Volume 2 - Antigua & Barbuda

Although it has a well-developed tourism industry, Antigua is not particularly known for its diving environment. In part it is because the diving cannot compete with the impressive coral and fringing reefs elsewhere in the region. The good news is that a vacation in Antigua presents a wide array of water-based activities—plus long beautiful white sand beaches, more historical sites on land than most other islands, and a dry climate. Consequently a mixed group of divers and non-divers will be well catered for.

Antigua is set on a shallow bank so most of the diving is shallow, though on the south side it is possible to do dives to over 100 feet (see Sunken Rock – sample dive below). Unlike most of the other islands where the diving is on the fringing reef or around offshore rocks, Antigua has real coral reefs on the north, south and east sides. These reefs are relatively shallow and have suffered hurricane damage but both Boons Reef to the north and Cades Reef to the south are dived.

To really sample Antigua's diving you would need to dive on both the south and west side of the island. None of the operators cover the whole diving area, so you would need to dive with more than one store. See the book for the diving range of each operator.

Antigua has a few wreck dive sites. Most are in shallow water and on the west side, which tends to mean variable visibility. Several of the wrecks have interesting stories about how they ended up under rather than on the water.

See the book for 35 pages describing Antigua’s 42 dive sites and 9 dive stores, plus lots of information about the island, après dive activities, diving rules and regulations and marine life.

Checkout dive site 37 - Sunken Rock

Download the Antigua chapter as a pdf from our on-line store
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