above and beyond the usual Maldives liveaboard. Your package here is one of the most comprehensive we’ve seen, with up to 4 dives a day, alcohol with your evening meal (2 glasses of wine or beer) and additional on board facilities included as standard. At a generous 38m in length and a whopping 10m breadth, she’s as spacious as she is well laid out. Carpe Vita has plenty of space for everyone. See for yourself the attention to detail that makes Carpe Vita a well loved liveaboard with divers.
The Maldives Seasonal Sensations itinerary wends its way between Male and Baa atolls, cherry picking the highlight dive sites for that season. Timing is everything – dive the east side of the atolls, when sites that are at their seasonal hottest for sharks, manta and gorgeous coral reefs.
Dive the Azores 11th August save £100 8 nights from £1775
Faial island is arguably the most beautiful of the Azores islands, separated from Pico island by a narrow strait. It’s a stunning island, and popular for the almost guaranteed whale and dolphin encounters. But look beneath the waves and you find a new exciting world. Faial has great reefs and walls for divers, but it’s the blue sharks that attract most people here. Shallow encounters in blue water… what’s not to like!
Diving around Faial will excite all experience levels. The sites are uncrowded and Haliotis have the largest, most comfy boats to dive from. There are undulating reef reefs, lava tunnels, walls and even a wreck.
Dive the Red Sea on Whirlwind from £1095
Whirlwind has to be one of our favourite Red Sea liveaboards – and clearly fellow divers share our affection for her. This is 5 star Red Sea diving at affordable prices… just one of the reasons UK divers keep coming back to this superior liveaboard.
She has a well deserved reputation for the quality of finish on board, her long standing crew are the definition of attentive and she has all the award winning hallmarks of Tornado Marine fleet (from the decor to the tasty food)! Discover today how effortless diving can be when your liveaboard has been designed by divers for divers.
To find out more about Scuba Travel and the dive holidays they offer call 0800 0728221, email dive@scubatravel.com or visit www.scubatravel.com.
Jake Davies boards Ghazala Explorer for an unforgettable Red Sea diving experience…
The second day’s diving was a day full of wreck diving at Abu Nuhas, which included the Chrisoula K, Carnatic, and Ghiannis D. The first dive of the day was onto the Chrisoula K, also known as the wreck of tiles. The 98m vessel remains largely intact where she was loaded with tiles which can be seen throughout the hold. The stern sits at 26m and the bow just below the surface. One of the highlights of the wreck is heading inside and seeing the workroom where the machinery used for cutting the tiles are perfectly intact. The bow provided some relaxing scenery as the bright sunlight highlighted the colours of the soft coral reef and the many reef fish.
Following breakfast, we then headed to the next wreck, which was the Carnatic. The Carnatic is an 89.9m sail steamer vessel that was built in Britain back in 1862. She ran aground on the reef back in 1869 and remains at 27m. At the time, she was carrying a range of items, including 40,000 sterling in gold. An impressive wreck where much of the superstructure remains, and the two large masts lay on the seafloor. The wooden ribs of the hull provide structures for lots of soft corals, and into the stern section, the light beams through, bouncing off the large shoals of glass fish that can be found using the structure as shelter from the larger predators that are found outside of the wreck.
The final wreck at Abu Nuhas was the Ghiannis D, originally called ‘Shoyo Maru,’ which was 99.5m long and built in Japan back in 1969 before becoming a Greek-registered cargo ship in 1980. The ship then ran aground on the reef on April 19th, 1983, and now sits at the bottom at a depth of 27m. Heading down the line, the stern of the ship remains in good condition compared to the rest of the hull. The highlight of the wreck, though, is heading into the stern section and down the flights of stairs to enter the engine room, which remains in good condition and is definitely worth exploring. After exploring the interior section of the ship, we then headed over to see the rest of the superstructure, where it’s particularly interesting to see the large table corals that have grown at the bow relatively quickly considering the date the ship sank. After surfacing and enjoying some afternoon snacks, we made sure everything was strapped down and secured as we would be heading north and crossing the Gulf of Suez, where the winds were still creating plenty of chop.
