UK Diving Places To Dive

UK Coastal Dives | UK Inland Dives | World Dives | UK Liveaboards

Balearic Islands the real guide

Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza: what springs to mind? Cheap package holidays, hordes of tourists and wild parties? Or secluded bays, crystal-clear waters and fabulous diving? Real holidaymakers tell it like it is…

Cavern diving
Louise Trewavas, 37, from Islington, London, is a BSAC club instructor, IANTD Trimix diver and NACD full cave diver. She works as a graphic designer.

I booked my holiday in Menorca direct with S’Algar Diving, then bought an airline ticket independently. I travelled alone.

The diving was spectacular in its own way – the water was a warm 24ºC and there was great visibility. And, although the wind was quite strong at times, there was always an alternative site in a sheltered bay that we could access. We dived in some superb caverns and saw a surprising amount of marine life – swarms of sergeant majors, masses of scorpionfish (especially at night), sea hares, big black and yellow spotted morays, shoals of sea bass and bizarre, cave-dwelling squat lobsters.

While I was there, I did a cavern-diving speciality course with Gavin Newman, which was fascinating and involved going into numerous caverns around the island. I learned techniques to avoid stirring up sediment and ruining the visibility, how to use reels for line-laying, air-sharing in a confined space and following a line in zero visibility.

I stayed in a shared villa and, although the S’Algar resort is pretty small, you can eat in any of the hotels, plus there’s a handful of restaurants. Unfortunately, they all have very predictable food – paella, or beans on toast. For more choice, you need to go to the capital, Maó, which is about 20 minutes away by car. There’s plenty of nightlife in Maó, too – everything from discos to karaoke, and most of the hotels put on entertainment.

If you want lots of coral and pretty fish, the Red Sea is obviously the better bet, but the advantages of Menorca are that it’s closer to home and has European-standard accommodation, food and dive safety. It’s also a good family destination, and flights are frequent and relatively inexpensive.

Family holiday
John Dean Roskell, 35, from Blackpool, is a PADI advanced open water diver and works as a civil engineer.

I went to Majorca with my wife Angela and our kids Leah, who’s six years old, and Carla, three. We always try to go somewhere that will please all the family and Majorca seemed like a good choice. We picked a hotel and the staff there recommended I try Albatros Diving.

The resort was great. There were several swimming pools, babysitters were available if you needed them, and the evening entertainment was fantastic. The ‘Blame It on the Boogie’ show was a great favourite with the crowds – the staff got people from the audience up on stage and made them sing and dance. Also, food isn’t a problem, you can eat what you like, and there’s even an English pub called the King’s Head!

The diving was relatively easy, the visibility was excellent and there weren’t really any currents to speak of. We dived in a couple of caverns and swim-throughs, and I also explored a 15th-century wreck, although there wasn’t much left to see. There’s not a lot of marine life, but I did see an albino stonefish, barracuda and quite a few octopuses on my night dives. And the caves and caverns make up for the lack of marine life – some sites are out of this world.

In the past, I’ve dived with English-run centres, but Albatros Diving has German management. What can I say: the service was first class. The staff were professional, the equipment was top-notch – no ripped boots or wetsuits – and, despite being the only Englishman at the centre, everyone was incredibly friendly and regularly invited me out for drinks or dinner. I really can’t praise the centre enough – it’s just a shame the Med doesn’t have a little more marine life.

Fish soup: top, a diver investigates a wall in Ibiza; middle, an octopus on the move in Majorca; above, checking out the cave life, Vallgornera, Majorca

Girls together
Ann Storey, 45, from Uckfield, East Sussex, is a PADI master scuba diver. Until two years ago, she worked full time in insurance.

I went to Menorca with four other women divers aged from 25 to 45 – yes, I’m the oldest! Two of the group are divemasters, two are rescue divers and we have approximately 600 dives between us. Our Menorcan trip was the first time we’d gone on a diving holiday as a group, although we’ve dived elsewhere together, including the UK.

We decided on Menorca because we’d heard that the cavern diving was pretty good. I found the Rafalet apartments (part of the S’Algar resort) in a Unijet brochure and booked direct. The accommodation was adequate – two double beds and a sofa bed. We also had a kitchen with a hob and fridge. It wasn’t luxurious, but the most important aspect for us was the proximity to the dive centre.

S’Algar Diving offers a good number of sites for novice and experienced divers. We were there in June and were probably the most experienced divers, so the centre provided us with our own boat and dive leader. I’ve been to other dive centres abroad where you’re buddied up with a novice diver because it’s easier for the staff. We stayed for one week and got in ten dives each. Night dives were offered but, frankly, the weather wasn’t that hot and the water temperature was 15–18ºC, so we declined.

None of us had any experience of cave or cavern diving and some of the sites were challenging for first-timers, but we had good dive leaders and didn’t experience any problems. Although we all thought we had good buoyancy control before we went, it was even better by the end of the week after squeezing through small spaces and entering low-ceilinged caverns without kicking up any silt.

Access to most sites was from the boat, although one of the best sites, Moon Pool (see The Dive Sites, below), could only be accessed by hiking across a cliff-top, then making a two-metre jump from the cliff edge. The effort was well worth it – in fact, I’d rate this dive as one of the best of the week for the spectacular scenery inside the cave. Wonderful stalagmites and stalactites provide a fabulous backdrop for lots of shy fish, corals, anemones and segmented sea worms. And it was obviously octopus-mating time, because we saw quite a few of them at it, as well as one magnificent pregnant female in full flight.

