The best diving spots in Southeast Asia

Coron is a popular resort town in the Philippines that's famous for its lagoons and limestone cliffs. Another reason people flock here? For some of the best wreck diving you can find in Southeast Asia. Coron Bay was once a harbour for a Japanese fleet during World War II, until the ten ships were sunk on September 24, 1944 by the third air fleet of the US Task Force 38. Today, these lie between a depth of 5 metres to as deep as 45 metres – all boasting incredible reef systems that are home to nudibranchs, octopuses, a large array of reef fish, and if you're lucky, reef sharks and stingrays. 

Dive season All year round, best months from October to June

Difficulty level All levels. Beginners can visit the wrecks found in shallower waters.

Timor-Leste may not be on many people's bucketlist, but it should be on yours if you're an avid diver. And its diving jewel is Atauro Island, located just north of Dili, East Timor – and right in the centre of the Coral Triangle. The island is known for its pristine waters and incredible biodiversity, with diverse underwater landscapes including gentle slopes and dramatic drop-offs. Atauro Island is also located on the whale migration route, so you can see blue whales, sperm whales, and more as they migrate from the Banda Sea to the Indian Ocean between September and November every year. 

Dive season April to November

Difficulty All levels 

Sipadan Island is often hailed as one of the world's best dive sites – and for good reason too. Where else in the world can you witness a hypnotic barracuda vortex and swim inside a huge school of whirling jackfish? Sipadan is an island off the coast of Sabah, Malaysia, sits on top of an extinct undersea volcano and surrounded by almost 1,900ft deep canyons – all of which combined makes this spot a rich marine habitat.

Dive season All year round, best months from April to December

Difficulty level Mid to advanced, expect some strong currents and drift dives

This stunning group of islands on the eastern-most point in Indonesia are often seen in ads by the Indonesian tourism board. The best way to marvel at the exceptional underwater landscape of never-ending colourful reef walls where hard and soft corals compete for space and swim among marine creatures of all shapes and sizes is to do a liveaboard and hop around the various dive sites. Famed for its biodiversity, spottings of wobbegong sharks, whitetip reef sharks, manta rays, batfish and large schools of tuna and mackerels are common.

Dive season All year around 

Difficulty level All levels, although some dive sites are not recommended for beginners or those not comfortable in currents

Located in the north of the Thai border in the middle of the Andaman Sea is the Mergui Archipelago, a collection of over 800 stunning islands over 12,000 square kilometres. For years, a small group of intrepid divers have been coming from Thailand to this relatively isolated archipelago. The waters are home to diverse marine life such as manta rays, mobulas and a variety of shark species including grey reef, nurse, zebra, silvertip, and occasionally whale sharks.

Dive season October to May

Difficulty level Medium

A little closer to home and slightly more hidden is Layang Layang in Malaysia famed for its scalloped hammerhead sharks – the biggest drawcard in this area. If you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a school of them gliding by, making the trek out to this island entirely worth it. Manta rays often frequent this deep water area. Shore dives are possible although visibility is only around two to four metres near the pier. 

Dive season All year round, but higher chances of shark spotting during mating season in April to May 

Difficulty level All levels, about 12 dive sites in total

Declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1993, the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park is teeming with marine life – but to get there, you'll need to do a liveaboard making it one of the least crowded dive spots in the Philippines. Located in the middle of the Sulu Sea and in the middle of the Coral Triangle, you can find sharks, hawksbill, green turtles and small reef fish congregating. 

Dive season March to early June

Difficulty level All levels

One of the best places in the world to dive is the Komodo National Park, a group of volcanic islands between Sumbawa and Flores. Besides being home to the elusive Komodo dragons, the national park also has a large marine ecosystem: with around 1,000 species of fish, ten species of dolphin, and five species of sea turtle. You can also see massive manta rays, white-tip and black-tip reef sharks, and hammerhead sharks – among others. Best suited for advanced divers, Komodo National Park offers exhilarating drift dives at several channels in between the many islands with swift currents.

A highlight is the Makassar Reef, a 2km channel with a unique seascape featuring craters and dunes of small rocks which have been shaped by currents. There are also sheltered dive sites boasting a myriad of critters hiding amongst slopes and walls of healthy hard and soft corals.

Dive season All year. The best diving conditions run from March to October, while you can see manta rays during the rainy season from December to February. Visibility is best from November to January.

Difficulty level Advanced. Komodo National Park has some of the strongest currents that can reach up to 8 knots.

Divers come to Malapascua in Cebu for one reason and one reason only – to observe thresher sharks in their natural habitat. This area is reputedly the of one of the only places in the world where the thresher shark can be seen within the limits of a recreational diver, although there's plenty of other fishes (so to speak) in the sea too. Macro diving is pretty popular too – seahorses, cuttlefish, pipefish are among those found on the seabed. 

Dive season All year round

Difficult level Mid to advanced

The nine granite islands lie about 100km north-west of Phuket and are part of a National Marine Park. The park only opens during dive season for the best chances of spotting manta rays and whale sharks. The sites on the East coast are generally easier with gentle sloping coral reefs while the West coast is slightly more challenging due to its giant granite boulders, fan corals and incredible submarine rock formations. There are also some dive sites for muck diving – so watch out for critters like ghost pipefish and sea moths. 

Dive season Late October to early May

Difficulty level Beginners to mid, plenty of easy dive sites with weak to moderate currents. 

Off the coast of Terengganu, in between the popular Perhentian and Redang islands, is Lang Tengah. The tropical jewel of Malaysia’s east coast boasts about 13 dive spots with fantastic rock formations, colourful corals, and diverse marine life. Here, swim alongside find bamboo sharks, white-tip sharks, thresher sharks, glass sweepers, wrasses, butterfly fish and snappers. Some of the popular dive sites include the Ghost Wreck and Batu Kuching. The latter got its name from a squarish boulder perched on top of other boulders that resemble a cat.

Dive season March to November 

Difficulty level All levels

Getting to Banda Islands in the Molucca region in eastern Indonesia is a pain. But once you get yourself there, you'll find its inaccessibility is a blessing because its reefs and marine life are as healthy and untouched as they come. Do a liveaboard to truly experience the diversity of the archipelago's 11 islands, of which seven is inhabited.

Dive season All year-round, each season offers a different experience

Difficulty level All levels