Bonaire Island: Salt Pier Look at a Bonaire dive map, and you’ll see the reason — technically, dozens of them — why this island has earned the Caribbean’s Best Shore Diving award for 22 years running. Park your rental truck at yellow-stone-marked sites like Salt Pier, and it’s only 10 to 30 yards to the waterline. Sites are shallow — coral gardens start at about 10 feet, leveling at 60. Plus, no Caribbean destination is richer in diversity, according to surveys collected by Reef Environmental Education Foundation. And because you’re setting the schedule, you can jump in anytime, day or night.

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Guam: Tumon Bay Marine Preserve Finger reefs and protected bays create wonderful dive sites here, making the west coast a popular area to explore. Blacktip reef sharks, spinner dolphins, manta rays and green sea turtles are often seen in the waters off the point.

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Guam: Landmark Two Lovers Point Finger reefs and protected bays create wonderful dive sites here, making the west coast a popular area to explore. Blacktip reef sharks, spinner dolphins, manta rays and green sea turtles are often seen in the waters off the point.

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California: Lobster in Santa Barbara From La Jolla to Mendocino, rugged California offers shore diving that might surprise you. Some of the best is in the Channel Islands, where juvenile sea lions chase lobsters into the kelp from the sea lions’ Santa Barbara rookery, just one dive that makes California tops in its region for diving without a boat.

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For the 22nd year in a row, thousands of Scuba Diving subscribers and web users rated their experiences at dive destinations from all around the world. From the U.S. Virgin Islands, to Hawaii, to the Red Sea — we have compiled the Top 100 2015 Readers Choice Awards for Best Shore Diving.

Not all selections in the photo gallery are the first-place winners in the Best Shore Diving category. For the complete list of Top 100 Readers Choice winners in this category, check out our list below:

Best Shore Diving Caribbean and Atlantic

1. Bonaire

2. Mexico

3. U.S. Virgin Islands

4. Puerto Rico

5. Curacao

Best Shore Diving North America

1. California

2. Washington

3. Florida

4. British Columbia

Best Shore Diving Pacific and Indian Oceans

1. Guam

2. Indonesia

3. Hawaii

4. Malaysia

5. Red Sea

Thousands of subscribers and web users rated their experiences at dive destinations in a variety of categories on a scale of one to five. Final scores are an average of the numerical scores awarded. A minumum number of responses was required for a destination to be included in these ratings.

More Top 100 Winners:

Best Wall Diving | Best Underwater Photography | Best Advanced Diving