World's Best Dives: Top 10 Easily Accessible Dive Sites

Only scuba divers understand the feeling of being at home in the ocean — the inner calm that comes with being completely weightless, the beauty of sunbeams shining down on corals, the face-to-mask privilege of encountering animals such as sea turtles gliding in the current. Quickly accessed destinations with warm water and vibrant marine life are the stuff of dreams for divers who are laid-back travelers. All they have to do is stuff their swimsuit and sandals in a bag, hop on a direct flight, pack warm-water dive gear and, just a few hours later, giant-stride into some of the best diving on planet Earth.

First Cathedral
Lanai, Hawaii
The diversity of this site’s topography, from lava-formed pinnacles to sun-drenched caves, is matched by the variety of marine life. Keep an eye out for everything from whitetip reef sharks and spinner dolphins to schools of butterflyfish and golden lace nudibranchs.

Southwest Reef
New Providence Island, Bahamas
Take your camera for this series of patch reefs — 25 feet at its deepest — that are covered in finger sponges, anemones, star corals and sea fans. Although there’s always the chance of seeing big stuff — namely nurse sharks and hawksbill turtles — this site is more about smaller finds, including lettuce sea slugs and channel clinging crabs.

Santa Rosa Wall
Cozumel, Mexico
Starting at 50 feet and plunging to 120, this intermediate wall dive remains a favorite for its system of wide, light-filled swim-throughs. The wall itself, covered in rope and encrusting sponges, is commonly visited by angelfish, hawksbill turtles, eagle rays and nurse sharks.

Calvin’s Crack
Roatan, Honduras
Named for the 10-foot-wide cleft in the reef — starting in about 20 feet of water — that takes divers to the wall’s edge at about 85 feet, Calvin’s Crack is a beautifully coral- and gorgonian-decorated tunnel. When divers wind back to the top of the wall, odds are high for encountering seahorses, toadfish, lobsters and a host of crabs.

Black Coral Wall
Turneffe Atoll, Belize
Try not to be distracted by the beefy nurse sharks and hungry green moray eels on the prowl at this site; look around and find hundreds of schoolmasters and macro critters, from nudibranchs and blennies to cleaner shrimp and juvenile boxfish.

Casino Point
Catalina Island, California
You’ll hit the jackpot at this park-protected site located in the shadow of the island’s iconic casino. It’s home to forests of giant kelp and the kelp bass, angel sharks, bat rays and bright-orange garibaldi fish that seek shelter among it.

Area 51
Jupiter, Florida
Reef sharks are the main reason to drop down on this system of ledges at 90 feet — but they’re not the only big life at this Gulf Stream-warmed site. Loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, goliath grouper, barracuda and schools of Atlantic spadefish and jacks are all commonly seen.

Hermes
Bermuda
Many ships have come to grief on Bermuda’s shallow reefs, but Hermes, one of the island’s most intact wrecks, is not one of them — it was purpose-sunk in 1985. This 165-foot former U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender now sits just 1 mile from shore in 80 feet of water, with its wheelhouse at just 45 feet. The location features average visibility of 100 feet or greater, and it’s a habitat for sergeant majors, damselfish and barracuda.

SS Sapona
Bimini, Bahamas
This 270-foot concrete-hulled cargo steamer with a maximum depth of 20 feet is ideal for divers seeking long bottom times amid schools of French grunts and creole wrasse, and for snorkelers looking to fin among angelfish, trumpetfish and green moray eels.

Donna’s Delight
Little Cayman
Found inside Bloody Bay Marine Park, one of the Caribbean’s most beloved spots for wall diving, this drop-off starts at roughly 30 feet, dropping to well past recreational limits. All along the reef’s edge, expect to find gardens of black coral and to be greeted by loggerhead turtles, reef squid and Nassau grouper.