39 open-water sites28 countries

Open-water dive sites worldwide

Browse by country to find open-water dives for your experience level.

Other types

reef497 wall124 wreck92 pinnacle42 cave39 open water39 channel34 muck13 seamount12 cavern9 drift7 cenote5 blue hole2

Australia

open-water

Port Lincoln - Great White Shark Cage Diving

Port Lincoln · South Australia · Australia

Australia's only great white shark cage diving destination, where encounters with the ocean's apex predator occur in the Neptune Islands' crystal waters.

Chile

open-water

Moai Underwater (Hanga Roa Bay)

Hanga Roa · Rapa Nui (Easter Island) · Chile

A submerged Moai statue resting on a volcanic slope in the world's most remote inhabited island, surrounded by crystal-clear water with 60+ metre visibility.

Colombia

open-water

Malpelo Island

Buenaventura · Colombian Pacific · Colombia

A remote UNESCO-listed volcanic pinnacle in the eastern Pacific, renowned for massive schools of hammerhead sharks and rare smalltooth sand tiger sharks.

Czech Republic

open-water

Straz pod Ralskem Quarry

Liberec · Liberec Region · Czech Republic

A deep flooded quarry in northern Bohemia offering exceptional freshwater visibility, dramatic underwater cliffs, and purpose-built attractions making it the Czech Republic's premier dive training site.

Estonia

open-water

Rummu Underwater Quarry

Tallinn · Harju County · Estonia

A flooded Soviet-era prison quarry near Tallinn where submerged buildings, guard towers, and industrial machinery create a surreal underwater landscape in crystal-clear freshwater.

Gabon

open-water

Pongara National Park

Libreville · Estuaire Province · Gabon

An unexplored frontier of Central African diving where the equatorial Atlantic meets the Gabon estuary, yielding encounters with humpback whales, whale sharks, and pristine rocky reefs.

Georgia

open-water

Batumi Black Sea Diving

Batumi · Adjara, Black Sea Coast · Georgia

An emerging dive destination on Georgia's Black Sea coast where Ottoman-era shipwrecks, Soviet military relics, and unique anoxic water chemistry create a diving experience unlike anywhere else on Earth.

Germany

open-water

Kreidesee Hemmoor

Cuxhaven · Lower Saxony · Germany

A flooded chalk quarry in northern Germany with extraordinary visibility up to 20 metres, submerged forest remnants, intentionally placed wrecks and vehicles, and depths to 60 metres making it one of Europe's premier inland dive training and recreation sites.

Greenland

open-water

Ilulissat Iceberg Diving

Ilulissat · Disko Bay · Greenland

An extreme cold-water dive among calved icebergs from the Jakobshavn glacier, where translucent blue ice walls extend below the surface and Arctic marine life thrives in water barely above freezing.

Guatemala

open-water

Lake Atitlan Freshwater Dive

Panajachel · Solola Department · Guatemala

A remarkable freshwater altitude dive in one of the world's most beautiful volcanic crater lakes where submerged Mayan ruins, thermoclines, and the mysterious deep-blue water of Central America's deepest lake create a truly unique diving experience.

Honduras

open-water

Utila Whale Shark Banks

Utila Town · Bay Islands · Honduras

The underwater banks north of Utila where whale sharks aggregate seasonally to feed on fish and tunicate spawn, offering one of the most affordable and accessible whale shark encounter experiences in the Caribbean.

Iceland

open-water

Silfra Fissure

Reykjavik · Thingvellir National Park · Iceland

A tectonic fissure between the Eurasian and North American plates filled with glacial water offering over 100 metres of visibility — the clearest diving on Earth.

Indonesia

open-water

Sawu Sea

Ba'a · East Nusa Tenggara · Indonesia

A vast pelagic wilderness between Timor and Sumba where deep oceanic upwellings attract blue whales, sperm whales, and oceanic manta rays to one of the last truly wild marine frontiers in Southeast Asia.

Libya

open-water

Sabratha Roman Ruins Underwater

Sabratha · Tripolitania · Libya

Submerged Roman-era ruins and port structures off the ancient city of Sabratha, where archaeological remains from one of Libya's UNESCO World Heritage Sites extend beneath the Mediterranean surface.

Madagascar

open-water

Ile Sainte-Marie Whale Watching

Ambodifotatra · Eastern Madagascar · Madagascar

A tropical island off Madagascar's east coast where humpback whales migrate through the warm channel waters from July to September, combined with pristine coral reef diving and encounters with endemic marine species.

Maldives

open-water

Hanifaru Bay Manta Aggregation

Dharavandhoo · Baa Atoll · Maldives

A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve bay in Baa Atoll where seasonal plankton concentrations create the largest known feeding aggregations of reef manta rays, with dozens gathering simultaneously in shallow water.

Fuvahmulah Tiger Shark Dive

Fuvahmulah · Gaafu Alifu Atoll · Maldives

A dedicated tiger shark encounter dive off the harbour of Fuvahmulah Island where the deep oceanic channel attracts resident tiger sharks, thresher sharks, and oceanic mantas to the cleaning stations of this isolated equatorial island.

Fuvahmulah Tiger Shark Point

Fuvahmulah · Gnaviyani Atoll · Maldives

A deep-water cleaning station off Fuvahmulah Island where tiger sharks gather year-round, offering the Maldives' most reliable encounters with these apex predators in blue oceanic water.

Fesdu Lagoon Whale Shark Area

Maamigili · North Ari Atoll · Maldives

An open-water area off North Ari Atoll where juvenile whale sharks congregate year-round to feed on plankton blooms, offering some of the most reliable whale shark snorkelling and diving in the world.

