If wreck diving is your thing, or if you want to encounter sharks and other large marine life, a liveaboard trip can help you tick off many of the boxes on your wish list.  If you are travelling as a large group you could even plan your preferred itinerary. FREE group places are also available.

We have highlighted some of our most popular liveaboard destinations in this article. Our other destinations include: Bahamas, Caribbean, Cocos Island, Djibouti, Fiji, Indonesia, Oman, Palau, Philippines, Socorro Islands, Sudan, Thailand and Truk Lagoon.

Maldives

Diving in the Maldives is influenced by the seasonal monsoons, which in turn affects both the underwater visibility and the marine life. Liveaboards follow these variations, taking divers to the best sites accordingly. The boats generally operate in the central atolls. In recent years access to more remote atolls has become available. Regaldive feature liveaboards that cover these exciting new atolls, ranging from Haa-Alifu in the far north, to Huvadhoo in the far south. These atolls represent the new ‘frontiers’ of diving in the Maldives and lie well beyond traditional tourist maps. Regaldive’s most popular boats include Emperor Serenity, Ari Queen and Carpe Diem.

Red Sea

Itineraries in the Red Sea usually follow a Northern or Southern itinerary. In the north the reef at Abu Nuhas is accessible from Hurghada with several wrecks resting at its base. You can also visit the Straits of Gubal and the famous Thistlegorm. There are also many world class dive sites in the southern Red Sea including the stunning reefs of Fury Shoal, the wrecks of Big Brother and the amazing marine life of Elphinstone: an ideal site to encounter hammerheads and oceanic whitetips. Regaldive’s most popular boats include Emperor Elite, Emperor Voyager and MY Nimar. 

Galapagos

The top of many wish lists, the Galapagos are a diver’s mecca. Isolated from any continental landmass, the Galapagos enjoys a completely unique biodiversity that is simply spectacular. These actively volcanic islands host a distinct and unique flora and fauna, including creatures found nowhere else on earth. The world famous sites of Darwin & Wolf support a large concentration of the amazing marine life that makes the Galapagos the superb dive destination that it is. Schools of hammerheads, dolphins and rays make these islands a highlight for many divers. Another highlight is the whale shark aggregation that occurs in the warmer water surrounding these islands. Hammerhead sharks and other shark species also make regular appearances in numbers year round. Regaldive’s most popular boats include Humboldt Explorer, Aggressor III, Galapagos Master and Galapagos Sky.

Whatever destination you choose, you can be sure of a large serving of top notch diving, along with a friendly, knowledgeable crew with the company of a like-minded group of divers. Bon voyage!

For help with planning your next diving adventure, call the friendly Regaldive team on 01353 659999.

Our Christmas & New Year Office Opening Hours are as follows:

Thursday, 22 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 6.00pm
Friday, 23 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 5.30pm
Saturday, 24 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 1.00pm
Sunday, 25 December 2016: Closed

Monday, 26 December 2016: Closed
Tuesday, 27 December 2016: Closed
Wednesday, 28 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 6.00pm
Thursday, 29 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 6.00pm
Friday, 30 January 2016: Open  9.00am – 5.30pm
Saturday, 31 December 2016: Open  9.00am – 1.00pm
Sunday, 1 January 2016: Closed

Monday, 2 Jan 2016: Closed
Tuesday, 3 Jan 2016:  Open  9.00am – 6.00pm and back to our normal opening hours

Are you travelling with Regaldive over Christmas / New Year? Please refer to your Travel Notes should you need to contact the Regaldive Team urgently.

SAVE A MINIMUM OF 10% ON YOUR NEXT DIVING HOLIDAY!

Now that the Christmas festivities are behind us, it's a great time to plan your next diving adventure...

You can save an incredible 10% on holiday and liveaboard packages worldwide* when you book your Regaldive holiday from 28 December 2016. This saving applies to almost every holiday in the Regaldive programme.

Also, benefit from many other special offers, including dive pack offers, free extra nights and room upgrades. 

Example Savings:

• SAVE up to £415pp on Maldives liveaboards
• SAVE up to £200pp on Red Sea liveaboards 
• SAVE up to £736pp on Bahamas liveaboards
• SAVE up to £1,015pp on Indonesian liveaboards
• SAVE up to £600pp on Sudan liveaboards
• SAVE up to £1,062pp on Galapagos liveaboards

RED SEA DIVE PACK OFFERS - MARSA ALAM

Regaldive are also offering a great range of Dive Pack Offers including:-

• Emperor Divers in Marsa Alam Day Diving for just £33pp per day - valid for diving from 1 January 2016 to 31 March 2017.