The location of S’Algar is a little odd, as there’s no natural beach, so it might not appeal to families with young children (although it was great for us!). Also, a non-diving partner might easily get bored, as there really is nothing to do except sit around the pool or go on an island tour. And the only nightlife is a karaoke bar – you need to go to Maó if you want evening entertainment. There are a couple of supermarkets within walking distance of the dive centre, but the restaurants cater only for the typical British tourist – everything with chips. It’s cheap, though.

I’m almost certainly going back again later this year – I think I’ll probably do the cavern speciality course, so I can get to the even better sites!

Menorcan moments: left, the S’Algar boat; above, divers in Tom’s Belfry, one of the island’s many caverns; below, looking out from Rafalet Cave

Who to contact
Menorca
S’Algar Diving Tel: 34 971 150601;
e-mail: admin@salgardiving.com; web site: www.club-salgar.com

Crystal Seas Scuba Tel: 34 971 387038;
e-mail: info@crystalseas-scuba.com

Diving Center Fornells Tel/fax: 34 971 376431;
e-mail: admin@divingfornells.com; web site: www.divingfornells.com

Majorca
Albatros Diving Tel: 34 971 586807;
e-mail: albatros-diving@ctv.es; web site: www.es/users/albatros-diving

Diving Center Blaumari Tel: 34 971 131500;
e-mail: info@blaumari.com; web site: www.blaumari.com

Oceano Sub Dive Centre Tel: 34 971 545517 or 34 609 983011;
e-mail: jr@oceanosub.com;
web site: www.oceanosub.com

Ibiza
H2O Diving Centre Tel: 34 971 313524;
e-mail: h2obuceo@jet.es; web site:
www.bestof.org/ibiza/h2o

From the UK
The following dive centres offer trips and training in Menorca:
Deep Blue Diving, Congleton, Cheshire. Tel: 01260 297998.
Scuba Safaris Diver Training Centre, Norwich. Tel: 01508 493177.

Specialist courses
Cave and cavern training is offered by many dive centres on the islands. Gavin Newman runs week-long courses each year on Menorca, based at S’Algar Diving. Phone S’Algar Diving (see above) for details.

• For more information, contact the Spanish National Tourist Board, London. Tel: 0171 486 8077; web site: www.tourspain.es

THE DIVE SITES
Menorca
The diving in Menorca is generally scenic, with many caves and caverns, some of which you can surface in.

Pont En Gille is a spectacular site that was discovered by a free-diver. It starts with a large, dry cavern full of spectacular stalagmites and stalactites, where you can actually get out of the water and walk around. Once you return to the water, you can dive down a long, sandy-floored passage with a sizeable air surface above. A short dip under a rock surface at the far end brings you to the final chamber of the cave and a wide sandy beach – undoubtedly Menorca’s most exclusive!

The Moon Pool is for the more experienced diver, as it’s a true cave dive. You begin in a large cavern entrance at 14m, then follow a tunnel inland. As you lose sight of daylight, you’ll notice the floor is covered with big white boulders rounded by the sea’s movement. The cave appears to end in a circular chamber filled with these boulders, but if you continue up a perfectly circular shaft, it eventually leads you to a small air chamber. The crystal-clear visibility makes this a deceptively easy dive, but once you’re at the air chamber you’re actually 125m from the entrance – a long distance to swim with any sort of problem. This site should be dived only by those with some cave or cavern-diving training.

The Coral Galleries is a multi-entranced cavern (six entrances in all), with walls covered in delicate hard corals. There are plenty of fish and other critters inhabiting the cavern’s many crevices, and huge shoals of barracuda can often be found in the open water near the main entrance. The site is very photogenic, with light streaming through from above.

The aptly named Swiss Cheese site is a world-class shore dive. Situated in a small bay on the north-east coast, a large, hollow rock just breaks the surface in the centre of the bay. Entering any of the numerous caves around the rock leads you to a spacious central chamber lit by shafts of light coming through the many holes. The area surrounding the rock is a veritable nature reserve, with small caverns and gullies sheltering large octopus, cuttlefish, pipefish and scorpionfish, to name but a few. The site makes an excellent night dive. Access to the water is via a three-metre jump from a small rocky outcrop halfway along the western side of the bay.

Ibiza
There’s a surprising amount of fish life and good scenic diving in Ibiza.

The Cathedral cave consists of three rooms, one of which has huge stalactites and an air pocket you can surface in.

The Wrecks aren’t much to write home about, being two, recently sunk, wooden fishing boats, but they’re still worth visiting for the resident groupers, lobsters and conger eel. Look out, too, for tuna and stingrays.

Majorca
Majorca has a lot of inland cave sites which are suitable only for fully trained cave divers, but the coast has many caverns for the less experienced to explore, particularly on the north coast, such as the underwater caves of El Dique del Oeste.

El Sec Island is only a short boat journey from the mainland and has four wrecks in the surrounding waters, including the Nemo submarine.

As well as caves, El Dique del Oeste has four wrecks in close proximity to each other – two cargo wrecks, which are 100m long, and two trawlers 40m and 60m long. The visibility can be poor here at certain times of the year.