Rasdhoo Hammerhead Point

Rasdhoo · Rasdhoo Atoll · Maldives

A legendary early-morning deep dive at the outer edge of Rasdhoo Atoll where scalloped hammerhead sharks gather in schools at dawn in the deep blue water beyond the reef.

Dhigurah Whale Shark Point

Dhigurah · South Ari Atoll · Maldives

The Maldives' most reliable whale shark encounter site along the outer reef of South Ari Atoll, where year-round resident juvenile whale sharks cruise the channel edges in crystal-clear Indian Ocean water.

Mauritania

open-water

Banc d'Arguin Fishing Waters

Nouadhibou · Dakhlet Nouadhibou · Mauritania

A UNESCO-protected shallow bank off Mauritania's Saharan coast where cold Canary Current upwelling sustains one of West Africa's richest marine ecosystems amid vast seagrass meadows and sandy flats.

Mexico

open-water

Isla Guadalupe Great White Sharks

Ensenada · Baja California · Mexico

A volcanic island 240 kilometers off Baja California offering the world's clearest water for great white shark cage diving, with visibility regularly exceeding 30 meters and reliable encounters from August to November.

La Paz Whale Shark Encounter

La Paz · Baja California Sur · Mexico

The Sea of Cortez waters off La Paz host the largest seasonal aggregation of whale sharks in North America, with dozens of juveniles gathering in the shallow bay from October through April.

Magdalena Bay Gray Whales

Ciudad Constitucion · Baja California Sur · Mexico

A sheltered Pacific lagoon where gray whales gather each winter to calve and nurse, offering extraordinary in-water encounters with curious mothers and calves in shallow warm waters.

Isla Holbox Whale Sharks

Cancun · Quintana Roo · Mexico

The convergence of Caribbean and Gulf waters off Isla Holbox creates the Western Hemisphere's largest seasonal whale shark aggregation, with hundreds of filter-feeding giants gathering to feast on tuna spawn.

Playa del Carmen Bull Shark Dive

Playa del Carmen · Quintana Roo · Mexico

A seasonal open-water dive off Playa del Carmen's coast where female bull sharks aggregate between November and March, offering close encounters with one of the ocean's most powerful predators on a sandy bottom in clear Caribbean water.

Mozambique

open-water

Tofo Beach Whale Sharks

Inhambane · Inhambane Province · Mozambique

A legendary whale shark aggregation site off Tofo Beach where divers and snorkellers encounter the world's largest fish cruising the plankton-rich Mozambican current just minutes from shore.

Palau

open-water

Jellyfish Lake

Koror · Rock Islands · Palau

A landlocked marine lake in Palau's Rock Islands where millions of golden jellyfish have evolved without stingers, offering the surreal experience of swimming through a living cloud of pulsating gold.

Peru

open-water

Lake Titicaca

Puno · Puno Region · Peru

The world's highest navigable lake at 3,812 metres elevation, offering a surreal high-altitude freshwater dive among Inca ruins and unique endemic species.

Philippines

open-water

Donsol Whale Sharks

Donsol · Sorsogon · Philippines

The Philippines' premier whale shark interaction site where dozens of whale sharks gather seasonally to feed on plankton in the nutrient-rich waters off Sorsogon.

Poland

open-water

Koparki Quarry

Jaworzno · Silesia · Poland

A flooded limestone quarry in southern Poland popular with Central European divers, featuring submerged training platforms, a sunken bus, and surprisingly clear freshwater reaching 28 meters depth.

Portugal

open-water

Santa Maria Island Formigas Bank

Vila do Porto · Azores · Portugal

An offshore volcanic bank south of Santa Maria Island in the Azores where massive schools of barracuda, mobula rays, and oceanic pelagics congregate around submerged pinnacles in mid-Atlantic blue water.

South Africa

open-water

Sardine Run Wild Coast

Port St Johns · KwaZulu-Natal / Eastern Cape · South Africa

The greatest marine spectacle on Earth, where billions of sardines migrate along South Africa's Wild Coast pursued by sharks, dolphins, whales, and diving birds in a feeding frenzy of unmatched scale.

Shark Alley False Bay

Simon's Town · Western Cape · South Africa

A narrow channel between Seal Island and the mainland in False Bay where broadnose sevengill sharks, blue sharks, and Cape fur seals create one of South Africa's most intense predator-prey arenas within easy reach of Cape Town.

Shark Alley Gansbaai

Gansbaai · Western Cape · South Africa

The legendary channel between Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, once the undisputed great white shark capital of the world, now a thriving marine ecosystem with diverse shark species and Cape fur seals.

Tanzania

open-water

Mafia Island Whale Sharks

Kilindoni · Mafia Island · Tanzania

The waters off Mafia Island's western coast host East Africa's most reliable whale shark aggregation from October to March, with juvenile and sub-adult sharks feeding in shallow plankton-rich channels.

Tonga

open-water

Ha'apai Whale Swim

Pangai · Ha'apai Group · Tonga

Swim alongside humpback whales and their calves in the warm, crystal-clear waters of Tonga's remote Ha'apai island group.

United States

open-water

Dutch Springs Quarry

Bethlehem · Pennsylvania · United States

A former limestone quarry in eastern Pennsylvania converted into the East Coast's premier freshwater dive training facility, filled with sunken attractions including aircraft, buses, and platforms at progressive depths.

Open-water diving

Open-water dive sites are available across multiple countries and regions. Browse individual site pages for detailed conditions.

← All dive sites