More and more Regaldive guests are choosing liveaboard holidays around the world. As a result of this increased demand, we are delighted to expand our liveaboard collection with a new destination and a new liveaboard in Palau - S/Y Palau Siren.

Allowing divers to make the most of the world-class diving on offer in Palau, this stunning sailing vessel offers three itineraries, each of which include the unique chance to snorkel in Jellyfish Lake - as featured by the winner of a previous year's Guardian’s Readers' travel photograph competition.

The seven night Palau Islands itinerary, offers the opportunity to explore some of the finest diving in Palau. Undertaking up to 22 dives including four night dives, our guests will discover a wide range of sites including the Ulong Channel - a drift dive and one of the best dives in Palau; Blue Corner - home to steep sheer walls and fierce currents; Iro Maru wreck - a Japanese oil supply ship which was sunk during World War II, and Shark City - the name of which speaks for itself. 

The 10 night Palau Islands itinerary allows a more in-depth exploration of the sites visited in the seven night itinerary. Divers will have the opportunity to take up to 33 dives including five night dives, including full board boat accommodation, most drinks, three to four boat dives per day, air/nitrox tanks and weights. Flights are not included in either the seven or 10 night itinerary but can be arranged - please contact us for a tailor-made holiday quotation.

Alternately, for divers who want to combine the best of the Philippines and Palau, the 13 night Philippines and Palau Combo itinerary does just that. Dividing their time between the S/Y Palau Siren and the S/Y Philippine Siren, divers will log up to 42 dives, including seven night dives, wreck dives and drift dives. Liveaboard highlights include Pescador Island where divers can swim amongst schools of sardines, thresher sharks and giant frogfish, and Blue Corner - one of Palau’s most famous dive sites. 

The S/Y Palau Siren offers spacious accommodation for 16 guests. The boat benefits from en-suite double and twin cabins, a comfortable indoor lounge, cocktail bar, outdoor dining area with ever changing views and an uncovered sun deck. Divers making the most of their time above the water can also make the most of the yacht boutique, massage service and kayaks available for customer use, offering plenty to keep them entertained round the clock.  

We’re very excited to be welcoming the S/Y Palau Siren to our already popular collection of liveaboards. With so many fantastic dive sites located far off the shore and so many dedicated divers eager to explore them, liveaboards make for a very popular option with our divers. 

For more information, please call the Regaldive Team on 01353 659 99901353 659 999.

Regaldive is delighted to feature Mexico! With warm tropical waters and a wealth of world class diving on offer including the legendary inland Cenotes, our latest addition will no doubt be at the top of ‘must dive’ lists.

With a choice of two Mexican resorts to choose from, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, this new destination offers the ideal medium-haul option for those looking to combine white sand beaches with plentiful reefs. Both resorts sit on the Yucatan Peninsula, located on the edge of the world’s second largest barrier reef, which stretches south for over 1,000 km. Fed by the nutrient rich currents, the reef is a teeming city of corals, sea fans, whips and sponges and is home to over 500 different species of fish.

Experienced divers staying on Cozumel, Mexico’s largest island, can explore the famous Planacar Reef, named by Jacques Cousteau as one of the best scuba diving spots in the world. The area also benefits from exhilarating drift dives and dramatic wall dives for those looking to take advantage of the nutrient rich currents surrounding the island.

For less experienced divers, Riviera Maya offers a wealth of easy and relaxed dive sites that are well suited to all levels of experience. Divers can explore low walls with overhangs, mini caves and swim-throughs, while enhancing their skills. They can also admire reef tops peppered with hard corals, colourful sponges and sea plumes, as well as schooling snappers, angelfish, lobsters and electric rays.

Both resorts offer access to the world famous Cenotes. The chance to explore this incredible submerged limestone cave and cavern system is the reason so many divers head to this part of Mexico and these are once in a lifetime dives that absolutely live up to their hype. The Cenotes are justifiably known as the jewel in the crown of Yucatan diving. Here you can float in gin clear fresh water amongst stunning formations of stalagmites and stalactites, bathed in shafts of light filtering through the jungle canopy above. Used as a source of fresh water by the ancient Maya, these distinctive geological formations offer some of the most exciting and unique diving to be found anywhere in the world.

Located on San Francisco Beach Allegro Cozumel Resort the hotel is located just minutes away from Palancar Reef and the best dive sites of the Cozumel National Marine Park - considered one of the top five dive destinations in the world. The all-inclusive resort benefits from four restaurants, five bars, four swimming pools, three floodlit tennis courts, a multi-purpose sports court, fitness centre, Jacuzzi and sauna. The price includes flights, transfers and seven nights’ all inclusive accommodation.

For those tempted by Playa del Carmen Allegro Playacar Resort is a superb choice. Located on the white-sand beach and surrounded by lush tropical gardens, the resort benefits from three swimming pools, two floodlit tennis courts, a basketball court, free non-motorised water sports and a full programme of day and evening entertainment. The lively resort offers the ideal base to discover the wide variety of nightlife and leisure options in Playa del Carmen. The price includes flights, transfers and seven nights’ all inclusive accommodation.

Give the Regaldive Team a call on 01353 659 999 to find out more!

If you're looking for cheaper and more flexible holiday options, how about thinking outside the box? With increased flight capacity to Hurghada now available from London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester, divers can benefit from more regular and better value flights when travelling to any Southern Red Sea resort via road transfer from Hurghada airport.

For divers looking to get away from the crowds, the vastly undiscovered resort of El Quseir can be reached by road transfer in under two hours from Hurghada. With over 30 dive sites within easy reach of the resort, El Quseir is the ideal location for experienced divers wanting to be at one with the marine life. Underwater photographers can explore the coral covered pinnacles, navigate the labyrinth of coral gardens, and glide through the narrow passages and blind alleys of Serib Kebir, the Rock and Sharm Fungani while admiring the macro life and nudibranchs on offer.

