The Best Destinations for Advanced Scuba Divers

At first, the shift is natural: The more you dive, the more questions you have about what lies deeper down, inside the wreck or farther into the cavern. And many of the most memorable marine-life encounters require navigating heavy currents or tricky conditions. Soon, finding underwater terrain to inspire that desire to go beyond what you already know can sometimes prove challenging. In these locales, not so. Adventure will find you no matter what.

Mexico

Network of Options: It’s amazing that the limestone foundation of Mexico’s Riviera Maya naturally chiseled away to form caverns and caves to accommodate every level of diver. Start with the wide-open pools of cenotes. Then there are caves at the opposite end of the spectrum, such as the Pit, which allow those with full cave diver and trimix certifications to put their training to the test.

Readers Choice Regional Winners

Caribbean/Atlantic 1. Mexico 2. Bonaire 3. Cayman Islands 4. Belize 5. Roatan

North America 1. Florida Keys 2. California 3. North Carolina 4. Great Lakes 5. British Columbia

Pacific and Indian 1. Indonesia 2. Hawaii 3. Palau 4. Maldives 5. Fiji

What is Readers Choice?

More than 3,000 Scuba Diving readers rate their experiences in our annual survey, scoring destinations in a variety of categories. Winners are selected via averaged scores.

Island in the Stream: Sure, it’s easy to associate Cozumel with new divers because it’s a destination where many log their first open-ocean descents. But those dives can be much deeper given that Cozumel’s wall bottoms out at 200 feet and beyond in various places. Plus, with that steady current, as well as splits and tunnels cutting through the reef, there’s plenty to amuse the advanced diver.

Shark Appeal: Mexico’s appeal extends beyond the Yucatan. With great white sharks off Guadalupe Island, and hammerhead, silky and tiger sharks off the Revillagigedo Islands 370 miles from Mexico’s Pacific coast, this country delivers big thrills that test your cool underwater — which is just how we like it.

School’s in Session: The town of Cabo Pulmo, found on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula, is the stuff of advanced-diver dreams. Schools of jacks, tunas and snappers swell to shapes that could fill football stadiums, and sightings of hammerheads, giant manta rays and whale sharks are also possible. Access it all through Cabo Pulmo Beach Resort, ranked a Readers Choice Best Dive Resort.

Explore a dozen more Readers Choice categories here.

Florida Keys

The Spiegel Grove attracts divers from around the globe.

Guillen Photo LLC/Alamy

Wreck Rooms: The Vandy. The Spiegel. The artificial reefs in the Keys, so famous that most divers know them by their first names, are a big deal for good reason. The USS Spiegel Grove off Key Largo and Key West’s USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg both offer structure in shallow depths, making them widely available to divers of every skill level. But bottoming out at 130 and 140 feet and with 12 and four decks to explore, respectively, they deliver enough depth and penetration opportunity to challenge every diver holding advanced-wreck and mixed-gas certs.

That’s Deep: Nearshore deep waters are the reason Key Largo is a hub for dive centers offering technical training. Oh, and a slew of deep wrecks, including the Queen of Nassau at 220 feet and the Vitric at 300, gives students a varied classroom.

Indonesia

Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait is a macro lover’s paradise.

Greg Lecoeur

Ready For My Close-Up: At its core, Indonesia is about biodiversity, a richness of species best appreciated by a trained eye, and by those with enough body control in the water column to cozy up to the frogfish, pipefish and nudibranchs. Because you won’t enjoy the macro life if you can’t comfortably hold yourself in a close-up, sometimes inverted, viewing position.

Land of Giants: The island of Komodo, visited by liveaboards including Arenui, is a hot spot for oceanic mantas that come in to feed on plankton, gathering in groups of 10, 20 or more. The only catch is that this region experiences strong currents, the kind that nudge at masks when faces turn sideways. Tricky, yes, but completely doable for those with strong buoyancy skills and drift-diving abilities.