Punta Sur was by far my favorite place to visit in all of Cozumel. There was so much to do there including observing wildlife in the lagoon, climbing the lighthouse tower for epic coastal views, and snorkeling not one but two epic locations!
That’s right. In this post, I share two amazing snorkel experiences inside Punta Sur Eco Beach Park. One requires some swimming endurance and the other requires a short hike. Both are worth the extra effort to get there and you’ll save so much money not having to pay for a tour boat trip.
On top of it, you’ll get to indulge in the other amenities and experiences the park has to offer. If you have a scooter and your own snorkel gear and snacks, you’ll only spend about $20 and you can make a full day of it.
I love when my travel destinations present awesome diving experiences. I chose to visit Grand Cayman for many reasons, a major one being that it has world class diving with more dive sites than anywhere I have been before
Despite high season prices and low availability, I managed to find a company that took me to 2 unique dive sites. I thoroughly enjoyed both. There are plenty of other options for exploring the reef as someone who doesn’t dive, too. I was able to snorkel a popular dive site right off the shore in George Town.
Overall, whether diving or snorkeling, Grand Cayman's warm, clear waters did not disappoint!
The SCUBA diving in Niue is world class. And it's a lot different than the experience I had diving elsewhere over this past year. I received my diving certification from Ko Tao in Thailand a year ago. Since then I went diving in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. These dive sites were amazing but none of them had the underwater creatures or rock formations Niue had!
Before arriving to Niue, I had heard about its amazingly high visibility and unique sea snakes populating the waters. I had also heard about the possibility of bumping into, or at the very least hearing the songs of, humpback whales while diving there. What topped it all for me were Niue's extravagant underwater caves and catacombs! I had a top notch experience diving Bubble Cave, Snake Gully, and other cavernous dive sites around Niue where the creepy and the beautiful come together under the sea.
While diving in Niue I had the most incredible animal experience. Several pods of humpback whales were in the area. They were singing and talking to each other the entire time we were diving. We couldn't help but eavesdrop on the conversation as it only got louder and LOUDER.
By the time my fellow divers and I were preparing for our safety stop, the whales' singing became so loud I was sure they would emerge out of the deep ocean blue ahead and swim right by us. My camera easily captured the beautiful cacophony as we waited to ascend to the surface.
Early last week, I posted a video sneak peek of my adventures diving the Great Barrier Reef. In this post, I share my very best and favorite photos taken with my Olympus Stylus TG-3 camera (waterproof up to 15m). It’s the camera I used for the video and it’s the same one I’ve been using since I started my travels over a year ago.
I love this camera because it tells me how deep I am and warns me when I’m getting to its depth limit. As a result, I was able to take photos worry-free on nearly all 11 dives I did while living on board the ScubaPro III.
The entire reason I decided to visit Australia was to dive the Great Barrier Reef. I researched tons of day trip and multi-day options for experiencing the GBR. I finally decided on a 3-day liveaboard trip with ProDiveCairns leaving from Cairns in Queensland. The price tag, number of dives, and opportunity to go to the less-damaged outer reef convinced me it was the best option.
Did it turn out to be the best? Well, I cannot compare it to any other trips as it’s the only one I did. But I can say the trip receives my highest recommendation. In this post, I describe my experience and include all of the details you may want to know if you were ever interested in booking a similar trip! If you don’t want to read the whole review, feel free to skip to “My Recommendations” below.
When I left Bangkok for Ko Tao, I had no idea what I was going to decide to do once I arrived at the dive resort where Astrid works. I have always wanted to take a SCUBA diving course and get certified, but I never thought I’d do it in Thailand. Between the excellent instruction I received, the great underwater visibility, and the diverse tropical fish and coral reef, I made the best decision to learn to dive off the shores of Ko Tao.
After the 9 hour bus and ferry ride from Bangkok, one of the Big Bubble resort taxi drivers picked me up from the port. Five minutes later, we arrived at the resort where I met KaiNui who is one of the master divers at Big Bubble. He introduced me to a list of dive options and their prices. The open water diver certification course involved watching a video, receiving short instruction in the classroom, and going on 4 dives, 2 the first day which were mainly training focused and 2 the following day which were for fun and practice. The course cost about $300 USD and included 4 nights’ accommodation in their bungalows. Normally there are up to 6 other divers in each training group, but because it was low season for tourists on the island, I ended up having a private instruction for the group price! You cannot get this kind of deal back home, so I was immediately in.
![Humpback whales singing underwater: A Niue diving experience [Video]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53b6ec86e4b09a1fb529c6b8/1453654428219-2SE49P6Y3MYN8AQ1N9ZY/image-asset.jpeg)
