The Best Destinations for Underwater Photography

1st Place Winner: Caribbean and Atlantic

1. Bonaire

For underwater photography newcomers, it’s hard to beat Bonaire’s ideal conditions. “It’s basically a gigantic swimming pool,” says Guillermo Alcorta, the photo pro at Buddy Dive Resort.

There’s no need to fight waves on the surface, and at depth, no struggle to hold a position while tinkering with a shot at sites such as Tolo, Alcorta’s favorite for scenic wide-angle compositions thanks to its combination of hard corals, soft corals and sponges.

As for macro subjects, the possibilities are endless, from seahorses to frogfish. “I’m a frogfish lover, and this year we’ve been lucky, finding them in couples and trios and even groups of five, all in the same spot,” says Alcorta.

As for the best site, “Something Special has such an easy entry, and it’s been a favorite for years and years,” says Alcorta. What’s more, the majority of images in the Bonaire edition of the REEF Fish ID book series were taken at that particular site—inspiration indeed.

Readers Picks

Resorts

Buddy Dive Resort, Bonaire

Carib Inn, Bonaire


Eden Beach Resort, Bonaire

Operators

Buddy Dive, Bonaire


Carib Inn Dive Center, Bonaire


Divi Dive Bonaire
Toucan Divers at Plaza Resort, Bonaire

VIP Diving, Bonaire


Wannadive Bonaire at Eden Beach Resort

1st Place Winner: U.S. and Canada

2. Florida Keys

The good news for divers driving to the Florida Keys is there’s no limit to how much you can pack: Go ahead and bring all the lenses—you’re going to need them.

“You get everything from small, macro subjects like corkscrew anemones with Pederson cleaner shrimp all the way up to eagle rays,” says Jeff Gneiser, owner of Amoray Dive Center, part of Amoray Dive Resort on Key Largo.

Eagle rays can be seen any time of year, but the biggest numbers appear in early summer. Goliath grouper, nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, bull sharks and turtles round out the mix of big animals commonly seen on Key Largo and throughout the Keys.

Readers Picks

Resorts

Amoray Dive Resort, Key Largo, Florida Keys

Courtyard by Marriott Key Largo, Florida Keys

Holiday Inn, Key Largo, Florida Keys


Marina Del Mar, Key Largo, Florida Keys

Operators

Captain Hook’s Dive Key West, Florida Keys

Horizon Divers, Key Largo, Florida Keys

Rainbow Reef, Key Largo, Florida Keys

3. Bay Islands

The island of Roatan, Honduras, has it all: wrecks, reefs and muck diving.

Wrecks such as the Mr. Bud, a 75- foot cargo ship, underwater since 1995, serve as shelter for jawfish, peacock flounder, sailfin blennies, Atlantic longarm octopuses, purple-spotted sea goddesses, and a wealth of other small-scale life.

“You can completely geek out on wide-angle and all kinds of reef scenes,” says Stacy Lewis, general manager of CocoView Resort on Roatan.

For bigger marine life, go west, where schools of larger fish, such as mature grouper, tend to congregate.


What’s perhaps most surprising to divers, even those who have explored Roatan before, is the muck diving. Lewis and the dive crew at CocoView have only recently started diving a 45-foot-deep site called French Key Cut. It’s there that in the past year Lewis has found more than 22 dwarf frogfish among the algae and the coral rubble. “The site doesn’t look like it has much going on, but it’s amazing what you can find,” he says.

Readers Picks

Resorts

Anthony’s Key Resort, Roatan, Honduras

CocoView Resort, Roatan, Honduras


Mayan Princess Beach & Dive Resort, Roatan, Honduras


Turquoise Bay Dive & Beach Resort, Roatan, Honduras

Operators

Anthony’s Key Resort Dive Shop, Roatan, Honduras


Barefoot Divers, Roatan, Honduras

Dockside Dive Center at CocoView Resort, Roatan, Honduras


Subway Watersports, Roatan, Honduras

Utila Lodge Dive Center, Honduras

Liveaboards

Roatan Aggressor, Honduras

1st Place Winner: Pacific and Indian

4. Indonesia

There’s a reason photographers who travel to Indonesia never forget their dive guides’ names. In this critter-rich destination, the better the eyes of your guide, the better your image haul—and trip satisfaction.