Our Winter Sale offers are available for a limited time only. Enquire today to benefit from these great savings!

Call the Regaldive team on 01353 659999 or email us today to book your next diving adventure.

DIVE INTO OUR DESTINATIONS:

- Azores - Bahamas - Caribbean - Cocos Island - Fiji

- Galapagos - Indonesia - Lanzarote - Maldives

- Malta & Gozo - Mexico - Oman - Palau - Pemba

- Philippines - Red Sea - Socorro Islands - South Africa

- Sudan - Thailand - Truk Lagoon

* Subject to Terms and Conditions - please see here

Special Late Booking Offers are available on the following trips in December 2016:

• MV Emperor Atoll 10 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip - 
  Was £1,241pp  Now £1,084  Save £157

• MV Emperor Leo 11 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip -
  Was £1,371pp  Now £1,042  Save £329

• MV Emperor Orion 11 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip - 
  Was £1,580pp  Now £1,254  Save £326

• MV Emperor Serenity 17 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip -
  Was £1,719pp  Now £1,297  Save £422

• MV Emperor Virgo 11 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip -
  Was £1,458pp  Now £1,212  Save £246

• MV Emperor Voyager  17 Dec 2016 'The Best of the Maldives' 7 night trip -
  Was £1,432pp  Now £1,297  Save £135

Nestled in Kasawari Bay, Dive into Lembeh Resort has been likened to a comfortable 'land-based liveaboard'. British owned and managed, this lovely small hotel is located on the mainland of the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia.  A true macro photographer’s paradise, the resort is just off the north east coast of Sulawesi and is famous for its 'muck diving' on black volcanic sand.  Muck diving is all about spotting weird and wonderful underwater critters, species that you would normally not find during a regular dive.

Diving in the Lembeh Strait means diving with amazing species such as frog fish, hairy frog fish, mimic octopus, blue ringed octopus, banded sea snake, mandarin fish, orangutan crabs, mantis shrimps and many other critters that are hiding on the black volcanic sand, amongst patches of rubble and coral.

Each of the nine sea view private bungalows is equipped with TV, air conditioning, ceiling fan, mini bar and safe. Every bungalow has its own Japanese 'Onsen' (hot tub) on the veranda to warm up in at the end of the day. There are also two Panorama View Bungalows available at supplement.

The Resort has an open air restaurant and bar, sea view fire pit area with comfortable chairs to relax in, a swimming pool and a fully equipped dive centre with a spacious camera room. There is also a lovely resort spa complete with sea views.

The Resort is located at the northern end of the strait out of sight of Bitung Harbor in the south, offering unspoiled views of Lembeh Island. Two of the most famous dive sites in Lembeh (called “hairball" and "aw shucks”) are nearby forming Dive into Lembeh Resort's house reef, with a choice of the black sand of “hairball", or a nice coral reef, suitable for snorkellers. The boat diving is done from newly built speedboats and the furthest dive site is only 12 minutes away. 

We are pleased to offer Twin Centre trips combining Dive into Lembeh Resort and Tasik Ria Resort, Manado. Packages including flights, accommodation, transfers and boat dives are available. Please ask a member of our team for further details.

Trip Report: Roots RED SEA and Coral Garden RESORT

Just one hour and 20 minutes from Hurghada airport lies Roots Red Sea, a small, friendly and relaxed “eco-resort” just north of El Quesir run by two dedicated Brits: Clare and Steve Rattle.

The first thing that strikes me as I arrive is how friendly the greeting is: a refreshing glass of fruit juice and the polite request to put all bags down, as someone will take them straight to our room. Following the usual check-in paperwork, we are directed to our room on the hillside of this cosy resort. A quick shower and then it's time to visit the bar to meet our hosts and fellow guests.

Steve and Clare gave us a warm welcome and shared a few beers with us as we relaxed into the laid-back Roots way of life, whilst eating the Roots’ Friday special: Fish and Chips! 

In fact the food - as with everything else at Roots - has a wonderful Britishness about it: on Sunday we enjoyed a traditional roast meal with a delicious apple crumble for dessert. Bliss!

The following morning after breakfast we visited the onsite dive centre to complete the necessary paperwork and then headed off to the house reef dive complex on the shore. A short walk across the sand and over a quiet road lies the other part of the Roots setup: a furnished kitting up area, complete with showers, benches and a collection of tanks. There are two buildings on this site; the other being the small restaurant where lunch is served.

Our first dive on the house reef was guided, to enable us to get our bearings. Plenty to see, including several large morays and the largest barracuda I have ever seen. 

