Dive Site Reviews

/Dive Site Reviews
Dive Site Reviews2023-11-27T23:06:56+00:00

Diving in Malta & the infamous ill-fated Um El Faroud Oil Tanker.

So we recently dived with ABC Diving while on the bequtiful Island of Malta. We dived the the ill-fated Um El Faroud oil tanker.
 
She had been scuttled in 1998 following a terrible explosion on board that sadly killed 9 Maltese dockyard workers. Now, with a memorial brass plaque in place, the ship sits upright on a sandy bottom and at 10.000 tons and 110 m long, the Um El Faroud is an impressive dive sight.
 
I was picked up from my hotel & stayed at the Mayflower which is based in St Paul’s bay and was met by John who was very friendly & welcoming. Once at the dive centre that was just a 15 minute drive my my pick-up, I was met by the owner & Liz Gilmore who was my dive guide for the day.
 
They offer great rental dive equipment & prices are good, just 90 euros for 2 dives.
 
The dive itself was really cool, an easy entry/exit & water temp was 21oC & I wore a rash vest and shorts for the dive 🤪
 
The visability was easily 20m+ ,there is sadly very little marine life as is most of the Mediterranean Sea nowadays but if you enjoy warm water diving, great viz & diving famous wrecks, you will definitely enjoy diving in Malta.
 
The island of Malta & Gozo are both very easy to get about & cheap on the buses but be prepared for being crowded at peak times.
 
There is also many interesting places to visit like Gozo itself & Valletta for it’s churches, history tour and great restaurants.
 
The Mayflower Hotel was also very good, I had a lovely room, bed linen and bathroom changed daily, great food, an infinity pool on the roof & gym was the icing on this cake.

Silver Steps in Falmouth Cornwall – Diving UK

Beaches nearby

  • Castle Beach
  • Gyllyngvase Beach
  • Swanpool Beach
  • Falmouth Beach
  • Grebe Beach

Directions

To find Silver Steps, simply follow the signposts to Pendennis point if driving, continue past the car park on the point and park in the large lay-by on your left (the car park area can be busy in summer especially on sunny days).

Entrance is via an easy to walk path to the left of the car park, which leads to steps onto a small rocky beach. Carrying diving equipment should be reasonably easy.

Type of beach

Open Water Rock and Pebble

Lifeguard service

No lifeguard cover

Postcode

TR11 4LP 

Longitude & Latitude

 50.146294, -5.050410

Facilities

Seasonal Cafe & there are some pubs around, but the most popular is the Chain Locker about 1 mile away by Customs House Quay.

Parking

Nearby

Kynance Cove in Cornwall – Diving UK

Beaches nearby

  • Pentreath beach (0.2 mi)
  • Caerthillian Cove (0.2 mi)
  • Polpeor Cove (1.1 mi)
  • Housel Bay (1.4 mi)
  • Church Cove (1.4 mi)
  • Cadgwith Cove (2.4 mi)
  • Carleon Cove (3.1 mi)
  • Mullion Cove (3.2 mi)
  • Polurrian Cove (3.4 mi)
  • Kennack Sands beach (3.8 mi)

Directions

Drive down towards Lizard point, through Helston, past the Culdrose air base. When you pass ‘Kynance garage’ on the right, the turning to the cove is about 600 yards on the right, it’s sign posted about one mile before the Lizard point. Drive down the lane, over the speed ramps and when there’s a sign for the car park, turn left down the dirt track for 100 yards and park by the wooden posts. Walk 300 yards towards the ocean and you’re over looking the break.

Type of beach

Sandy

Lifeguard service

No lifeguard cover

Dogs friendly beach?

Seasonal dog ban. 1st July to 31st August / 10am to 6pm dog friendly beach.

Postcode

TR12 7PJ

OS grid ref.

SW 6905 1296

Facilities

Beach cafe, toilets

Parking

Large National Trust car park – about 10 minutes walk to beach

Kynance Cove is a small but beautiful cove on the eastern side of Mount’s Bay, Cornwall, England. It is situated on the Lizard peninsula approximately two miles north of Lizard Point. It’s waters are clear blue and a cafe is closely located to the bay overlooking the cove.

 

Diving Thailand, Koh Tao

While in Thailand dived with scuba shack on Koh Tao.

There were very friendly & were very well organised. They even gave me & my partner a slight discount. Got transported down to the pier @ Mae Haad & then had to get on our dive boat. We had to climb over several boats which was ok for me but my partner Jo Nurse was not comfortable with this idea. Could pose a potential health issue.

The diving on Koh Tao is very cool with plenty of marine life,comfortable water temp of 25c + & good visibility. The crew were in general very pleasant & helpful but some of crew ( Divemaster ) where not over welcoming & appeared uninterested in there role.

Koh Tao has plenty to offer with respect to restaurants,accommodation,gift shops & other activities etc. Overall a great place to go for scuba diving & many other activities & also have Koh Phangan & Koh Samui to explore.

Thailand Diving Koh Tao Dive Shack

 

Over the years Jeff has dived thousands of hours and hundreds of locations across the UK, Europe and Internationally. Giving an insite into diving conditions, services and diving holidays that Jeff has experienced first hand. If you are a Dive Centre and would like Jeff to review your services please get in touch. Jeff is honest and open about all dive locations and services received, honesty amongst divers is important to obtain higher standards of services for other divers and to provide better experiences for others who spend alot of time and money to travel to such exotic and beautiful diving places around the world.

 

 

Lanzarote Diving

 

Euro-divers.com Diving Review

 

Jeff – September 2019 “On my first day of the diving holiday I was greeted by the Euro-divers guide and my equipment was picked up from my Hotel where I was staying. My diving equipment was then taken to the boat for my first day of diving. Sadly this didn’t continue with my equipment being left at the Eurodives Centre and myself and diving buddies having to travel ourselves to each diving location.”

 

Our Dive Guide Mr Rabeling was lovely and helpful.

 

The Aquatic Life was excellent at our diving locations with good visibility while diving. This Lanzarote dive was in September 2019

 

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Cyprus Diving

Cyprus Diving Review

 

Jeff – “I was looking forward to getting some good dives in on the Island of Cyprus with warm waters between 20-25 degrees, perfect temperatures. 

Dived with both Cydive in Paphos & VikingDivers in Larnaka.

Dived airport reef & warm waters & my partner saw her first “turtle” & was ecstatic.

The visibility was ok but for a seasoned diver I think you’d be rather disappointed in the dive visibility.

Well organised duvet centre & knowledgeable staff but hotel pickup/rtn would be advantageous.

Dive the zenobia this term with vikingdivers & areas of concern were.

1. No boat briefing 

2. Was quite disorganised @ the boat

3. Concern @ dive guide controlling buddy groups

 

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Rhodes Diving

 

Lepiadive.com Diving Review

 

Jeff -October 2019 “I had taken a group to dive with Lepia Dive Centre and they were excellent, permitting self courses with my group. They were also friendly and very helpful. Some nice wreck locations on Rhodes and the aquatic life was quite active with warm waters of 20-25 degrees and good visibility.

 

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A few underwater photos of numerous dives in Lanzarote where we spotted harlequin, cuttlefish, Jenkins stingray, rainbow stingray, grouper, octopus and much much more.

 

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