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 All the holiday news...
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Diving Truk Lagoon is every wreckie's dream, and Explorers says it can offer significant price reductions to get there and to other destinations in Micronesia, as a result of flying out from Heathrow with Korean Airlines. A 12-day Truk trip with seven days' diving among the lagoon's
48 wrecks costs £1795 per person (saving £340), including flights and eight nights at the Blue Lagoon Hotel (room-only, two sharing). The dive package costs £406. Explorers also offers a Truk and Palau itinerary (£570 saving) and 24 days visiting Truk, Palau and Yap (£700 off to give a price of £2399).
• www.explorers.co.uk
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This year, much like the Tories, dive operators seem to want to "show more love" to the younger generation. Family learn-to-dive packages are becoming more readily available and affordable, with special offers on overseas holidays, particularly in the Red Sea, from Emperor Divers, Explorers and Werner Lau. No excuses, get your kinfolk under water - you'll find details on these websites.
• www.emperordivers.com, www.explorers.co.uk, www.wernerlau.net
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Follow in Ernest Shackleton's footsteps (not literally) 90 years on by signing up for a 22-day diving tour of South Georgia and parts of Antarctica with World Expeditions. The trip offers diving among "extraordinary ice formations, various species of penguins, shrubby-horse-tails, giant isopods and seals". Converted research vessel Aleksey Maryshev leaves on 27 December and the fare is US $11,600 a head (about £6450) based on two sharing, plus $1900 (£1050) diving surcharge.
• www.worldexpeditions.co.uk
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First prize in Sardinia's third annual Underwater Photography Competition is an 18-carat golden shell worth 4000 euros, and good photo opportunities are promised off the north-east coast, with walls, caverns and canyons, wrecks and groupers. The competition, open to amateurs and pros alike, runs from 28 September to 2 October. Half-board hotel accommodation and diving costs £289 and competition entry is 70 euros.
• www.locationsardinia.com
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A two-week PADI diving course or a hands-on 4-12-week diving internship - if you want to carve a career out of diving - is offered in Cape Town by South African travel company i-to-i. Prices start from £995 for the two-week course and £1295 for the longer course, including accommodation, food, transfers and insurance.
• www.i-to-i.com
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Based in Scotland but operating mainly in the Arctic Circle around Norway, Go North is offering a number of coldwater diving packages. Opt to dive with killer whales in Tysfjord, or try wreck-diving in Narvik - Go North says a fast RIB can whisk you to dive sites in minutes. Packages start from £760 for a week in Narvik with five days' diving (no flights).
• www.arctic-diving.com
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Operating out of Brixham and Plymouth, Sunfish Charters has combined with Trefoil Guest House to offer midweek one or two-night mini-breaks, using a Ribcraft Offshore 7.8m RIB. The breaks can include Sunday through to Thursday nights. At least two divers are required to do four dives - two inshore and two offshore dives - and two nights' stay would cost £115.
• www.sunfish-charters.com
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It's one thing to be called a "legend" by others, but for a group of divers to bill themselves as such may strike some as a tad presumptious. Legends Week, to be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Dahab from 9-15 December, was dreamt up by deep-air diver Mark Andrews to allow ordinary folk to interact with divers such as himself "on a level never before attainable". Dubious billing apart, it looks like fun, and anything that keeps divers going to Dahab should be applauded. You can be one of 20 divers to join Andrews, Pascal Bernabe, Dan Burton, Leigh Cunningham, Bob Evans, Paul Haynes, Monty Halls, Jack Ingle and others on their dives. Stealth rebreathers will be available, and there will be nightly lectures and workshops. Guests stay at the new five-star Meridien Hotel, where Legends Week host Poseidon Divers has a new centre. The package price of £1199 includes return flights and transfers from Gatwick via Sharm, seven nights' accommodation and five days' diving.
• www.poseidondivers.com/legends
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- Half an hour's seaplane flight north of Male, in Baa Atoll, Four Seasons has opened a new Maldives resort at Landaa Giraavaru. www.fourseasons.com
- Closed since the 2004 Tsunami, Werner Lau reopens its renovated five-star Medhufushi Island Resort in the Maldives in mid-January - just in
time for the whale shark season. www.wernerlau.net
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