The freedom to dive as and when we chose was one of the attractions of visiting Roots. Dawn dives and night dives are also available, but you need to request a night dive one day in advance, so the centre can apply for the necessary approval from the local authorities. On our second day we took a jeep trip to some sites up the coast, one of which was a stunning underwater cave system that I would recommend any diver should visit.

Another highlight was our trip to Elphinstone, which is available for a small supplement. A very early start (4:30am alarm!!!!) and an hour’s drive south to join the RIB awaiting our arrival followed. The three of us boarded and in 20 minutes we arrived at one of the signature dives in the Red Sea, hoping to see some sharks for which this site is famous.

A colourful, but shark-free, first dive along the reef followed. During our surface interval moored up to a liveaboard, we noticed an Oceanic White Tip swimming around the back of the liveaboard and directly under our RIB. “This bodes well” we thought…

The three of us dropped back in the water and hung around the back of the liveaboard at 10m, as three white tips took turns to cruise past us. For 50 minutes! And just the three of us were in the water. Simply stunning! This was one of my most memorable dives in many years of visiting the Red Sea.

Following a final dive at a local site in El Quesir, it was time to say goodbye to our friends at Roots and hello to Coral Garden Resort in Safaga.

North of Roots and only one hour from Hurghada, Coral Garden Resort is a small hotel and dive centre (run by Orca) right on the shore of their house reef: Gassous Bay. This is one of the best house reefs that I have ever dived and I would recommend that any diver spends some time at Coral Garden just to visit Gassous Bay. 

The team at Orca are rightly proud of their house reef and it shows. There are various areas worth exploring, including several purpose built metal frames that are already displaying some impressive coral growth and marine life and a seagrass area with two resident turtles.

As with Roots, you can dive the house reef whenever you feel like it, with dawn dives and night dives also available for the keen diver. In fact the well-run dive centre is set up for this: divers just kit up, collect a full tank from the appropriate area and wander into the sea. On return, simply drop your tank off at the empty area, collect a full tank and set your kit up ready for your next dive.

Coral Garden is a well-designed resort with the dive centre, bar, upper floor restaurant and spa all conveniently located in a central area. Breakfast and evening meals (buffet style) are taken in the upstairs restaurant (complete with cheeky sparrows on the scrounge), with a lunchtime menu available at the beach bar offering pizza, burgers, wraps and toasted sarnies.

Another highlight for us was the big fluffy black and white cat that followed us around and often visited our room in the evening for cuddles and some milk that we saved from breakfast. She probably realised early on that she had encountered a pair of suckers!

Roots Red Sea and Coral Garden lend themselves perfectly for a twin centre holiday which would suit buddy pairs and larger groups. In fact, Roots is already set up for school and university groups, as they host the Marine Biology students from Glasgow University for six weeks every year.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a laid-back diving holiday with no other distractions, then give Roots Red Sea and Coral Garden Resort your serious consideration.

RESORT DETAILS

Roots Red Sea is a small friendly resort ideally suited to divers & snorkellers wanting peace and quiet, but with the convenience of the small traditional town of El Quseir on its doorstep.  The resort is surrounded by magnificent colourful mountains on one side and unspoilt Red Sea beaches on the other, making it a wonderfully relaxing destination. Pharaoh Dive Club has a base both at the resort and on the beach allowing divers to come and go as they please with easy access to a beautiful house reef. The centre runs daily shore trips to over 50 different dive sites as well as having their own zodiac and hard boat for full day excursions.

Roots Red Sea has 29 rooms, consisting of Eco Huts, Deluxe Chalets and Superior Boutique Rooms.  We offer Deluxe Chalets, which can be either twin or triple rooms.  Superior Boutique Rooms may also be booked at an additional supplement. All rooms are built using natural materials, a mixture of wood and local red stone. The wooden furniture and tiled floors enhance the authentic natural feel. The gardens have been cleverly created to minimize water usage, but at the same time with some careful lighting help create a wonderfully relaxing ambience.

Coral Garden Resort is a true divers resort. Situated 22km south of Safaga, Coral Garden Resort is a true divers resort. Located on the northern end of a long sandy beach by the beautiful Gassous Bay, Orca Dive Club is based on site. The resort provides a relaxing stay with superb views over the bay and to the western mountains. Gassous Bay offers a fabulous house reef, ideal for both divers and snorkellers.

Rooms are arranged in a bungalow village style, set in beautifully landscaped gardens. A total of 39 rooms provide spacious and simply furnished accommodation, all with air-conditioning, satellite television, safe, twin beds and a great view. The hotel has a popular beach bar with its own pizza oven, pool and table tennis and a shisha bar. The buffet style roof top Al-Saif restaurant boasts great views of Gassous Bay and serves both authentic Egyptian and Arabic food along with international cuisine. 