The next morning, it was a short hop to Ras Mohammed Nature Reserve for the next couple of days of diving. The 6am wake-up call came along with the briefing for the first site we would be diving, which was Shark & Yolanda. The low current conditions allowed us to start the dive at Anemone City, where we would drift along the steep, coral-filled wall. These dives involved drifts, as mooring in Ras Mohammed wasn’t allowed to protect the reefs. As a dive site, Shark & Yolanda is well-known and historically had a lot of sharks, but unfortunately not so many in recent years, especially not so early in the season. However, there was always a chance when looking out into the blue.
The gentle drift took us along the steep walls of the site, with plenty of anemone fish to be seen and a huge variety of corals. It wasn’t long into the dive before we were accompanied by a hawksbill turtle, who drifted with us between the two atolls before parting ways. Between the two reefs, the shallow patch with parts of coral heads surrounded by sand provided the chance to see a few blue-spotted stingrays that were mainly resting underneath the corals and are always a pleasure to see. With this being the morning dive, the early sunlight lit up the walls, providing tranquil moments. Looking out into the blue, there was very little to be seen, but a small shoal of batfish shimmering underneath the sunlight was a moment to capture as we watched them swim by as they watched us.
Towards the end of the dive, we stopped at the wreck of the Jolanda where the seafloor was scattered with toilets from the containers it was carrying. This provided a unique site to make a safety stop, which was also accompanied by a large barracuda slowly swimming by, along with a hawksbill turtle calmly swimming over the reef as the sun rays danced in the distance.
For the next dive, we headed north to the Strait of Tiran to explore the reefs situated between Tiran Island and Sharm El Sheik, which were named after the British divers who had found them. We started on Jackson before heading to Gordons Reef, where we also did the night dive. All the atolls at these sites provided stunning, bustling coral reefs close to the surface and steep walls to swim along, which always provided the opportunity to keep an eye out for some of the larger species that can be seen in the blue. Midwater around Jackson Reef was filled with red-toothed triggerfish and shoals of banner fish, which at times were so dense that you couldn’t see into the blue. Moments went by peacefully as we enjoyed the slow drift above the reef, watching these shoals swim around under the mid-afternoon sun.
The night dive at Gordon’s Reef was mainly among the stacks of corals surrounded by sand, which was great to explore under the darkness. After some time circling the corals, we came across what we were really hoping to find, and that was an octopus hunting on the reef. We spent the majority of the dive just watching it crawl among the reef, blending into its changing surroundings through changes in colour and skin texture. It’s always so fascinating and captivating to watch these incredibly intelligent animals, in awe of their ability to carry out these physical changes to perfectly blend into the reef. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat to enjoy a well-deserved tasty dinner prepared by the talented chefs onboard.
Check in for the 3rd and final part of this series from Jake tomorrow!
To find out more about the Northern Red Sea reef and wrecks itineraries aboard Ghazala Explorer, or to book, contact Scuba Travel now:
Email: dive@scubatravel.com
Tel: +44 (0)1483 411590
Photos: Jake Davies / Avalon.Red
The Shark Trust is excited to announce that, for two more days only, all donations, large or small, will be doubled in the Big Give Green Match Fund!
Donate to Basking in Nature: Sighting Giants
The Shark Trust is hoping to raise £10k which will be doubled to £20k. This will go towards Basking in Nature: Sighting Giants. And they need YOUR help to reach they’re goal.
The Shark Trust’s citizen science project is to monitor and assess basking sharks through sightings; encouraging data collection, community engagement, and promoting nature accessibility. This initiative aims to enhance health and wellbeing by fostering a deeper connection with British Sharks.
Campaign Aims
- Increase citizen science reporting of Basking Sharks and other shark sightings to help inform shark and ray conservation.
- Provide educational talks about the diverse range of sharks and rays in British waters and accessible identification guides!
- Create engaging and fun information panels on how to ID the amazing sharks and rays we have on our doorstep! These can be used on coastal paths around the Southwest. With activities and information on how you can make a difference for sharks and rays!
- Promote mental wellbeing through increasing time in nature and discovering the wonders beneath the waves!
Donate, and double your impact. Click Here
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