Tourist diving: how to choose the best and avoid disappointment

A guide to choosing tourist dive packages to ensure an experience that meets your expectations and saves money and time.

The tourist diving market is large and diverse. Knowing how to choose is the difference between a wonderful experience and a disappointing one.

Types of tourist dive packages

The day boat
It takes you from the harbor to the dive site and returns the same day. Suitable for the start and for trying the basic sites.

Liveaboard
You live on the boat for a week or more and dive at distant sites that day boats do not reach. More expensive, but a much deeper experience.

What to look for in a package

Number of dives per day: the more, the better usually
Diver-to-guide ratio: fewer than 6 per guide is a good standard
Condition of rented equipment, age of cylinders, and quality of regulators

Signs of a good package

Guides know the names of fish and sites in detail
They check your certificates before diving, not after
They have a clear emergency plan and oxygen equipment on the boat

A good dive package makes you feel you returned with ten times what you paid.