Adventure Holidays
Activity holidays are rapidly gaining in popularity. Evidently, growing numbers of holidaymakers are no longer content with just baking on the beach. Skiing and snowboarding have been quietly undergoing a revolution as prices have dropped allowing more than just the wealthy to head out onto the slopes for some fresh alpine air. But summer wise, we have been slow to cotton on to adventure and activity holidays. There are yoga retreats and walking or sailing holidays as an example but rapidly gaining interest is Scuba Diving.
The world is over 70% water, therefore it makes sense to utilise this resource to have fun. Diving Is Fun !
Is a Scuba Diving Holiday For You ?
Scuba diving is a way to access this underwater world without having to hold our breath or view through a glass-bottomed boat. There are hundreds of places around the globe where you can learn the art of breathing underwater using SCUBA gear; Oxygen tanks, Regulators, Buoyancy Jackets and Masks.
Warm water is where it’s at for the Brits and norther europeans. For the Brits the sea surrounding the UK is cold enough thank you very much. Instead Britons want to enjoy tropical waters and a healthy dose of sun, sand and sea. After all, we can’t spend the whole seven days getting active can we?
Top Caribbean Diving Destinations
The Caribbean has therefore proved to be a popular place for both beginners and more experienced divers. Top of the pile has to be the Cayman Islands. Despite the scary sounding names, Stingray City and Shark Alley, the areas are perfect for beginners and are surprisingly safe, the dive sites are full of fish and brightly coloured coral and the visibility is fantastic.
Bonaire is a little-known Caribbean island, and it likes to keep it that way. Its eco-friendly diving industry works hard to preserve the marine life around this volcanic island. Because most of this dormant volcano lies below sea level, reefs have formed on top of previous volcanic eruptions so you can dive right off the beach.
Alternatives for warm water diving to the Caribbean..
However, for many, a trip to the Caribbean may be too expensive, particularly at the moment. A place a little more in the average person’s league is the Red Sea. Three of the world’s top ten dive sites according to Scuba Travel are located in the Red Sea and being less than five hours from the UK, it’s the closest and best warm-water dive site for Brits. Check out tours for all the destinations of the world. Egypt in the news for wrong reasons has put a lot of divers off the Red Sea.
The three sites appearing in the top ten are Thistlegorm, a shipwreck laden with motorbikes, tanks and jeeps as well as huge schools of fish, Shark and Yolanda Reefs where coral is abundant and you may even see turtles and dolphins and Big Brother, a 400 metre long island combining reefs and wrecks and a lot of fish.
One last word on diving safety - scuba diving is very safe provided you stick by the rules a bit like crossing the road it can kill you !