If you love to go scuba diving, but don't want to spend hours on a dive boat (especially in rough water) to reach the best coral check out these islands which all offer spectacular scuba dives right off the shore. Bonaire, for example, has more than 80 markers indicating places where you can walk off the shore and be in a coral garden within a few hundred feet. Scuba divers on Lady Elliot Island, actually part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, can swim into coral canyons just off the shore.
At most resorts, the shore dives cost less than a boat dive.
1. Bonaire -- an Underwater Art Museum
Bonaire is actually the peak of a submerged mountain, so deep sloping reefs surround much of the island. There are 86 markers along the shoreline that indicate where divers can just walk off the shore and find spectacular coral within a few hundred yards. Image just walking off the shore swimming for three or four minutes and being in the middle of an underwater art museum. It's easy to do in Bonaire.
Photo Credit: Bonaire Tourism/Suzi Swygert
Photo Credit: Bonaire Tourism/Suzi Swygert
