World's Best Islands for Big-Time Scuba Diving

Looking for a small island that delivers big-time scuba diving? These 10 tiny outposts pack a lot of punch per square mile.

READ MORE: The 50 Best Dive Sites in the World

1 Bonaire

Shore divers love Bonaire. Given the island’s 60-some dive sites spread off its 113 square miles, few Caribbean islands offer a higher concentration of scuba-ready real estate. With underwater topography to match its pancake flat topside, what you find are reefs with just enough slope to make navigation fairly easy. And it’s a destination that allows divers to grow: Start with directions from the dive shop to find frogfish on the house reef, then try steeper, rockier entries and pick off their amorphous shapes from the elephant ear sponges and the other perches frogfish prefer.
buddydive.com

Check out our picks for Top 10 Dive Sites in Bonaire.

2 Yap, Federated States of Micronesia

Mantas swim alongside divers 365 days a year off this 39-square-mile island. The area has been declared a sanctuary, and with little to no ongoing island development, there’s no runoff and very little pollution. Bill Acker, owner of Yap Divers, has been interacting with the rays since 1977. During mating season, he’s seen trains of 20 males chase a lone female.
mantaray.com

Discover our Top 10 Reasons to Scuba Dive in Yap.

3 Heron Island, Australia

This coral cay spanning just 30 acres gives divers instant access to the Great Barrier Reef without the liveaboard commitment. Find it 55 miles off the city of Gladstone, Queensland. The 20 regularly visited dive sites include bommies (aka pinnacles), walls and canyons, plus the beaches provide nesting grounds to green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles. But what’s perhaps most exciting is just a few fin kicks from shore: Surrounding the speck of land is a massive fringing reef, perfect for shore diving.
heronisland.com

Heron Island is one of our Top 10 Best Places for Beginner Divers.

4 Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

“No other dive centers come out here,” says Jeff Jones, operations manager for Jost Van Dyke Scuba, based on the British Virgin Islands’ fourth-biggest landmass, at 3 square miles. Sites including the Playground and Twin Towers sit amid the Atlantic. Here, the regulars include eagle rays, kingfish, barracuda, and nurse, bull and tiger sharks. Says PADI instructor James McKenzie, “It can be treacherous, but when the weather is calm, it’s just fantastic.”
jostvandykescuba.com

The fair isles of the BVI made our Top 10 Cruise Ship Ports for Scuba Divers.

5 Saba, Dutch Caribbean

“A busy week on Saba is 50 tourists,” says Lynn Costenaro, co-owner of dive outfit Sea Saba. On this 5-square-mile island 28 miles southwest of St. Maarten, coastal development is nearly nonexistent, allowing reefs and their residents to thrive. It’s one of a handful of Caribbean destinations offering muck diving, drop-offs and true pinnacles. Common sightings include frogfish, seahorses, batfish — and the list of odd finds keeps growing. At Eye of the Needle, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and other sites farther offshore, nurse, blacktip and Caribbean reef sharks are frequently sighted. So much so, says Costenaro, “My staff doesn’t even tell me about them anymore because it happens so often.”
seasaba.com

Discover our Top 10 Reasons to Scuba Dive in Saba.

6 Caye Caulker, Belize

Twenty miles off the Belizean coast, the 5-square-mile Caye Caulker is not influenced by mainland rainfall — its visibility remains 100 feet and beyond on most days. Its location also means quick access to the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, just 10 minutes away by boat. And Caye Caulker is the island closest to the Blue Hole. Out here, the diving is wilder: Walter Williams, PADI instructor for Belize Diving Services on Caye Caulker, has spotted hammerheads just five minutes into a dive. Plus, stingrays, eagle rays and turtles are all regularly sighted. Says Williams, “The only time we don’t see turtles is when they leave us to nest.”
belizedivingservices.com

Want to learn more about scuba diving in Belize? Read about the Caribbean's only true atolls in Dive the Elements In Belize's Wild Atolls.

7 Carriacou, Grenada

“We’re a relatively undiscovered island,” says Gary Ward, owner of Deefer Diving. He’s talking about Carriacou, a 13-square-mile island belonging to Grenada. The underwater topography lacks verticality, but makes up for it with its vibrancy. “What we have here is amazingly colorful and bright,” says Ward, adding that, of the 2,500 dives he’s logged, no place stands out more in his mind. His most recent dive exemplifying this began at a site called Shark Dorm, where a school of 18 tarpon surrounded the group. “When we swam through the tarpon, we found a 7-foot blacktip keeping pace with us,” says Ward.
deeferdiving.com

Ready to explore all of Grenada's many charms? Here are our Top 10 Reasons for Scuba Diving in Grenada.

8 South Bimini, Bahamas

There’s a reason Dr. Samuel Gruber based his shark lab on Bimini: The island, stretching 10 square miles combined with North Bimini, supports lemon, Caribbean reef, bull and great hammerhead sharks. The hammerheads pass through in late winter, with the highest numbers January through March; the rest ply the waters year-round. At feeding dives on sites such as Turtle Rock, schools of snapper weave between the nurse sharks. At Bimini Barge, take note of the life beyond the bull sharks: The site is rich with yellow snapper and pompano.
biminiscubacenter.com

Bimini is one of our top picks for Scuba Diving with Sharks in the Bahamas.

9 Little Cayman, Cayman Islands

Killer visibility of 100 feet or more is reason enough for this 11-square-mile island to be overrun with divers — and yet, the year-round population tops off at 170. Most of the land is home to red-footed boobies and three species of iguana. Underwater residents include yellowhead jawfish, damselfish, nudibranchs, tarpon and Caribbean reef sharks. But what’s most amazing is a rare interaction: The Nassau grouper are accustomed to several dive guides, following at their fin tips like a retriever its toy-toting owner. Because they’re protected within Bloody Bay Marine Park, the fish can’t help but incite the same feeling in divers.
littlecayman.com

Get an in-depth look at the scuba diving off sister islands Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.

10 Onemobaa, Indonesia

Of the seven known species of pygmy seahorses, four usually can be spotted on the house reef of Wakatobi Dive Resort, located on the 3-square-mile Onemobaa Island, 621 miles east of Bali. “Anywhere you find gorgonians, you stand a chance of finding them,” says Karen Stearns, who handles the property’s marketing. “Walk out of your bungalow and there’s incredible marine life at your doorstep,” she says, including eight species of clownfish that also nest on the house reef. Really, what you find depends on you — literally. It was a guest of Wakatobi Dive Resort who discovered Denise’s pygmy seahorse, so perhaps the species count will soon total eight.
wakatobi.com

Love this Top 10 list? Find all our Top 10 lists for scuba diving at the World's Best Diving section of our website.