If you would like to spend a week diving in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Atlantic or North Sea, you could enjoy CLC World free holiday accommodation by attending a 90-minute presentation at one of four CLC World Travel Centres, enabling you to try diving in Europe at a choice of CLC holiday resorts.
Costa del Sol, Spain
This narrow passageway acts as a funnel, greatly condensing marine life. The most popular sites for diving in the Mediterranean are at La Herradura Bay near Almunecar, and around Marbella.
- Tres Picos, La Herradura Bay, has swim-through arches, walls and caves teeming with conger and moray eels, nudibranchs, octopus, sunfish and electric rays, as well as corals.
- La Torre, Marbella, is a former cargo loading tower and now artificial reef, home to congers, shrimps, lobsters, crabs, nudibranchs and octopuses.
- Cerro Gordo Nature Reserve, east of La Herradura Bay, has caverns, cliffs and tunnels, inhabited by octopuses, cuttlefish, congers, morays and damselfish.
- Las Bóvedas, near Marbella, is a long reef populated by groupers, scorpion fish, wrasses, sponges and corals.
Tenerife
Tenerife’s volcanic topography means you could forget you are diving in Europe, with an underwater world of whales, dolphins and turtles. Many sites are around Marina del Sur in Las Galletas.
- Montaña Amarilla, or Yellow Mountain, with fantastic rock formations and rays, roncadores, octopuses and moray eels.
- Yellow Mountain Point, with rock formations and sandy stretches inhabited by Atlantic bonito, barracuda, octopuses, blacktail comber and cardinal fish.
- Alien Rock, home to Tenerife’s largest anemones, red back cleaner shrimps, barracudas, garden eels, eagle rays and stingrays.
- Los Arcos, three coral arches where a memorial to Jacques Cousteau lies. Residents include ornate wrasse, damselfish, amberjack eels and Canarian lobsters.
Aegean Coast, Turkey
There are several dive centres around Kusadasi offering year-round diving, but conditions are best between April and November.
- Seven reefs: Princess House, Ozan, Pamucak, Kamil, Paradise, Pine Bay and Adabanko, where wrasse, groupers, rays, moray eels, turtles, nudibranchs, octopuses and even seahorses may be seen.
- The A300 Airbus, close to Davutlar, deliberately sunk and now an artificial reef.
- Adakule cave, home to groupers and a monk seal.
- Near Didim, a 1959 former coastal guard ship was deliberately sunk, and is now an artificial reef.
The North Sea and Atlantic, Scotland
For a different experience from diving in the Mediterranean, the Scottish waters are home to seals, puffins and lobsters.
- The archipelago of St Kilda, with caves, arches and walls covered in marine life and multi-coloured anemones.
- Scapa Flow, Orkney, has wrecks of WW2 German naval ships covered in sea life.
- Cathedral Rock, near St Abbs Marine Reserve, is a double rock arch covered in anemones and dead man’s fingers.
Whether you choose to go diving in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Atlantic or the North Seas, you are guaranteed unforgettable sights. Diving in Europe is a fantastic experience, so why not take your PADI and get started?