Take Muji, an underwater guide with 15 years of experience at Wakatobi Dive Resort on Sulawesi. Muji excels at pointing out phenomenal finds. A few weeks ago at the dive site Dunia Baru, it was a Lembeh pygmy sea dragon, a species only discovered in 2006. “This was a first for me and the highlight for my underwater photography,” says Robert Keuzer, a guest of the luxury resort.

Beyond just the pygmy seahorses, Indonesia’s list of critters is endless, from several species of fire-colored flasher wrasses to the blue-ringed octopus. “That’s the thing about Indonesia and especially Wakatobi: You can’t help but be surprised on every trip because there are always new things to be found,” says Karen Stearns, marketing manager of the resort.

Readers Picks

Resorts

Wakatobi Dive Resort, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Operators

Wakatobi Dive Resort
 Dive Center, Indonesia

Liveaboards

All Star Aurora, Indonesia


The Arenui, Indonesia


Dewi Nusantara, Indonesia

Pelagian Yacht, Sulawesi, Indonesia

5. Hawaii

There’s a danger to shooting macro photography on the Navy tug off the island of Oahu. Narrow your mental and camera focus too much and it’s easy to miss the moment when something big passes by in the background. “The coolness factor of the tug is that it’s right next to a ledge,” says Brian Benton, owner of Dive Oahu. Just an eighth of a mile away is a deepwater corridor where mantas, humpback whales and whale sharks pass.

The encounters might be too quick for composing a photo of both the wreck and pelagic, but not so fast that the sighting can’t be captured on memory cards at all. The whale photo ops are most frequent during season, September to April. After all, says Benton, “It’s not hard when your visibility is 100 feet on most days.”

Readers Picks

Operators

Big Island Divers, Hawaii


Dive Maui, Hawaii


Dive Oahu, Hawaii


Jack’s Diving Locker, Hawaii

Kona Diving Company, Hawaii

Kona Honu Divers, Hawaii

Maui Dive Shop, Hawaii

Maui Diving Scuba Center, Hawaii

Maui Dreams Dive Co., Hawaii

Seasport Divers, Kauai, Hawaii

6. Philippines

Muck meets reef in the macro photography mecca that is the Batangas region of the Philippines, a two-hour drive from the capital of Manila.

Nicknamed the Nudibranch Capital of the World, Anilao is famous for sea slugs along with a host of rare critters, including rhinopias and the mimic octopus. Rarer still, yet found here regularly, is Melibe colemani, also known as the ghost nudi, a dorid species whose body looks like nothing more than a skeleton made of gossamer netting. Then there’s Miamira alleni, a sea slug appearing to have sprouted stalks covered in bubbles, mimicking carnation tree corals.

As for where to find it all, Dood Santos, in-house scuba instructor for Buceo Anilao Beach and Dive Resort, says, “For muck diving, you can’t beat the site Saim-Sim. Here you can find different kinds of frogfish, octopuses— maybe the blue-ringed octopus if you’re lucky—ghost pipefish and many more.”

Readers Picks

Resorts

Atlantis Dive Resorts, Puerto Galera and Dumaguete, Philippines

Atmosphere Resorts & Spa, Dumaguete, Philippines

Liveaboards

Philippine Siren, Philippines

Caribbean and Atlantic

Bonaire
 Bay Islands
 Cayman Islands Belize Bahamas
 Mexico 
U.S. Virgin Islands Curaçao 
Turks and Caicos Cuba

Pacific and Indian

Indonesia Fiji
 Palau
 Philippines
 Truk Lagoon
 Maldives 
French Polynesia Galapagos
 Hawaii
 Australia

U.S. and Canada

Florida Keys California
 North Carolina British Columbia Great Lakes

What Is Readers Choice?


We’ve averaged reader survey results from 2020, 2021 and 2022 to bring you the Best of Readers Choice awards. Here we feature some of
the top-rated destinations in the world, along with the winning resorts, operators and liveaboards serving those areas, listed in alphabetical order. For more: scubadiving.com/readerschoice