Hi SD fans, and welcome back. Land-based or liveaboard? Some divers can’t wait to take
to the high seas for a week or two, others like to have their feet on firmer ground.
In this video, I will be taking a look at the pros and cons of land-based diving versus
liveaboards. For those here for the first time, my name
is Mark, I am the editor-in-chief of the Scuba Diver media brand, and welcome to the Scuba
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Now, let’s dive into the video!
A question I often get asked at dive shows or in emails to the magazine is ‘which is
better – land-based or liveaboard?’, and this is a difficult one to answer, as it isn’t
as clear-cut as you might think. Personally I love liveaboards, but there are certain
places around the world where you can opt for a liveaboard and yet I think a land-based
resort is the better option. Here are some of the pros and cons of land-based diving
versus being on a liveaboard.
I get seasick… If you are one of those poor souls who gets
seasick at the mere mention of the word ‘ocean’, then you might think liveaboards are not for
you – period. However, there are a vast array of liveaboards around the world, and
with the wonders of modern anti-seasickness medication, there are some locations and itineraries
which you could probably get away with. I have been to the Bahamas on the liveaboard
catamaran Aqua Cat many times, and on my last trip a few years back, several of my fellow
passengers had previous when it came to seasickness. But by taking their pills on a regular basis,
they found that the dreaded feeling stayed away for the most part, only surfacing on
the one open-sea crossing in the trip between the Exumas and Eleuthera. The Aqua Cat – and
other cats of the same ilk, such as the Four Seasons Island Explorer in the Maldives, Mike
Ball’s Spoilsport in Australia and even the monster trimaran Cuan Law in the British
Virgin Islands – often provide a more-stable platform than a single-hulled vessel, but
only in places where the sea is reasonably calm. When it gets rough, then a catamaran
will rock and roll just as much, if not more, than a mono-hull boat.
Also, several of the boats I mentioned above also stop at, or have tender trips to, land
during their itineraries, which means that if you find you are suffering slightly, you
can get off the boat from time to time and spend a few hours on terra firma.
Unless you have the sturdiest sea legs, I wouldn’t suggest trying somewhere like the
Cocos Islands, Malpelo, or the Galapagos Islands, as these involve long crossings in open sea
that can often be subject to huge swells and inclement weather. However, if you are up
to the extended periods at sea, you will enjoy some of the most-spectacular diving on the
planet. Only a handful of liveaboards venture to these exotic locations, and that explains
why boats such as those in the Undersea Hunter Group are in such high demand, often booking
up months in advance.
Away from the madding crowds In fact, this is one of the main reasons I
love liveaboards – they give you the opportunity to dive in places away from, or out of reach
of, all the dayboats, hence why when I head for Egypt, for example, I like nothing better
than to board a liveaboard and take off to the Brothers or some other offshore marine
park. The same rationale applied when I boarded
the Dewi Nusantara for its maiden voyage around North Sulawesi. Only a few other liveaboards
operate in this area, so apart from the odd site in the Lembeh Straits and the Bunaken
Marine Park that were within dayboat range, we pretty much had every dive site to ourselves.
Sheer bliss. The Socorros, often referred to as the ‘Mexican
Galapagos’, are another location that is only visited by a handful of liveaboards.
Climb on board a vessel such as the Socorro Aggressor and you can be spending time with
mantas, sharks, whales and all manner of marine creatures with only the people on board with
you as company in the water. It is possible, however, to get this ‘away
from it all’ feeling and still be based on land. Head for somewhere like Bonaire – the
self-styled ‘shore-diving capital of the world’ – and you can bimble around in
your pick-up truck with your dive gear stowed in the back until you find a dive site with
no other cars in sight. Get your kit on, wander into the water and you can dive as long as
want and with no one else around. Bonaire is the obvious choice when it comes to shore-diving,
as it has 80-plus dive sites in a fairly small area, but nearby Curacao also boasts several
shore dives, such as the unique Car Pile, and laid-back Dahab in Egypt is famed for
its fabulous shore diving, including the iconic Blue Hole and the Canyon.
Of course, there are places around the world where you can also reach world-class dive
sites via dayboat, so if you don’t want to give up the creature comforts of a hotel/resort
but still want to hit the best diving, seek out these destinations.
Reethi Beach, an island resort in the Baa Atoll of the Maldives, is just a 40-minute
dhoni ride away from the acclaimed Donfan Thila, which attracts grey reef sharks, schools
of fusiliers, masses of reef life and – of course – manta rays, which turn up in droves
during the southwest monsoon to hover over the many cleaning stations on top of the thila.
