My scuba diving bucket list

Which dive spots are on your scuba wish list? Everybody has a travel bucket list, right? A list of places you would like to go and things you would like to see and do? For us scuba divers of course, our bucket list is a list of the places where we want to dive. In this post, I’ll share our scuba dream destinations. Diving with bull sharks in Costa Rica, seeing a whale shark up close or finding the famous mola mola in Indonesia, what’s on your dive bucket list?

Diving at Raja Ampat – Indonesia

This one is no. 1 on my list. I’ve seen soooo many wonderful pictures of Raja Ampat and read so many amazing diving stories. I think it’s a well-deserved number one, but due to the cost factor it will have to wait. I never realized we were actually quite close when we were diving in Bunakan, North Sulawesi. One of our dive friends wrote this post about diving in Raja Ampat with kids for Girls that Scuba. The ecolodge (with babysitter!) they stayed in sounds wonderful. The Alter Native Lodge would definitely be our accommodation of choice.   

Diving Galapagos

Visiting Galapagos and especially diving Galapagos has always been a dream for us. Who wouldn’t want to dive one of the most pristine dive sites left in the world? Lot’s of shark species, turtles, sea lions and abundant marine life… what’s not to love. Combined with the amazing biodiversity on land, I’m sure the Galapagos Islands are on almost everybody’s bucket list. Actually, we’ve never been to South America, so we’re due a visit. 

Ceynote diving in Mexico

Cave diving scares the living sh*t out of me (what if you can’t find your way back?) but cavern diving, now that’s a whole other thing. Have you seen the amazing pics of ceynote diving in Mexico? That’s definitely on my bucket list! I love exploring limestone caves above the water, the stalagmites and stalactites give it such an otherworldly feel. Now imagine seeing this while scuba diving. Wow! 

Diving Great Barrier Reef – Australia

I did my Padi Open Water and Advanced Open Water certification on the Great Barrier Reef, with a live aboard from Airlie Beach. I also did a live aboard from Cairns and some dives at Julian Rocks Marine Reserve near Brisbane. This was in 2001 (can you imagine!). I’d love to go back to Australia now that I’m a much more advanced diver and dive there again together with my partner (who’s also my favorite dive buddy ever). My partner and our little boy have never visited Australia, and I would really enjoy going on a live aboard together. Our little world traveler loves to snorkel. 

Exploring French Polynesia

I once saw a special about French Polynesia in popular Dutch dive magazine Duiken and it has stuck in my mind ever since. It’s a looong trip to get there, but apparently it’s well worth it. Sharks, eagle rays, turtles, dolphins, beautiful colored hard and soft corals and amazing clear blue waters… it sounds like a dream. And we do love islands and the whole island vibe. Actually, my partner’s dream is to sell everything and buy a sailboat… but that’s a whole different story. 

Bucket list destinations we’ve been to

We’ve already visited quite a lot of bucket list dive destinations so far. But there’s always more to discover! Still, so much we haven’t seen of the world… This is what drives us to explore, to show our little one there’s more to the world than the city we live in. 

So far we’ve dived at:

• Tulamben, Amed, Nusa Lembongan and Bunaken in Indonesia
• Moalboal and Dauin/Dumaguete in the Philippines
• Sharm el Sheikh and Dahab in Egypt
• Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Koh Tao and Similan Islands in Thailand 
• Sipadan in Malaysian Borneo
• Zeeland, The Netherlands
• Medes Islands, Costa Brava, Spain
• Great Barrier Reef and Julian Rocks, Australia

Where have you dived and which was your favorite dive site? And what’s on your dive bucket list? 

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