SS Thistlegorm
Sharm El Sheikh & Ras Mohammed, Egypt
WWII supply ship bombed on 6 October 1941; holds still carry Bedford trucks and Norton and BSA motorcycles.
- Advanced
- Wreck
- Turtles
Where should you dive next?
The independent dive guide. Every agency, every fact sourced, no paid rankings.
Tell us your level, your month and what you want to see. We rank 111 destinations and 1,274 dive sites for you, and show why.
Find my dive trip
Four questions, every result explained.
Top match right now: Open Water diver, October
WakatobiIndonesia100% match
- October is one of the best months to dive here.source
- 17 dive sites suited to Open Water divers (17 with a published source for the level).
Every dive on the map
The bigger the circle, the more dive sites we document there. Tap one to open the destination.
- 111
- destinations
- 1,274
- dive sites
- 47
- countries
- 10,060
- sourced facts
Updated 13 October 2026
Explore the interactive mapMap: Natural Earth. Locations: Wikipedia.
New to divingLearn to diveThe best places for a first dive or an Open Water course, ranked on calm, shallow sites and warm water.See where to start
Tired of the crowdsBeyond the obviousLove Koh Tao, the Gili Islands or Cozumel? Quieter places that dive the same way.Find quieter alternatives
Ready for moreLevel upStrong currents, deep walls, wrecks and caverns, with the training each one needs first.Find a challengeBuilt by a dive instructor
I'm Sébastien. I work in IT, and I found diving by chance at 33, on a discovery dive in Vietnam. I trained up to instructor and taught on the Gili Islands for two years. Today I still dive for fun whenever I can travel: Belize, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, Egypt. When I looked for dive sites, I kept landing on pages that only listed places with a centre from one agency. Reef Explorers lists them all.
- No destination or dive centre can pay to rank higher.
- Every agency, not just one: PADI, SSI, CMAS, FFESSM and others.
- Every fact comes with its source. What we don't know, we say.
Vietnam
A discovery dive, by chance, at 33
Nha Trang
Open Water, then Advanced
Gili Islands
Rescue, Divemaster, Instructor
Gili Islands
Two years teaching
Belize, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt
Still diving for fun, whenever I can travel
Reef Explorers
The guide I wished I'd had
Dive sites worth the trip
Legendary dives and quieter places that deserve a spot on your map.
Batu Bolong
Komodo, Indonesia
Tiny Central Komodo rock pinnacle with clouds of anthias, bigeye trevally and sweetlips, whitetips on the deeper slopes and common hawksbill turtles.
- Advanced
- Pinnacle
- Whitetip reef sharks
Silfra Fissure
Iceland – Þingvellir, Iceland
Glacial meltwater between two tectonic plates, with visibility that can pass 100 m.
- Open Water
- Fissure
Barracuda Point
Sipadan & Semporna, Malaysia
On Sipadan's north coast, divers can end up in the middle of a swirling vortex of chevron or blacktail barracuda.
- Advanced
- Wall
- Grey reef sharks
Monad Shoal
Malapascua, Philippines
A plateau where thresher sharks rise at dawn to visit cleaning stations.
- Advanced
- Pinnacle
- Bull sharks
Blue Hole (Dwejra)
Malta, Gozo & Comino, Malta
A limestone sinkhole whose underwater window at 9 m opens onto the open sea, its walls covered in tubeworms and sponges.
- Advanced
- Cavern
Hidden gems
Sunken forests, flooded mines, clear springs: dives you won't find at the top of a search engine.
Hidden gem
Lake Kaindy
Lake Kaindy, Kazakhstan
Trunks of submerged Schrenk's spruce stand in a 2,000 m alpine lake dammed by a landslide from the 1911 Kebin earthquake.
- Experienced
- Ice dive
Hidden gem
Barracuda Lake
Coron, Philippines
A lake where fresh water sits on top of salt water heated by geothermal vents to 38 C, with a resident barracuda.
- Advanced
- Lake
- Barracuda
Artificial reef
down to 13 m
Hidden gem
Baia Underwater Archaeological Park
Baia (Bay of Naples), Italy
Guided dives to the Nymphaeum of Emperor Claudius, the Villa dei Pisoni and Roman mosaic floors lying 4-8 m deep.
- Open Water
- Octopus
Hidden gem
Piccaninnie Ponds
Mount Gambier sinkholes, Australia
A spring-fed pool of startlingly clear water; its deeper chasm is reserved for cave divers.
- Technical
- Cave
Read every dive like an instructor
Each dive site shows its water column: how deep the usual dive goes, the deepest point, and where each certification stops. You see at a glance if a dive is for you, before you book it.
- Open Water: up to 18 m
- Advanced: up to 30 m
- Experienced: up to 40 m, strong currents
- Technical: beyond, with decompression or overhead
Open Water limit, 18 mUsual dive, about 30 mAdvanced limit, 30 mDeepest point, 33 m
Your next dive is somewhere out there.
Find my next dive tripPhoto credits
- Divers watching a group of manta rays in blue water, Sebastian Pena Lambarri, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
- SS Thistlegorm dive site, Northern Red Sea Wrecks, Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Batu Bolong dive site, Komodo, Indonesia, Alexander Vasenin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Silfra Fissure dive site, Iceland, Thomei08 ich bin ein Kiwi / Thomei08 at German Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Barracuda Point dive site, Sipadan / Semporna, Chen Wu from Shanghai, China, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Monad Shoal dive site, Malapascua, Jun V Lao, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Blue Hole Gozo dive site, Malta / Gozo / Comino, Mrcrycrash, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Drowned spruce trunks rising from Lake Kaindy, Kazakhstan, Katariyakartikey, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Barracuda Lake Dive site, Coron, Madcel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Piccaninnie Ponds dive site, Australia, Mark Whatmough, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Sunlight and bubbles in deep blue water, Sarah Lee, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
- A diver swimming in clear, shallow blue water over sand, Jesse van Vliet, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
- A wide, quiet coral reef under calm water, Francesco Ungaro, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
- A shipwreck in deep blue water, Karl Callwood, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
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