Diving in Tobago caters for all levels of experience. The coral seas are made up of fringing and patch reefs with sponges and hard and soft coral. It is well known for its drift dives and there are some strong currents which can be unpredictable, so take care.

The reefs of the south coast are much calmer, so are better for beginners, where as Speyside has much faster currents that are consistently two knots. Nutrients from the Orinoco River estuary support plankton on which a complex community thrive, including mantas and whale sharks. Also can be seen are nurse sharks, black tip reef sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, manta rays, tarpon, chromis, angelfish, parrotfish, damselfish.

Tobago is good for diving any time of year and we would recommend either a 3mm wetsuit or shortie.

Here are a description of some of the dive sites around Tobago:-

Book Ends

This dive is located south of Little Tobago and is a reef/drift dive.  Depth - 24 meters with a visibility of up to 30 meters. 

The Book Ends are two granite rocks that break the surface of the water. The beginning of the dive starts at a bowl-shape reef with gently sloping sides and waves crashing overhead. The diving is very good with plenty of life. Sightings of large barracuda and tarpon feeding can be seen, as well as Queen and French angelfish, shrimps, grunts, goatfish, scorpionfish and cowfish. The shrimps can be really noisy at the start of the dive.

The Cathedral

This dive is located West of Little Tobago and is a reef/drift dive of up to 31 meters.

The Cathedral is a gently sloping reef, with fairly consistent currents. At the north end great barracuda can be seen and also angelfish, jellyfish and harlequin shrimps. On the south section stingrays at 30 metres can be seen together with sunfish, grouper, harlequin shrimps and more barracuda. The topography is quite surreal with lots of sandy gullies.

Coral Gardens

This is located in the Speyside are and is a reef/drift dive of up to 25 meters.

The drift at this site is nice and calm and there is an abundance of soft coral. The site is famous for being home to the worlds largest brain coral, which is huge! At the start of the dive can be seen are some lovely angelfish, barracuda and the possibility of a nurse shark, if you are lucky. There are also trunkfish, crabs and French and grey angelfish.

Manta City

This site needs no explanation as the name implies what's found during this dive. Huge mantas frequent this site and they are not afraid of divers.  There isn't a guarantee that you'll run into mantas as seasonal feeding grounds change during the year. Best time is around late December to early June.

The Sisters

This site is located approx. 1.5 miles from land on the Caribbean side of Tobago.  The "Sisters" are a group of rocks about 100ft high out of the water. They sink down to 150ft around the rocks and this creates a slope which is covered in soft corals; because of the distance from land and the depth of water large pelagic fish congregate here. On many dives Whale and Hammerhead sharks have been seen and in the area and in the rocks live Turtles, Moray eels and Lobsters.

Scarlet Ibis Wreck

Lying in 100ft of water is the wreck of the M.V Maverick, once a passenger ferry between the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The Scarlet Ibis as it was then called served for many years before being replaced with a bigger faster ferry. The top of the Wreck is 55ft and decent is down a line attached to the bow usually passing though a school of bait fish with Bonito fish darting in and out upon reaching the bow "Jacob" a resident Jew fish who comes to greet the divers, weighing approx. 150lbs he is an impressive host to the ships tour. Because of the depth the dive usually lasts 30-35 mins and it is possible to penetrate the ship even as far as the diesel engine rooms. Reef building crabs, sennet fish and clams add to this interesting dive site.

When booking the holiday, we require a deposit of 20% of the overall package cost for bookings including a charter airline (i.e. Excel) and 40% of the overall package cost for bookings including a scheduled airline (i.e. Virgin/BA).  Final payment must be made 8 weeks prior to departure.  Please click on booking terms at the top of this page before booking the holiday.