Home to some of the most famous dive experiences in the Red Sea, Marsa Alam can also easily be reached by road transfer from Hurghada airport in around three hours. Offering divers the chance to come face to face with Spanish dancers, turtles, eagle rays, great hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, Marsa Alam combines the very best of shore and boat diving. Located close to the resort is the fascinating site of Sha’ab Samadai, also known as ‘Dolphin House’. This site is frequented by a pod of around 60 spinner dolphins and is home to a network of caves and tunnels, in addition to a carpet of seagrass hiding moray eels, leopard groupers, goatfish, lionfish, masked butterfly fish and much more.

With Hurghada flights, you can travel to the Red Sea on a day that suits you, and get to see more of Egypt on the way to your chosen resort!

Give the Regaldive Team a call on 01353 659 999 to explore your Red Sea options.

There's just a week to go to the dive event of the year at the NEC. SAVE NOW! Our show offers are too good to miss so we have decided to offer them to you right now. These Red Sea offers are valid from TODAY, 18 October 2013, so give us a call and get your booking in early. We expect these offers to fly out the door, so book NOW and don't miss out.

Our incredible Red Sea offers include:

- SAVE up to 30% on Liveaboards - amazing prices starting from £675 fully inclusive!

- FREE Buddy Diving at most Red Sea Resorts

- FREE Buddy Courses at most Red Sea Resorts 

- £20 per day boat & house reef diving with Emperor Divers

For more details please see our DIVE SHOW SPECIAL OFFERS page or call us on 01353 659 999!

Regaldive Team Member John has just returned from a ‘trip of a lifetime’ to Raja Ampat, Indonesia. John’s itinerary aboard the exceptional Dewi Nusantara took in the very best diving of this region. Read his trip report:

Wow, what a trip! It’s been described by others as the trip of a lifetime, but the trouble is I want to do it far more than just once in my lifetime!

Of course it takes a while to get to the other side of the world, but it is so worth it. The first part, which for me was a Singapore Airlines A380 to Singapore was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. A comfortable plane with reasonable leg-room, good entertainment and good service made the 12 and a half hours very bearable. The internal flight was a bit more like travelling with a UK budget carrier, but that was only for the last bit of the journey.

When I got to Sorong in West Papua (formally Irian Jaya) I joined a fantastic liveaboard called Dewi Nusantara. Really an amazing boat. It looks pretty stunning as it’s built along the lines of a mid 1800’s 3 masted schooner, so it’s not like your normal dive boat. The wow factor of the boat doesn’t stop there, it’s amazing inside too, with wood everywhere and handmade bespoke wooden furniture. There’s plenty of room on the dive deck, saloon and bedrooms, so with only 18 guests on board you can always find a bit of space. Photographers are well looked after too, with their own camera room.

Another thing that makes the boat so special is the crew and the organisation on board. They are all so friendly and had an amazing ability to remember everyone’s names, almost from day one. Diving is made very easy as all your kit is labelled and was always in exactly the right place when you needed it. Even your camera was taken to the dive tender and handed to you just before, or after, you rolled into the water.

So the boat and the crew were great, but what about the diving? It’s definitely got to be considered some of the best in the world. Raja Ampat is at the heart of the Coral Triangle of South East Asia so was never going to disappoint. But what strikes you is the sheer amount of pristine hard and soft corals, and the number of fish, especially on the reefs around the south of Waigeo Island and the north of Batanta.  The reef at Cape Kri is officially recognised as having more species than any other dive site in the world. Needless to say I didn’t try and prove the scientists wrong and just enjoyed the dive.

To the north of Raja Ampat the reefs are slightly different, not so much large coral and big schools of fish, but more looking for little stuff. The islands of the Equator group are very much for the diver looking for the little things, certainly a macro photographer's heaven. I never thought I would get too excited finding Nudibranchs, but a new camera with a good macro setting certainly helps. A decent picture of a Pygmy Seahorse failed me though. 

As we moved back south we came to a dive site called Eagle Rocks, named after the many Sea Eagles nesting in the trees. We did two dives there and were lucky enough to see Manta Rays on both dives. Really pleasing as later in the week you might guess that a dive site with ‘Manta’ in it’s name yielded us none at all.  Just the luck of the draw I suppose.

The highlights underwater for me where probably the good number of Tassled Wobbegong Sharks we saw, at least a dozen or so during ten days diving. Also the Raja Epaulette sharks that we saw on most of the night dives. Both of these species are great for photographers as they don’t move much and if they do it’s rather slow. Not like those fish that you just get lined up for a shot and they turn their back or nip behind the nearest bit of coral. Lots of fast moving Blacktip Reef Sharks and a few Whitetips too.

A good dive guide is essential though and I’m please to say we had some of the best. It’s amazing how they can swim straight up to a fan coral and find a Pygmy Seahorse in seconds. The little critters are only a few millimetres long and difficult enough to see, let alone photograph, even when being pointed out to you.

So we saw the tiniest of Seahorses, up to the biggest of Mantas and everything in between. Other highlights were the big shoals of schooling fish, Bumphead Parrotfish and a couple of Banded Sea Snakes. The night dives yielded quite a few different types of Squid, Cuttlefish and Octopus, including the famous Blue Ringed variety. The biodiversity of the reefs means that there is something for everyone in Raja Ampat. The area is totally unspoilt, both above and below the water and we didn’t see another dive boat until the very last of our 38 dives.

A wonderful trip that’s just got to be on any divers ‘must do’ list. Just hope I get the chance to go back there one day!

Thanks to John for these great photos of his trip!