Sharm el Sheikh is another resort that offers stunning sites within dayboat range, and you
have a range of accommodation available, from small two-star hotels to sprawling five-star
resorts. The Straits of Tiran and the current-swept Gordon, Jackson, Thomas and Woodhouse reefs
and the Ras Mohammed Marine Park are both less than two hours away, and if you don’t
mind an early start, you can even access the wreck of the Thistlegorm, undoubtedly one
of the world’s premier wreck dives. Jumping off a liveaboard on to the Thistlegorm might
be the easiest option, but once you start exploring the holds full of motorcycles, trucks,
rubber boots, Lee Enfield rifles, airplane parts and masses of ammunition, even that
‘oh-my-god-it’s-early’ feeling will disappear rapidly and you’ll be glad you
set the alarm clock.
Ultimate freedom Shore-diving does offer plenty to recommend
it. You are not tied to a rigid schedule and can get up and dive as little or as much as
you want. Eight dives a day? No problem. A couple in the morning then a siesta in the
afternoon? You got it. With shore-diving, especially in places such as Bonaire and Roatan
in Honduras’ Bay Islands, you are your own boss. Buddy Dive Resort on Bonaire even has
a ‘drive-thru’ air station, where you can grab full tanks and drop off empty cylinders,
and Coco View in Roatan has a picturesque shipwreck just a short swim off the end of
their dock that can be dived any time day or night.
On a liveaboard offering four or five dives a day, by the very nature of the itinerary,
things have to run on a tight schedule. No one is forcing you to do all the dives on
offer, but most people who embark on a liveaboard want to feel they are getting full value for
money and so will want to log as many as possible. This can mean that you are being briefed for
your next dive only an hour or so after returning from your previous dip, hence why people refer
to liveaboards as ‘dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, nap, dive, eat, dive, sleep – and
repeat’. This can all be a bit much for some people.
There are places where you can bang out a fair old number of dives from a dayboat and
hit many, if not all, of the sites offered by liveaboards operating in the area. The
Cayman Islands is a prime example. All the sites visited by the liveaboard are just a
short distance off land, so they are all accessible by dayboat, and in these instances, why give
up the comfort of a large, comfortable room – and all the amenities that come with it
– in a land-based resort in favour of living on a boat? Ocean Frontiers, which operates
out of the East End of Grand Cayman, has been described as ‘a land-based liveaboard’
thanks to the logical layout of its facilities.
Best of both worlds There are now places around the world where
some enterprising souls have come up with the idea of combining a land-based holiday
with a liveaboard. In the Maldives, you can do a week on a luxury
liveaboard, followed by a week on land at somewhere like the famed Kuredu resort. This
is the perfect mix if you have a hardcore diver travelling with a ‘sometime’ diver
– the former will lap up the non-stop diving action on the liveaboard, and the latter will
be able to chill out on the beach once they get to the resort.
In Egypt, you can opt for a short, three-day liveaboard with Emperor Divers, followed by
time on land, which again can keep divers of different levels happy, as well as provide
a great way for liveaboard virgins to ‘give it a go’ without opting for a full week
on a boat and then finding it is ‘not their thing’.
So you can see, it is not such a clean split between liveaboards and dayboating or shore
diving. The best option is to check out your chosen destination and then work out the optimum
way to hit the dive sites you want to. If everyone has their sea legs, it is just a
straightforward choice between land-based and liveaboard – just see which ones offers
the style or amount of diving you want, along with the amenities and facilities you are
looking for. If you’ve never tried a liveaboard, why not give one a go in 2021 or 2022? They
are not just for experienced divers – we had divers with only their four Open Water
Diver qualifying dives under their belt on the Aqua Cat – and provide a fantastic training
ground, allowing divers to get 20 or more dives in their logbook in just a few days.
Similarly, if you have been shunning land-based operations for a few years, why not return
to the fold. Shore diving might not be as easy as falling off the back of a boat, but
it offers a host of advantages, particularly if you don’t want to play ‘follow my leader’
behind a guide.
What are some of your experiences when it comes to liveaboards or shore-based diving?
Leave your comments below, and if you have a question, fire away – if we can’t answer,
maybe someone in our community will be able to. Remember, if you enjoyed this video, be
sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and don’t forget you can grab a free digital
magazine subscription in the description below. As always, stay safe – and if you are going
diving soon, enjoy!