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 | Reef Dives |
| By Michelle Fama |
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| A Natural Wonder |
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 | The Great Barrier Reef, Australia |
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There are three reasons many head to Australia: the beer, the beer, and the diving, of course! Great is an understatement when referring to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's northeast coast. It could very well be the ultimate diving experience — it is, after all, the world's largest coral reef. You can even see it from space! It is over 1,250 miles long and, in fact is not a single reef, but rather made up of over 2,900 individual reefs very close to each other.The water is a warm 75 to 85 degrees, visibility is crystal clear, and there are enough outstanding dive sites to last a lifetime. With such a long span of reef, every creature big and small is represented here. Diving in Australia is extremely competitive so finding the type of dive trip you want at cheap prices is easy to do. Cairns in Northern Queensland is a diving mecca and it is here that you will find the most attractive dive packages or Barrier Reef live-aboard trips.
For the maximum in sea creatures, head further out from the Great Barrier Reef deep into the Coral Sea where you can touch whale sharks and the famed Yongala wreck, which many believe is the best dive in the world!
Just the Facts
Want to experience diving in Australia for yourself?
GORP can get you there!
Check out GORP's Australia trips.
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| A Diving Evolution |
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| Galapagos, Ecuador |
The water can be chilly, the visibility less than ideal, but the Galapagos Islands offer aquatic attractions that can't be found anywhere else. There really isn't a reef here but the experience is so unique that it deserves inclusion into any top tens. It was in these remote islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador, that Charles Darwin found inspiration for his theory of evolution. It is a fantasy world for divers accustomed to nothing but small fish. Along with thick schools of tropicals, there are numerous sea turtles, sea lions, and large pelagics. Various dive sites have their own special attractions — sharks, penguins, or even the marine iguanas, remarkable creatures found nowhere else on earth.
Nothing can prepare you for your first underwater encounter with an iguana. With their humanlike limbs, they look like small green frogmen. Unafraid and largely uninterested in humans, they permit divers to approach very closely as they bottom-feed. It's tough diving, however, as the iguanas stick to shallow waters with lots of surge. Since there are no resorts because of its wilderness preserve status, all diving is done on a live-aboard basis.
A Perfect Dive Vacation |
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| Fiji, The South Pacific |
There are numerous great diving spots throughout the world, and to any diver who may have been fortunate enough to tackle most of them, Fiji would be considered the perfect dive vacation. It incorporates the best of diving in a true Polynesian way — clear visibility, warm water temperatures, a virginal quality and uncrowded experience, and the full spectrum of color and shape in the coral. And the variety of dive sites is amazing — an aerial view of Fiji's ocean looks like a patchwork quilt.
Although currents can be strong, the best diving spot in the Fiji islands is perhaps the northern group.
Just the Facts
Want to experience Fiji for yourself?
GORP can get you there!
Check out GORP's diving trips to Fiji.
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An Underwater Eden |
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| Palau, Micronesia |
If Adam and Eve were swimmers they most certainly would have plucked a sea anemone from the underwater eden that is Palau. This biodiverse corner of Micronesia has it all. Take a bath in the 84-degree waters that house whitetip reef sharks, venomous sea krates, and World War II wrecks. From Rock Islands, jungle-tufted outcroppings popping up like mushrooms over world-class dive sites, to the challenging and unpredictable currents that can sweep you over the protective reef to kingdom come, Palau will not disappoint.
Despite the hard-to-beat currents that require expert skills to battle, beginners can still enjoy the waters by using a reef hook. Loiter amongst the sea activity without worry!
Few other diving destinations come close to Palau's cutting-edge diving and unique experience. The ones that do, however, are in the general neighborhood of the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The variety of dive sites in such a concentrated area is head spinning, with 60 great drop-offs to 300 meters, dozens of blue holes, and a famed five-chambered cave system. Come face-to-face with 1,000-pound clams, thick schools of reef fish, and the ever-exciting large pelagics.
Ring of Fire |
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| Sipidan, Borneo |
Where the waters of Indonesia kiss the waters of Malaysia, is called the Ring of Fire. And within this underwater circus lies one of the world's hottest dive destinations — Borneo's Sipidan Island. "I have seen other places like Sipidan, 45 years ago, but now we have found again an untouched piece of art," said famed underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau. If you measured the attractions of underwater Sipidan it would come unmatched just about anywhere else in the world — more fish, more turtles, more coral, and more diversity. Seeing 10 turtles in one dive is not uncommon, nor is seeing a school of about 300 barracuda.
Another to-die-for feature is the close proximity of dives to shore. Two thousand food drop-offs are just yards from the beach. Simply gear up, swim out a few yards, and get the best diving of your life — not to mention greet a huge amount of large pelagics passing by.
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