Alongside a host of diving vacation packages and one of the biggest dive-centric events in the Caribbean, Dominica is renowned for offering some of the best diving sites in the world. Fort Young Hotel provides a most convenient and enjoyable Caribbean diving vacation, offering its own fully equipped dive shop, state-of-the-art equipment and excellent staff, allowing you unbridled access to it all. The Buddy Dive boats leave directly from our own jetty next to the Palisades Restaurant each day.

Here, our dive team exposes five of our favourite dive site in the waters around the Nature Island.

Dangleben’s Pinnacles

Depth: 35-80 feet

A fantastic maze formed from five pinnacles, Dangleben’s Pinnacles are covered with yellow sea fans and black coral. These cone formation are of varying shapes and sizes with rocky outcroppings covered in sponges, rods and crinoids. Expect to see jacks, tuna, long snout seahorses, creole wrasse, yellow tail snappers, turtles and barracuda.

Crater’s Edge

Depth: 32-130 feet

This is your chance to dive inside an extinct volcano cone, in waters on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Expect to see schools of black margate, black jack, tuna, rainbow runners, yellowtail snapper, Creole wrasse, blue and brown chromis and barracuda.

L’Abym (The Abyss)

Depth: from 15 feet to 1.5 miles

A seemingly bottomless and coral-covered wall, L’abym is a dauntingly-large site with plenty of space to explore. Expect to see seahorses, soldierfish, scorpion fish, copper sweepers, mackerel, jawfish, tuna and barracuda. The occasional manta ray and turtle also show up at L’abym.

Champagne Reef

Depth: 3 – 80 feet

Champagne Reef gets its name from the bubbles produced from the underwater hot springs, known as fumaroles, and divers (or snorkellers) swim in a never ending stream of bubbles escaping from the sea floor to the surface. This site is particularly spectacular at night, when you’ll be joined by giant crabs and lobsters. Expect to see seahorses, squirrel fish, frogfish, flying gurnards, squid, massive crabs and lobsters, which are most common at night.

Rodney’s Rock

Depth: 50 feet

Rodney’s Rock is a shallow dive with patches of sand and seagrass that provides some of the best chances to discover a wealth of underwater creatures, from seahorses to eels. Expect to also see frogfish, spiny and slipper lobster, crabs, morays, urchins, sea cucumbers, stingrays, spotted snake eels, batfish, grunts and snapper.