Ahead of the BBC’s new David Attenborough series Planet Blue II, we pick 10 trips that explore the oceans, from diving the Pacific’s ‘underwater Serengeti’ to reef conservation in Belize and kayaking in Komodo
For world-class diving sites you can reach on a budget airline, try the Azores archipelago. The seamounts (volcanic underwater elevations) have barred hogfish and stingrays on the seabed, and devil rays and skipjack tuna closer to the surface, plus dolphins, turtles and whales to spot on the boat there and back. Divers can swim with 10-metre whale sharks off the coast of Santa Maria island, and with blue sharks around the Condor seamount, 10 miles from Faial island. The Rosais reef, off the western tip of São Jorge, is a more accessible place to find a wide variety of sealife, including octopus and huge schools of pelagic fish, and there is the Dusky Grouper Passageway off Corvo, where divers are often followed by the eponymous big, friendly fish. Caves and shipwrecks complete the package.
• More information at dive.visitazores.com. Ryanair flies from Stansted to Ponta Delgada from about £45 return. Dive Worldwide offers group and tailor-made eight-day trips from May to October from £1,045 including flights
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Source: Gaurdian
