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 All the holiday news...
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Holiday operator Kuoni Travel has increased the baggage allowance for divers booking flights to the Maldives and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt with Monarch Airlines. Showing your diving certification will provide you with a baggage allowance of 25kg in the hold and 5kg of hand luggage in the cabin.
01306 744117
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Looking for legroom on flights to the Red Sea? The first scheduled services from Gatwick begin in October, with BA's franchise partner GB Airways flying to Sharm El Sheikh three times a week and Hurghada twice a week. All-inclusive Euro Traveller return fares start at £259 and Club Europe standard starts at £499.
www.gbairways.com
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A new sister for Red Sea liveaboard my Panorama Sharm is expected to arrive this month. my Panorama Explorer has been designed to sail the southern Egyptian Red Sea and is claimed to offer both space and sophistication. Up to 20 guests can stay in the 10 air-conditioned en-suite cabins, embarking from Hamata, south of Marsa Alam. Contact Oonasdivers for the cost of a typical package, which will include direct flights, transfers, seven nights' full board and six days' unlimited diving.
01323 648924
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US $25,000-worth of prizes are up for grabs in the first annual Turks & Caicos Islands Underwater Photographic Competition - and Grand Prize-winners will have their photographs published by the government as a set of commemorative postage stamps. These Caribbean islands form part of the world's third most extensive coral reef and the largest lagoon-enclosing barrier reef structure, offering a wide choice of clearwater dive sites. Participants, who must have taken their pictures before the end of August, will be accorded discount rates on air travel, hotel accommodation and diving.
www.underwaterphoto.tc
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The four-star Bandos Island Resort, just 15 minutes away from Male airport in the Maldives, has reopened after a year-long makeover. It now includes a new public area with open-air restaurants, and features 48 new duplex beach villas, with living room on the ground floor and bedroom and bathroom above. Other facilities include a new swimming pool with bar and an enlarged hyperbaric chamber.
www.seansee.com.mv
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The Pathways Hotel in Yap, the Micronesian island famous for its manta ray diving, is offering a "Single Special" for divers until 15 November. Single divers pay half of any double-occupancy holiday package. Seven nights' stay, including breakfasts, transfers, five days' two-tank diving, taxes and other extras would cost US $869 (flights extra).
www.pathwayshotel.com
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Seventeen small independent Caribbean hotels have joined forces to launch a marketing consortium called Beyond the Beaches. Hotels with fewer than 25 rooms in Tobago and Grenada, both prime diving islands, are aiming to attract independent travellers with niche interests - such as divers - who are looking at a more personal service than standard package-holiday hotels can provide.
www.beyondthebeaches.org
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Suzy & Mark Pinnell are a British couple who have set up the Dive Bus - a means of offering divers "shore-diving adventures" around the southern Caribbean island of Curaçao. "We don't get a lot of Brits out this way, but we just finished certifying and diving the crew of HMS Liverpool, which was great!" says Suzy. A two-tank shore dive, lunch and pickup/drop-off costs US $55 ($65 from October). Dive Bus also offers PADI courses and is launching an "Adrenaline Diving" programme - diving plus all-terrain vehicle tours or DPV experiences.
www.the-dive-bus.com
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Not a destination for a week's holiday, perhaps, but a new inland dive site called Eight Acre Lake has been set up at North Cave just off the M62 near Hull. The aim is to provide a "different sort of dive experience", by limiting numbers to 30, and providing facilities such as free tea or coffee after a dive. The bigger of two lakes descends to 14m and contains wrecks, platforms and swim-throughs. There is parking near the water's edge, changing facilities, toilets and snacks. Cost is £10 a day (full report next month).
www.eightacrelake.8m.com
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Difficulty getting air-fills or launching boats may have made diving from the southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre challenging in the past, but a new air station and dive centre aims to change all that. Terry and Lynda Smith, previously regular visitors with Bradford BSAC, have gone for a life-change by buying Pennyseorach Farm at Southend. It has a static caravan site, can provide B&B for up to six, and its beach-launching area allows divers access to Sanda Island and many other sites.
01586 830217
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Belize in central America offers some undeniably good diving, and Jaguar Reef Lodge is offering romantic divers a "Lover's Adventure" package. This includes unlimited diving and snorkelling on the nearby barrier reef and coral atolls, use of a sports utility vehicle, daily massages and other treatments, champagne on arrival and unlimited beer, wine and cocktails. All meals are included and are served by candlelight on your verandah or on the beach. Seven nights in a beachfront cabana or poolside suite costs US $4000 per couple (flights extra)
www.jaguarreef.com
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More Belizean romance is promised by Turneffe Island Lodge, a private Caribbean island 30 miles off the coast only five minutes from what it says are the best dives sites. It offers packages including dives, transfers, full board and air-conditioned beachfront accommodation, starting from $1733 per person (two sharing) for seven nights (flights extra).
www.turneffelodge.com
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Oman has been added to tour operator Regaldive's portfolio of diving destinations. The company says that this Gulf state has more than 40 recognised but relatively pristine dive sites in which it is possible to see marine life including leopard and blacktip sharks, turtles, rays, endemic coral and large schools of reef fish. The Daymaniyat Islands north of Muscat offer coral gardens, walls and abundant fish life, it says, while Musandam can provide good drift diving for experienced divers. A seven-night stay at the Nabucco Extra Divers Resort starts from £699, based on two sharing, including direct flights from Heathrow to Muscat, transfers and half-board accommodation in a beach bungalow. A five-day two-tank dive package costs £150.
0870 2201 777
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An Cayman Islands artist called Foots is sculpting the "Lost City of Atlantis" as a permanent underwater attraction at Radar Reef off Cayman Brac, with the first sections appearing this month. Eventually 100 pieces weighing more than 300 tons will form an artificial reef. Sculptures will include columns, a sundial, a giant archway, a pyramid and statues of the 11 "Elders of Atlantis" - the first of which is modelled on local resident, underwater photographer Lawson Wood (the stony-faced one right).
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Day-divers in Marsa Alam can now enjoy one-day trips to dive the Fury Shoal area from Emperor Divers' Pegasus liveaboard, visiting sites such as Shab Cloude, Sataya or Shab Macsur and the Abu Galawa wreck. The trip includes three dives and transfers to and from Hamata. Meanwhile a new jetty three miles from Emperor's Marsa Alam dive centre means quicker transfers for day-dives at six Abu Dabab reefs and Elphinstone.
www.emperordivers.com
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In January we brought you an enticing destination report from the divers' island of Malapascua in the Philippines, with its rich macro life and unusual number of thresher sharks. Dive centre Bubble 07 has now closed, but in its place is a new British-run shop called Thresher Shark Divers.
www.thresherdivers.com
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- Tornado Marine has taken over Red Sea liveaboard Royal Emperor, booking through Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel. Claimed as "the first high-standard steel boat to operate there", it is hoped it will open up new dive sites off Sudan. (www.scuba.co.uk)
- Cyprus's oldest dive school Cydive has introduced certificated snorkelling courses. "So many people snorkel, both here and abroad, and have no idea how to do so safely," says its MD Photos Socratous. (www.cydive.com)
- Divers can now book any of the 12 Aggressor Fleet liveaboards online. Check availability in the Bay Islands, Belize, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Fiji, Galapagos, Kona, Hawaii, Palau, Tahiti, Truk or Turks & Caicos(www.aggressor.com/onlineres)
- Insurance specialist Diveguard/ Swintons has transferred the Diveguard business to Westfield Sub Aqua & Marine Insurance Services in Surrey. (0870 830 8186)
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