Bonaire

There has been a shake-up in the weather and sea patterns off Bonaire this past year, and mantas and great hammerheads are making more than the occasional appearance off the southern stretch of the Caribbean island.

This doesn’t mean you should expect a big-animal safari, but don't leave the wide-angle lens at home.

“It has been a strange season for sure, but I can’t really say ‘season’ because Bonaire doesn’t have seasons,” says Guillermo Alcorta, the photo pro at Buddy Dive Resort.

Related Reading: Best Destinations for Wall Diving

Baitballs found at Pink Beach and Bachelor’s Beach have been staying longer in the year. Even pilot whales have been spotted during the early summer.

But the mainstays of Bonaire photography are still wide-angle shots of the reefs, the Hilma Hooker wreck, Salt Pier and more—as well as the endless macro opportunities. Seahorses, frogfish and sailfin blennies are readily found off Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, the satellite island that dayboats venture to.

For divers looking to stay a week and focus solely on shooting, Buddy Dive Resort puts on its Thru the Lens event every August. This event is dedicated to all things photography, and it’s open to all shooters who want to hone their skills, whether they rely on a DSLR or a smartphone secured in a waterproof housing.

The best access is from the shore. Many dive sites, including Buddy’s Reef, offer an easy entry. Enter the reef at Buddy Dive via a couple of stairs. From there, the dedicated training area offers everything a newbie could want: great visibility, no current and no waves.

In other words, there are no distracting conditions, so shooters can focus on landing the perfect shot again and again.

Need To Know

When To Go Year-round

Visibility When diving Klein Bonaire or reefs around 60 feet deep, visibility is 70 to 100 feet.

Water Temps Summer warms to 84 degrees and late winter can be 79 degrees.

What To Bring A macro lens and Fish ID guidebook.

Contact Buddy Dive Resort (buddydive.com)

Florida Keys

Two popular underwater subjects in the Florida Keys—sharks and wrecks—can often be found on the same dive.

Drop in on the USS Spiegel Grove, a 510-foot sunken Thomaston-class dock landing ship, and find a reef shark almost every time. That, along with the machine-gun turret, is a diver favorite.

On the Eagle wreck, bull sharks share the frame with the 287-foot freighter. “Any time you have a shark sighting, people go bonkers, and we have a shark sighting every other day—just yesterday the group saw a hammerhead,” says Eric Billips, owner of Islamorada Dive Center and Scuba Town, a development with shopping and restaurants.

Nurse sharks can be found at nearly every site, and at a dive site known as Nurse Shark City, big numbers circle. “People are ho-hum about nurse sharks, but when you’re surrounded by 20, that’s pretty exciting,” says Billips.

Best of all, photos can be downloaded instantly and posted on social media during the surface interval, thanks to a strong cellphone signal offshore.

Need To Know

When To Go Year-round

Visibility The deeper, offshore wrecks can offer visibility between 80 and 100 feet in summer.

Water Temps 86 degrees in August and as low as 70 degrees in January.

What To Bring A wrist or float strap for your GoPro.

Contact Islamorada Dive Center (islamoradadivecenter.com)

Indonesia

It’s said that Buddhists believe that if you’re practicing mindfulness, then you are never actually waiting.

You’ll find the same thing when diving in Indonesia: There is so much to look at and photograph that even if you’re hoping for the big stuff to appear, you don't get the sense of waiting. This destination, in the heart of the Coral Triangle, serves up acres of reefs packed with corals, endless communities of macro life and, of course, a parade of big stuff too. “You can go from pygmy seahorses and skeleton shrimp to mantas and whale sharks, all in the same week,” says Andrea Bensi, owner of the Raja Ampat Aggressor liveaboard. “There’s a huge variety here.

The whale sharks and mantas are the showstoppers, but marine life behavior can be just as intriguing to divers in this rich and diverse island nation. “Symbiosis is the lifeblood of Indonesia,” says Bensi.

Sea fans net particles from the current, which draws out the gobies and crabs that come to feast on the catch.

Related Reading: Best Destinations for Macro Diving

Another example, common in Indonesia, is pistol shrimp and bottom-dwelling gobies. The shrimp, nearly blind, must rely on the goby to alert it when predators approach. In return, the shrimp digs out the hole that the pair calls home.

“It’s very interesting when you think about two species that don’t talk but somehow help each other,” Bensi says. “It would be like if a human and a bear started living together.”

Odd, yes, but in Indonesia, this stuff is every day.

Need To Know

When To Go Indonesia is a year-round destination, but every island or island group has an ideal season. The Raja Ampat Aggressor liveaboard devotes most of the year to Raja Ampat, but travels to the Derawan Islands in July and August.

Visibility On average, visibility is at least 70 feet.

Water Temps 84 degrees year-round.

What To Bring Reef Fish Behavior and Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification Indo-Pacific are both available from New World Publications as e-books.

Contact Aggressor Adventures (aggressor.com)

Readers Choice Awards 2024

This year we surveyed 13,322 readers on their favorite destinations, resorts, operators and liveaboards, awarding their top picks across a variety of categories. Our Readers Choice travel feature highlights the first-place destinations in each global region and offers a taste of what makes each a reader favorite.