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Mercure Manado Tateli Beach Resort is set in lush, tropical gardens. Just 10 km from Manado, the Resort is just a 30-minute boat ride to Bunaken National Park’s reefs and dive sites. Manado's dominating volcanic landscape creates a dramatic backdrop to the world class diving available. Offering fascinating marine life, excellent conditions and facilities, the majority of sites are easily accessible and they are rarely crowded. 

Tateli Beach Resort offers an idyllic setting, expansive private beach and marina. The Resort has many facilities including a large swimming pool, spa, gym and tennis court. From the welcoming lounge you can look out onto the garden, the pool and Manado Tua Island, making this an ideal choice for both divers and non-divers.

Tateli Beach Resort is part of the Accor Group, synonymous with good service and quality, and offers an idyllic setting, expansive private beach and marina. Room options range from Superior to Suites and all rooms are spacious and very well appointed. Several of the Superior Rooms, Deluxe Pool Terrace Rooms and all of the Junior Ocean Suites have recently been completely refurbished to a high standard.

Each room has a generous bed, large bathroom and terrace. air-conditioning, mini bar, tea and coffee facilities, telephone, free WiFi, hairdryer, safe and toiletries. Electrical sockets carry 220V and require double pin plugs. All Superior Rooms, Deluxe Pool Terrace Rooms, Deluxe Ocean View Rooms, Junior Ocean Suites and the Ambassador Suite, as well as almost all of the Resort facilities, are wheelchair accessible.

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this Resort sits on level ground with many facilities including a large swimming pool, spa, gym and tennis court. From the welcoming lounge you can look out onto the garden, the pool and Manado Tua Island, making this an ideal choice for both divers and non-divers.

To find out more about Tateli Beach Resort, call our friendly team on 01353 659999.

I suppose many people would ask if they should believe the hype about Palau and is it worth going halfway round the world to visit? The answer to both questions should most definitely be 'yes'. So, it takes a couple of days to get there, but when you see the beautiful islands and slip beneath its clear blue waters, you will soon forget your journey. 

Due to Palau flight schedules, I had the chance for some nice day boat dives from the capital Koror, before joining the liveaboard. This served me well in getting back in the water after a few months without diving and gave a good taste of things to come. I then joined the Palau Siren a lovely boat with a helpful crew, and a great way to explore the best diving around Palau. 

I had heard of many of the dive sites before, such as Blue Corner and German Channel, so I was looking forward to experiencing them for myself. The first part of the week was out on the extreme west edge of the islands, where you will find Blue Corner and other great sites like Big Drop Off and Ulong Channel. I defy anyone to dive those sites and not have them go straight into their top ten favourite dive locations. Blue Corner involves dropping down to a shear wall, then going onto the top and hooking on with a reef hook and watching the shark show. You will probably see more Grey Reef and Whitetip Sharks than you have ever seen in one place before. You just hang there and watch them cruise by, losing count at around 25.

I'm sure you know that sharks are protected in and around the islands of Palau, a wonderful situation that started 15 years ago and culminated with the creation of the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009. It was so nice to see so many sharks on most dives during my visit. In fact I saw sharks on every dive except the night and wreck dives. 

But of course there is plenty more to see. Some sites had some beautiful hard and soft corals, rivalling the best you'll see anywhere in the world. We also spent half an hour watching a Manta Ray at a cleaning station and often saw Eagle Rays and Stingrays. There was plenty of little stuff to keep the macro lover happy, from Frogfish to lots of different Nudibranchs, many I'd never seen before. 

The wrecks of Palau mustn't be forgotten either. We dived four different wrecks during the week and although not so much of a destination for the hardcore wreck diver like Truk, there are quite a  few wrecks there to keep you happy. Like Truk, most are WWII Japanese vessels, some so big that they take a couple of dives to explore. They are mostly cargo ships, but there is also a very interesting dive on a small seaplane, known as Jake from its American code name. 

One last dive that is worth a mention is Chandelier Cave. Although you would normally think that a 70m long cave would require cave dive training, this one is great for those without, as there are four chambers where you can pop up and breathe the air without your regulator. Its very strange to see the amazing stalactite formations above you with your torch, whilst being entertained by your dive guides silly stories about the cave monsters that supposedly live there! Plus there’s a few tiny Mandarin Fish to hunt for in the coral on exiting the cave. 

Was there any downside with Palau? Of course there was. I was disaapointed that my stay there was limited and I had to leave it behind for the trip home!

To find out more about diving in Palau, please call our friendly team on 01353 659999. If you would like to speak to John about his trip, he would be delighted to share his experience and help you plan your diving adventure in Palau.