Tortola Scuba Diving  

The British Virgin Islands and Tortola Scuba Diving are often featured at the top of those ‘Best’ lists that holiday and travel magazines love so much.

This is especially true with regard to scuba diving, with BVI often being labeled as ‘the best shipwreck diving spot on the entire planet!’  

Tortola is at the heart of the scuba diving activities on the British Virgin Islands.  Known for its wonderful scenery, both above and below the waterline, Tortola is a fabulous place for scuba diving whether you are a complete novice or someone who already has a wealth of diving experience.

There are many, many dive sites located around the islands and the water temperatures range from 76 degrees in the winter months to around the mid eighties during the summer. This means that all-year round diving is possible.  It is quite common for there to be currents around the coast of Tortola, with surface sea conditions varying from totally flat to swells that can reach 5 feet.  However, with many of the best dive sites protected from the worst the sea can offer, it is almost unknown for there to be ‘no diving today’ signs posted.  

Tortola scuba diving excursions-some of the most popular dives. 

The most famous dive, and one of the world’s classic wreck dives, is that to the RMS Rhone, wrecked during a hurricane in 1867, off the west coast of Salt Island.  Not only can divers see many of the ship’s original features – such as the bowsprit, rigging, the crow’s nest, the rudder and even two signal canons – but also an abundance of maritime activity – spiny Caribbean lobsters, moray eels, yellowtail snappers and a multitude of corals and sponges.  One dive would never be enough to see even half of the glories on offer.

But there are also dives at places such as Painted Walls, just south of Dead Chest Island, where the diver can be treated to a vivid lighting display under the water, as well as swim past octopuses and camouflaged frogfish.  Ginger Steps, southwest of Ginger Island, is one of the area’s deepest coral dives – you can go down to 100 feet – and it’s possible here to see eagle rays, southern stingrays and even reef sharks and barracuda.   Finally, what about the tugboat Beata, which was intentionally scuttled during an artificial reef program, and where you can admire a vast school of Glassy Sweepers – and have your photograph taken under the water at the wheel, still intact in the wheel house!

There literally is something for every possible diver in the waters around Tortola; indeed, there are over 60 classified dive sites. So, no matter what the level of your expertise, you can be sure Tortola scuba diving will deliver the aquatic vacation that you’ve always dreamed of having.

With scuba diving being such a popular activity in the waters around Tortola, you would be well advised to pre-book your preferred dives – especially in the summer months.  It is even possible to book single tank night dives, for an even more exclusive sensation.

It is highly recommended that you pay a visit to www.bbiscuba.org which is the official web site of the BVI Scuba Organization, where you can find out even more information about the fantastic opportunities available for divers in this over water and underwater paradise.

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