Hot dates with manta rays
The Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru has been sharing a list of hot dates for epic manta ray gatherings in Baa Atoll’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and it could help divers and snorkellers to plan and book their holidays.
Based on the same island the Maldives Manta Conservation Programme, the founding project of UK-based charity the Manta Trust, has spent two decades studying the world’s largest-documented ray population.
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Last year’s season (May-November) saw recorded sightings of 4,477 manta rays by experts and guests at the resort, who also observed 26 whale sharks and nine devil rays.
The experts spent 469 hours snorkelling and freediving to conduct 1,168 manta surveys, and their predictions for this year are based on a mixture of lunar phases, tidal knowledge and plankton forecasts.
The 2025 remaining hot dates are, they say, 9-13 & 23-27 June, 8-12 & 22-26 July, 7-11 & 21-25 August, 5-9 & 19-23 September, 5-9 & 19-23 October and 3-7 & 18 November (subject to variables such as weather and manta moods).
Check the resort’s Manta Watch offers, which are available for two people for stays of four nights or more and include a Manta-on-Call (personal phone alert when mantas are sighted) speedboat safari and dolphin cruise.
New DW trips to Mexico and Maldives
Tour operator Dive Worldwide, which already features more than 200 destinations, is introducing new trips to Mexico and the Maldives for this, its 25th anniversary year.
Magdalena Bay, between Mexico’s Magdalena and Santa Margarita Islands, provides an opportunity for scuba divers and snorkellers to witness a sardine run, as baitballs attract seabirds, Californian sea-lions, striped marlin, grey and Bryde’s whales and other predators between October and December.
This week-long liveaboard trip is priced from £4,095pp (two sharing), and covers seven nights’ onboard and one night’s hotel accommodation, six dives plus snorkelling, transfers and return flights from the UK.
In the Maldives, Dive Worldwide has both new resort and liveaboard offerings. Makunudu Resort offers 36 thatched bungalows, spa, restaurant, house-reef and the Dive Ocean PADI 5* dive-centre. Seven nights’ full board in a beach bungalow with nine guided dives, return international flights and speedboat transfers costs £4,195pp (two sharing), and for bookings made by 30 June for travel this September a 30% discount applies (£2,936pp).
The liveaboard option is on the four-deck Spirit of Maldives, with trips in secluded waters, from Addu Atoll between January and April to the lesser-visited northern atolls with likely manta and schooling shark encounters. Dive Worldwide offers a seven-night full-board cruise with up to 17 dives, return international flights and transfers for £2,875pp.
Dive for free in Galapagos
A $7,300 Galapagos Aggressor liveaboard experience is up for grabs in a dive sweepstakes just launched by equipment manufacturer Mares and Aggressor Adventures.
The “Quad Ci Aggressor Adventures Giveaway Sweepstakes” offers any US or Canadian diver who buys a new Mares Quad Ci dive-computer the chance to experience the underwater world gratis from the Galapagos Aggressor III liveaboard.
If the computer is obtained from an authorised Mares retailer between now and the end of 2025, the owner has only to download the Mares or SSI app, create a profile and register their purchase in the Gear section. Their name is entered into the sweepstakes automatically, and a winner drawn on 15 January.
The prize is a week-long trip for one in shared deluxe stateroom accommodation – airfares, transfers and nitrox are not included.
To Infiniti and beyond with Adventurer
Atlantis Philippines acquired the well-established Infiniti liveaboard late last year and is set to carry out an upgrade in July before resuming operations on its two itineraries – Visayas North and Visayas South – with 30% off standard rates for selected summer sailings.
Visayas North covers Malapascua, Southern Leyte and Bohol, while the southern route takes in Cebu, Bohol and Negros.
The company’s existing liveaboard Atlantis Azores has been renamed Atlantis Adventurer to reflect a more exploratory approach taking in “remote, less travelled destinations”. One such route starting in June is to Camiguin on an Anda route that also includes Bohol, Silinog, Aliguay and Siquijor.
Back at the resort, Atlantis is continuing with its “Kids Eat, Sleep and Dive Free” weeks, with its goal to treat 500 children each year and “help grow the younger segment of our diving community”. Check the latest rates at the Atlantis site.
Sunshine addition in Zanzibar
Sunshine Azure, a new boutique hotel on Zanzibar’s Matemwe Beach, is the latest addition to the Sunshine Group’s Tanzania portfolio.
