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Mafia offer

Divers are being offered a saving of £200 per person per week at a resort on Mafia, a Tanzanian island renowned for its diving. Pole Pole Lodge is a 10-bedroom boutique accommodation en suite bungalows on stilts above the beach, with a dining bar and a spa.

Diving takes place from sister location Mafia Island Lodge, a PADI 5* dive centre offering daily boat dives from traditional dhowsshore diving and a range of courses.

The dhow– The diving extends from the sheltered and shallow Chloe Bay with its coral reefs to the Dindini and Juani walls with their swimming sharks and turtles.

The special offer price of £2,275pp, reduced from £2,474, includes international and domestic flights, seven nights B&B, airport transfers, 10 boat dives, local taxes and a complimentary daily excursion. It is valid throughout September and from 16 November to 19 December this year, and is available via Dive worldwide.

One island, one resort in Zanzibar

Not far away in the Indian Ocean and also in Tanzania, The Cocoon Collection recently opened a “one island, one resort” touted as “the ultimate in Zanzibar luxury”.

Bawe Island is a 15-minute speedboat ride from Stonetown (or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can always take the helicopter) and consists of 70 villas, each with a private pool and butler service.

There are no fewer than five restaurants catering to the “gourmet philosophy” and a spa, but Bawe also boasts “the most complete and fully equipped diving and water sports facilities in Zanzibar”, with the diving activities run by the Dive Mission SSI centre.

“Bawe’s Reef is considered one of the most breathtaking sites in Zanzibar, with a unique diving site: the waters are home to an extraordinary variety of tropical fish and marine life, which are easy to explore even for novice divers,” the centre said, without revealing too much about what divers can expect.

Room rates in a Sunrise Villa for guests on a half-board basis start at US$1,700 per night (two people) – details can be found at The Cocoon Collection.

Book in advance for Komodo Manta Rays

Manta Expeditions is looking forward to a 10-day liveaboard trip to Komodo National Park in Indonesia on July 22, 2026. There they plan to dive locations such as famous manta cleaning stations like Karang Makassar and Manta Alley, where rays often congregate in large numbers to socialize and mate.

The company works with the British charity Manta Trust to run scientific trips, and the park has one of the largest populations of reef mantas in the world, including the black morph variety. The scientists collect photo ID images and guests are encouraged to get involved in finding and naming new mantas.

Other locations such as Batu Bolong, Crystal Rock and Shotgun are expected to offer divers attractions such as large schools of trevallies, white tip reef sharks and barracudas and coral gardens with abundant wildlife such as frogfish, ghost pipefish, octopus and nudibranchs at locations such as Pink Beach, Wainilu and Tiga Dara.

The boat is the Indo Master which is 47 m2 and can accommodate up to 18 guests in nine air-conditioned rooms, en suite huts.

Although the route is mainly about manta ray encounters, it is definitely worth spotting Komodo dragons on the island tour of the same name.

Prices start at US$5,150pp (approximately £3,925) for a cabin (two people) with airport or hotel transfers, up to four dives per day and the Komodo tour. Visit Manta Expeditions or email Manta Trust guide Niv Froman via [email protected].

The smallest of the Maldives?

If “boutique” is another way of saying “on the small side”, then Dive Worldwide reckons Boutique Beach could be the smallest resort in the Maldives. The tour operator describes it as perfectly located to appreciate the diving opportunities of South Ari Atoll, an appeal that is now further enhanced by the 30% discount available.

The six-room resort is located on Dhigurah Island in the southeast of the atoll and is designed and built for divers by divers, it says. There is a restaurant and lounge, but beware: this is a “dry” resort (no alcohol).

From the dive centre, clear-headed guests can make up to three dives a day, choosing from over 50 dive sites, including nearby Kuda Rah Thila and, for a full day of safari, Manta Point.

Marine life ranges from nudibranchs to schools of snappers, grey reef sharks and giant trevallies. Whale sharks are also ‘ever present’ in the atoll.

If you travel before 31st October and book more than seven days in advance with Dive Worldwide, you can save 30% on all-inclusive accommodation. Seven nights in a Deluxe Room will be reduced to £2,495, including flights from the UK, speedboat transfers and up to two dives per day.

For fish lovers

The rare blue-striped pygmy goby is a recently identified fish that is found only in the Alphonse group of the outer islands of the Seychelles. It was found in St François Atoll.

The Seychelles are home to 880 species of fish and this was originally thought to be another goby, Trimma dalerocheilauntil two copies of the differently colored and marked Trimma cavicapum had been found and examined.

Local dive operator Blue Safari Seychelles estimates that the ‘new’ goby is only found on Alphonse and, further south, Astove, where one was recently photographed. Dive visitors are invited to “experience the extraordinary biodiversity and be among the first to witness the new species of dwarf goby in its natural habitat”.

According to the center, the warm, nutrient-rich waters of Alphonse Atoll offer some of the best diving in the Indian Ocean.

The island has a PADI 5* dive centre with 24 sites within a half hour boat ride, said to be teeming with exotic and colourful fish, as well as turtles, Napoleon wrasse and manta rays. Deep drop-offs and shallow plateaus at St François are also visited.

Blue Safari Seychelles says it plays an active role in ocean research and conservation in this part of the world. Divers are invited to join Alphonse on a seven-night, all-meal dive package priced at US$9,710 per person (around £7,350), including five two-tank dives and one single-tank dive per person, and airport transfers.

Orca and breakers at Somabay

For a holiday that is perhaps a little more affordable, with reliable weather and flights from the UK within five hours, the five-property Red Sea Resort Somabay, near Hurghada, is a good option.

It has a house reef accessible from the 420-metre jetty and offers easy access to about 20 dive sites by boat, such as the Salem Express wreck and spectacular Tubya Arbaa coral columns, all through Orca Dive Club.

The house reefs feature coral gardens, turtles, barracudas, rays and occasionally Wally the whale shark. Orca can handle everything from exploratory dives to rebreather training.

The five hotels, located on a remote 1,000-acre peninsula, come in a variety of price points and styles. However, many divers choose the laid-back hotel closest to Orca: Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge. This hotel was completely renovated last year.

Prices for a double room with sea view start at £73 per person per night. A day of house reef diving starts at £41. A day of boat diving can cost double that.

Also on Divernet: BOOK NOW: 8 IDEAS FOR A DIVING HOLIDAY, BOOK NOW: 6 IDEAS FOR A DIVING TRIP TO THE ZOO, BOOK NOW: ATLANTIS SEDUCE FAMILY DIVERS, DIVE LIKE A PRO: PACKING EQUIPMENT FOR A DIVING TRIP