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 All the holiday news...
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Dive operations can't afford to let hurricanes put clients off. So the Aggressor liveaboard fleet is implementing a "Storm-check" policy, whereby if a captain is forced to evacuate guests to safety ashore because of a named tropical storm or hurricane, the divers receive a credit of equal value for any days of diving missed.
Similarly, Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort at Key Largo in Florida is offering "Risk-Free Hurricane Season Reservations". If a storm disrupts your stay, you get credited for a future trip. Amoray is also offering coral-spawning dives over three nights about a week after the August full moon - you get a dive, tank and weights and a lecture and slide show for $75.
• www.aggressor.com, www.amoray.com
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PADI has developed its first new full speciality course since Nitrox. The Digital Underwater Photographer Speciality course is designed to teach divers how to prepare and use to best effect their camera equipment and how to manipulate and enhance pictures. If you don't have your own camera, a Canon is provided for the duration - between a half and two days. Inquire at your local PADI dive centre.
• www.padi.com
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Red Sea liveaboard specialist Kawarty Red Sea has launched its own travel arm in the UK - Kawarty Travel. Mounir Mahmoud has been building Kawarty's wooden liveaboards for five years and says that the high specification and attention to detail provide an unusual degree of strength, safety, reliability and comfort. The 30m Kawarty II takes 20 passengers and Kawarty III is to be launched soon. Kawarty Travel is currently offering £100 off its normal prices for any holiday booked this year.
• www.kawartytravel.com
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The Capo Galera dive centre near Alghero in north-western Sardinia is sited in a villa high on a rocky promontory, and the dive gear has to be hoisted down to the sea in a suspended boat! Diving is from the 15m wooden boat Patrizia, said to provide easy access to the area's best dive sites. There are many caves to explore, and shore dives as well. The villa provides rooms and apartments for up to 25 people, and prices for a week's accommodation and 10-dive package start from 420 euros per person.
• www.capogalera.com
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For those looking for something new to dive in the northern Red Sea, Fish & Friends Diving Centre may have the answer. As well as visiting Dahab's usual sites, it provides the chance to dive the virgin reefs of the Nabq National Park. Book through The Scuba Holiday and prices start from £480 a head, including flights, transfers, B&B accommodation and diving.
• www.thescubaholiday.com
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Fancy sending that bulky dive gear on ahead? First Luggage collects your bags from home and delivers them to your destination. It operates in more than 80 countries. During transit your luggage is scanned at least six times and you can track its progress online in real time using a unique number. Discounts are available for bulk bookings.
• www.firstluggage.com
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If you do carry your own gear, you can avoid
the schlep from the airport car park to the departure terminal with BCP Parking's Meet and Greet service. A driver will meet you outside the terminal building, park your car and be there to meet you with it when you arrive back. The service is available at any of the UK's 21 leading airports, and BCP is offering Diver readers a 10% discount.
• 0870 195 9684 (quote Diver)
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Tony Backhurst Scuba is the latest operator to join the British Sub-Aqua Club's Travel Club scheme. As a "Preferred Travel Partner" (PTP)
it joins Dive Worldwide, Regaldive and Borneo specialist Touchdown to offer club members "substantial discounts" off brochure prices for diving holidays. Members are also said to benefit from special packages and bespoke trips at reduced rates. Following closure of their specialist diving departments, Hayes & Jarvis and Harlequin have stepped down as PTPs.
• www.bsactravelclub.co.uk
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A new four-star liveaboard, Ocean Dream, is sailing from Sharm el Sheikh around the Sinai "wreck route", including the Straits of Tiran, Ras Mohammed National Park and the Thistlegorm and Rosalie Moller. The 30m vessel has 10 en-suite double cabins and two sun decks. Prices start from 810 euros (around £560) for seven days' full-board accommodation, no-limit diving, nitrox and all transfers (not flights).
• www.diveseamax.com
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The Greek island of Kalymnos, famous for its sponge-diving heritage, holds its third annual international dive festival from 2-9 July, with free events and demos on land and at sea; including sponge-diving and freediving. There are also free dives on offer!
• www.kalymnos-isl.gr/diving
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UK-based Okavango Tours & Safaris provides tailor-made holidays to the Tanzanian islands off East Africa on the 26m restored schooner Midsummer, with a chance to dive "untouched lagoons". A seven-night trip starts from £3025 per person based on a six-person charter, and includes five nights on the ship with at least six dives, two nights at the Zanzibar Serena Inn in Stone Town, flights, transfers and most meals.
• www.okavango.com
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