Here are just a few suggestion of destinations near and far to give you an idea of what to expect:
Mediterranian Countries
Spain, France, Italy, the Greek and Balearic Islands have a long, well-established diving industry, and most resorts have one or more dive centres chasing your business. Many are owned and operated by British divers who moved south to cater for the booming dive market. A little searching on the internet will give you an idea of the type of diving available. Whether it is boat diving or from the shore, and what it is likely to cost.
Red Sea
This is the most accessible destination of true tropical diving for British divers. The popular resorts of Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh at the northern Red Sea have diving to cater for all abilities, from fish-covered tropical reefs, sharks and manta rays – to wreck diving for the more adventurous.
The resorts in Egypt are now at the level required for modern European tourism. Not that many years ago it was pretty basic, but there has been massive investment over recent years, and luxury hotels have sprung up everywhere.
The diving in the resorts is mostly from day boats. You are picked-up in the morning from your hotel and transported to the harbour and the boat you will be diving on for the full week. You only have to carry your kit with you the first morning; onboard, you are allocated a crate where you store your gear, and the crew look after it for you for the duration of your dive holiday.
The dive boats depart in the morning and you will be transported to a different area each day, usually with a dive in the morning, lunch onboard and another dive in the afternoon – with the option of a night dive, if that has been arranged.
The other way to dive the Red Sea is on one of the purpose-built liveaboard dive boats; where you stay on the boat for your week’s diving and travel to various sites for up to five dives a day. Diving this way gives you the opportunity to visit some of the more outlying sites and escape the sometimes crowded reefs used by the day boats.