Indonesia dominates the vote for best destination, resort, and liveaboard peppers for diving in the world based on Dive Travel Awards for three consecutive years. This year, just under 20,000 total votes from readers, subscribers, and social media followers, were cast across the three categories.
As the world's largest island nation in the most biodiverse region on Planet Earth, in fact, the best scuba diving destination in the world.
As Dive Magazine noted, Raja Ampat is the most biodiverse region on the planet. Stunning reefs, prolific marine life and steadily improving marine conservation.
Sulawesi - This vast 'K' shaped island has two remarkable dive destinations at either end - Bunaken and Lembeh Strait in the north and Wakatobi Resort with its sister liveaboard the Pelagian in the southeast.
Both offer some of the best coral reef diving. Gili Trawangan - This tiny island off Lombok has become a tech diving and general recreational dive training mecca.
As the high point of biodiversity on the planet, this is the place to come for the weird and wonderful. Muck diving and rooting out the most bizarre creatures in our oceans was invented in places such a Lembeh Strait and Ambon.
The USAT Liberty was torpedoed in 1942 and managed to beach near Tulamben in Bali. A volcanic eruption in 1963 pushed the wreck back into the sea and it now sits at 30m (100ft) and is swarming with marine life. Many argue it is one of the best wreck dives going.
Egypt and Mexico followed in the second and third place. Egypt’s tourism industry has struggled since the Russian Metrojet disaster of 2015 and the subsequent four-year ban on direct flights to Sharm El Sheikh from the UK. However, many divers consider the Egyptian Red Sea to be the best scuba diving in the world, and this year the numbers suggest that Indonesia may have a rival in the 2020 DIVE Travel Awards.
Meanwhile, bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Mexico offers a wide range of dive spots from the rich and colourful reefs of Cozumel to the high-energy diving of the Pacific coast - and of course, the unique cenotes of the Yucatán peninsula.
Here is the top ten best destination based on Dive Travel Awards 2019:
- Indonesia
- Egypt
- Mexico
- Papua New Guinea
- Curaçao
- Palau
- Maldives
- Philippines
- Solomon Island
- Galápagos