It has 16 rooms, two pools, restaurant, “endless white beach” and, most importantly, the Dive Point Zanzibar dive-centre, also part of the Sunshine Group. Dive Point is a PADI 5* Star Resort and its location on the island’s north-east coast puts it opposite Mnemba Atoll which, it says offers some of the best diving in Zanzibar. Sunshine Azure
The Medes experience
Hotel & Diving Les Illes in southern Spain’s L’Estartit offers divers access to the Medes Islands marine park, promising pleasant temperatures in and out of the water and plenty to see in good underwater visibility this summer.
Its eight-day stay-and-dive package provides seven nights’ full board with 12 boat-dives from 923 euros (£780) between 2 August and 6 September. Hotel & Diving Les Illes
Diving with giants from Camp Dominica
Dominica is one of the few locations that has resident sperm whales, and the Diving With Giants experience offers guests the rare opportunity of snorkelling with them in the Caribbean. EYOS Expeditions and Camp Dominica are running trips between November and April each year, when migrating bulls join resident whale pods to breed.
Expeditions are led by freediver and photographer Adam Slama and conservationist Jackson Mawhinney with local “whale-whisperer” Wendell Ettienne, and the price includes a contribution to ongoing research into the whales’ language.
Guests stay in cliff-top villas at the 6* Green Globe-certified resort in Secret Bay, undergo yoga and breathwork instruction and seek out the whales from the comfort of a Lagoon 55 sailing vessel.
Only snorkelling is required, but side-trips for scuba divers and freedivers are also available. Camp Dominica is available for private groups with prices starting at US $180,000 (£133,500) for six guests, though customisation is possible.
Two scheduled departures are also available in the 2025/26 season, whereby individuals can sign on for $25,000pp (£18,750). Full details from Eyos Expeditions.
Love mantas on Yin & Yang
Manta Expeditions, which runs citizen-science trips, is into the third year of its Maldives partnership with ScubaSpa for what it calls “Love Mantas Week”, which involves diving celebrated manta spots as well as lesser-known cleaning stations.
Also included are daily talks and workshops from Manta Trust scientist, explaining how best to help protect the threatened species.
The ScubaSpa yachts are Yang (19-26 July) and Yin (18-25 October), and prices for a week onboard start from US $2,950pp (c £2,330) for two sharing.
Booking for next year is The 500 Miles, a 14-night voyage on the Conte Max liveaboard that takes guests all the way from Fuvahmulah in the deep south of the Maldives up to Male. Quarry include reef and oceanic mantas and 10+ species of sharks, including tigers and hammerheads.
Dates for this Manta Expeditions trip are 22 March to 5 April 2026 and prices start from US $4,590pp (£3,460).
Aurora joins Shack in Anguilla
Aurora Anguilla Resort & Golf Club has partnered with Scuba Shack to offer what it says are luxury diving experiences for its guests, with five wall-dive sitea at offshore keys for more advanced divers, seven artificial reefs (mainly steel-hulled cargo vessels) and 20 reef dives between 6 and 30m deep on the menu.
Anguilla has four protected and biodiverse marine parks and, says the resort, no large cruise ships to pollute the environment. It promises coral reefs teeming with fish, green and hawksbill turtles, seagrass beds, nurse, reef and occasionally tiger sharks, sting rays and moray eels and nudibranchs.
The dive-centre, a short drive from the Aurora Anguilla resort, is run by Matthew Billington, who has more than 33 years of diving experience.
Park life in Crete
Considered Crete for a diving holiday? Timetables for announced diving projects in Greece have proved flexible before now but the country’s biggest island is hoping to tempt scuba divers by introducing a diving park in Ombrosgialos near the port of Chania this summer. Construction began last October and the opening was promised for completion soon.
An artificial reef is reportedly being constructed over a 60,000sq m area (the size of eight football pitches), featuring 37 specially designed structures and two decommissioned naval warships ready for marine life to colonise. Depth is set to range from 8.5 to 25m to accommodate both beginners and experienced divers, guided along three signposted routes.
The artificial reefs are said to be built and awaiting installation. This underwater park was first discussed around 2018 but the government greenlit the project only last September and so far it is said to have cost nearly half a million euros. The official tourist board should have the latest.
The country’s Ministry of Culture & Sports has also announced that it is setting up a new body called Dive in Greece to transform the country into a major international freediving destination. Stand by.
Also on Divernet: BOOKING NOW: 6 MORE DIVE-TRIPS TO CONSIDER, BOOKING NOW: 6 WAYS TO DIVE, BOOKING NOW: 8 DIVE-HOLIDAY IDEAS, BOOKING NOW: 6 WILDLIFE DIVE-TRIP IDEAS, DIVE LIKE A PRO: PACKING GEAR FOR A DIVE-TRIP
