Live like a local

1 July marks the start of Make Holidays Greener Month. Regaldive is delighted to be supporting this great initiative from The Travel Foundation to help raise awareness of how we can help those in the destinations we visit and make every holiday a more rewarding experience all round.

The theme for 2013 is ‘link with what’s local’. Throughout the month we will be sharing insider tips from our destinations around the world, local initiatives from our suppliers and hopefully a little bit of expert knowledge from you, our guests.

If you have a top dive spot, a recommendation for a tasty local restaurant, or a ‘must-see’ place of interest, please share your experiences with us and fellow divers. You can tweet us @Regaldive or join us on Facebook. Tips will also be shared here on our website.

Here are a few tips from the Regaldive team and our partners to get started:

‘The Chamber’ is a must-dive for those staying at Roots Camp in El Quseir. According to Steve in the Regaldive office this is a secret site known only to the owner…  As you fin back to the shore, a hole appears at 5m leading through tunnels and caverns and onto a large opening (the Chamber) bustling with marine life. Perfectly placed for a safety stop or a brilliant one for enriched air divers with longer bottom times.

Guests staying at True Blue Bay Resort in Grenada can enjoy an authentic Grenadian food experience with a weekly cookery class and rum tasting session! Gerlinde, who works at the on-site dive centre Aquanauts also recommends a visit to the hotel’s boutique which features an ‘Arawak’ museum exhibiting ancient carvings and pottery that has been excavated on the island.

Renowned as a treasure trove of biodiversity, the Bunaken National Marine Park in North Sulawesi is a must-dive, but also has some great sights topside. Guests diving with Eco Divers can support local wildlife by visiting the Tangkoko Nature Reserve, a protected forest and natural habitat of the cute Tarsier monkey.

Former resort representative and Regaldive team member Helena recommends you find time on your Luxor extension to visit Dendera Temple. This modestly sized but extremely interesting temple is located around 40 miles north of Luxor on the West Bank of the Nile across from the town of Qena. Although interesting architecturally, Helena suggests you go out of your way to Dendera to discover some of the only surviving relief images of Cleopatra.

Shark meat is off the menu on Sao Miguel Island in the Azores thanks to an awareness campaign supported by Nerus Dive Centre in Ponta Delgada.  So far four out of five restaurants on the Island have promised to support the ban and educate their customers about shark conservation ensuring that the only sharks you see in the Azores are in the water.

Immensely tasty food, served up in generous portions by very friendly and chatty staff. That’s the verdict from Regaldive’s Simon on the Ali Baba restaurant in Dahab! Stop by for shish kebab and some hot sweet tea and enjoy the sound of the ocean in one ear and the hustle and bustle from the local shops in the other. There’s even free wifi to catch up on the news at home. Great prices too!

When staying at the Al Sawadi Beach Resort in Oman and diving with Extra Divers Regaldive's Steve  says to make sure you dive the Mouse Trap site. This is a winning combination of drift and gentle diving but with tons of life from lobsters to puffer fish to leopard sharks. A drift dive around the back side of the pinnacle is followed by a whip back into the horse shoe shaped reef (hence  the name Mouse Trap) to end with a gentle safety stop.