Best Diving in the USA and North America

If you’re looking for the best diving in the USA and North America, you’ve come to the right place! Whether you’re planning dive trips in the Florida Keys, submerging in the scuba diving San Diego scene, or you’re one of those hardcore Florida freedivers, North America offers epic underwater experiences with dive spots catering to snorkelers, freedivers and scuba divers. If you prefer the streamlined experience of freediving, dive destinations with calm waters and dramatic drop-offs are ideal. With the luxury of extended bottom times, scuba divers can explore deeper wrecks and caves. Whether you’re ready to glide kelp forests or explore bustling reefs, here’s out top picks.

Best places to scuba
Best places to scuba

11 Best Dive Spots

  1. Scuba or Freedive Monterey Bay – The kelp forests in California are absolutely magical – swim through an underwater jungle, complete with playful sea otters and sea lions.
  2. Scuba Diving San Diego – Wreck Alley is a must for wreck diving enthusiasts, featuring the sunken HMCS Yukon and Ruby E, now artificial reefs teeming with life. Freediving San Diego is equally epic if you’ve got a solid breath-hold.
  3. Florida Freedivers – Gear up for the Florida Keys, a local tropical dive destination. Key Largo’s John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park boasts vibrant reefs, while the USS Spiegel Grove wreck is ideal for deep free diving.
  4. Bonne Terre Mine – Otherworldly underground diving in Missouri with eerie mine shafts and artifacts. Bonus: no currents to battle!
  5. Flower Garden Banks Diving – A hidden gem of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico with stunning corals and the chance to see mantas and hammerheads.
  6. Dive Hawaii – Big Island and Maui provide the best scuba and freediving Hawaii has to offer with blackwater night dives, lava tubes, and the famous manta night dives.

7. Best diving Mexico – Cenote freediving and scuba offers mesmerizing light beams and ancient rock formations. In Baja, diving San Jose del Cabo, San Carlos and La Ventana brings fevers of mobula rays, orcas, whale sharks, blue whales, sperm whales and more.

8. Scuba & Freediving Bahamas – Dean’s Blue Hole Bahamas is a must, with deep descents into eerily beautiful turquoise caverns. Bahamas liveaboard diving is the best way to ensure you see it all aka., hammerhead sharks and swimming pigs.

9. Scuba & Freediving Belize – Belize Barrier Reef is a UNESCO World Heritage site featuring the largest sea hole in the world, the Great Blue Hole. Here you’ll experience serene other-worldly dives with stalactites and stalagmites.

10. Scuba Diving New York – Seems odd, right? NY offers some seriously cool shark dives, mahi-mahi, tuna, groupers and more.

11. Diving Miami – Emerald Reef is the place to spot macro life, befriend squid and greet sleepy nurse sharks. Miami freediving courses are available year-round here.

Best places to scuba
best diving in the usa

Best Time to Dive

  • California: Late summer to fall. Waters of 18°C / 65°F with peak 30m / 98ft visibility.
  • Florida: Year-round. Waters up to 30°C / 86°F and max 30m / 100ft visibility.
  • Hawaii: Anytime, but winter brings swells. Waters up to 27°C / 81°F all year and peak 40m / 130ft visibility.
  • Gulf of Mexico & Texas: June to September. Waters up to 27°C / 80°F and 30 / 100ft visibility.
  • Bonne Terre Mine: Constant 15°C / 60°F with magical 30m+ / 100ft+ visibility.
  • Bahamas: November to May. Waters up to 29°C / 85°F and stunning 40m / 130ft visibility.

Marine Life in North America

  • Hammerheads – Florida & Hawaii: Head to the Florida Keys or dive in Hawaii’s Molokai.
  • Manta Rays – Hawaii & Flower Garden Banks : Year-round and night dives in Kona offer surreal, up-close encounters.
  • Whale Sharks – Gulf of Mexico & Baja: Making an appearance off the Texas coast in Summer and from October in Baja.
  • Humpback Whales – Hawaii & Baja: Gliding through from December.
  • Sea Lions – California (Fall & Winter): These playful creatures love interacting with divers, especially in the Channel Islands.
  • Mobula Rays & All The Whales – Baja California: Witness mobula ray aggregations, blue whales, orcas, sperm whales and more from May.
dive trips freediving
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