Reef
down to 10 m
Barracuda Shoals
Shallow (10 m), low-current Exuma patch reef with schooling barracuda, goliath grouper, turtles, nurse sharks and southern stingrays.
- Open Water
- Nurse sharks
Bahamas
17 documented dive sites, 10 of them for Open Water divers. Known for hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks and caribbean reef sharks.
- Best months
- Jun–Mar
- Water
- 22–28 °C
- Levels
- Open Water, Advanced
When to go
Pick a month: the diving season, from published sources, and the typical weather.
Pick a month
- Best
- Good
- Possible
- Closed
- Not documented yet
Bahamas in October
Best season- Air
- 29 °C
- 25 °C at night
- Rain
- 110 mm
- one of the wettest months
- Wind
- 18 km/h
- on average
Typical weather, not a forecast: averages for 2021–2025 (air, rain, wind), data from Open-Meteo (ERA5 / Copernicus, Météo-France). Covers an area of roughly 10 to 25 km around the destination.
Year-round diving. Jun–Sep is shown as best for conditions (warmest water); Nov–Mar is shown as best for hammerhead season (Bimini great hammerheads, San Salvador scalloped hammerheads in winter); Oct–Jan are the best tiger shark months at Tiger Beach. Apr–May is shown as good (no specific highlight sourced). Hurricane-season risk (Jun–Nov) has not been sourced and is not reflected.
Dive sites in Bahamas
From the easiest to the most demanding. Levels with a dashed outline are estimates we are still verifying.
Open Water friendly
usual dive down to 18 m10 sitesReef
down to 8 m
Periwinkle Reef
Shallow coral garden (max 8 m) off New Providence with sea fans, sponges, stingrays and passing reef sharks, ideal for beginners.
- Open Water
- Reef sharks
Wreck
down to 15 m
Bahama Mama Wreck
Former 29 m Nassau party boat sunk in 1995 on sand at 15 m, now home to juvenile fish, morays and passing reef sharks.
- Open Water
- Reef sharks
Macro
down to 15 m
Hogfish Reef
Hard and soft coral garden at 10-15 m near Tiger Beach, with schooling grunts and snappers and resident hogfish and wrasse.
- Open Water
- Snappers
Wreck
down to 14 m
James Bond Wrecks
Film wrecks off Nassau lying at about 13 m, shallow enough for divers of any level.
- Open Water
- Sharks
Wreck
down to 6 m
Sugar Wreck
1800s sugar-ship wreck in 6 m near Tiger Beach, covered in snappers and sweetlips, with resting stingrays and visiting lemon sharks.
- Open Water
- Lemon shark
Reef
down to 10 m
Turtle Rocks
Three rock formations on the edge of the Grand Bahama Bank, max 10 m, visited by spotted eagle rays and Caribbean reef and nurse sharks.
- Open Water
- Caribbean reef sharks
For Advanced divers
usual dive down to 30 m5 sites
Tiger Beach
Kneel on shallow sand about 20 miles off West End to watch tiger sharks, some females up to 4.5 m long, alongside lemon sharks.
- Advanced
- Pelagic
- Bull sharks
Dean's Blue Hole
The world's third-deepest blue hole at 202 m, in a bay west of Clarence Town, Long Island, and the venue of freediving world records.
- Advanced
- Blue hole
- Sharks
Wreck
Comberbach Wreck
- Advanced
- Sharks
Marine life
When the big encounters happen, month by month.
| Species | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hammerhead sharksSource: liveaboard.com | ||||||||||||
| Tiger sharksSource: liveaboard.com | ||||||||||||
| Humpback whalesSource: liveaboard.com |
- Peak season
- Seen
Hammerhead sharks: Nov–Mar. Tiger sharks: Oct–Jan. Humpback whales: Nov–Feb
Also reported here, season not documented yet:
- Caribbean reef sharks
- Nurse sharks
- Dolphins
- Turtles
- Eagle rays
- Stingrays
- Barracuda
- Groupers
- Bull sharks
- Lemon shark
- Silky sharks
Where is the Bahamas?
Bahamas: frequently asked questions
- When is the best time to dive Bahamas?
- The best months to dive Bahamas are Jun–Mar. Year-round diving. Jun–Sep is shown as best for conditions (warmest water); Nov–Mar is shown as best for hammerhead season (Bimini great hammerheads, San Salvador scalloped hammerheads in winter); Oct–Jan are the best tiger shark months at Tiger Beach. Apr–May is shown as good (no specific highlight sourced). Hurricane-season risk (Jun–Nov) has not been sourced and is not reflected.
- Is Bahamas good for beginner divers?
- Yes, partly: 10 of the 17 dive sites we document are suited to Open Water divers, including Barracuda Shoals, Periwinkle Reef and Bahama Mama Wreck. The others need more experience or a higher certification.
- What is the water temperature in Bahamas?
- The water is usually between 22 °C and 28 °C over the year.
- What marine life can you see in Bahamas?
- Divers regularly see hammerhead sharks (Nov–Mar), tiger sharks (Oct–Jan), caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, dolphins and turtles.
About this page
Seasons and marine life come from the sources below. Site levels and depths marked as estimated come from our original catalogue and are being checked one by one. Conditions change: always confirm with a local dive centre.
Your next dive is somewhere out there.
Find my next dive tripPhoto credits
- Goat Cay, Exuma, Bahamas, DrGvago, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Caribbean reef sharks at Tiger Beach, Bahamas, Dennis Hipp (Zepto), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Dean's Blue Hole dive site, Long Island, Bahamas, Ton Engwirda, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, via Wikimedia Commons
- Sunlight and bubbles in deep blue water, Sarah Lee, Unsplash License, on Unsplash
