Diving in the Florida Keys

One of the best diving areas in North America is in the Florida Keys, a long chain of islands south of Miami. For any diver traveling to South Florida, even a quick day trip to the Florida Keys is worthwhile. There is excellent diving throughout the Keys from the first community of Key Largo, to the middle at Marathon and all the way where Key West is. One can get to Key Largo in about 45 minutes from Miami and the protected Pennekamp Marine Park in the surrounding waters offers much more marine life to see than the waters off Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Key Largo, in particular, is a town for divers with numerous dive operators and a few retailers selling dive gear and equipment.

One of the best things about diving in the Florida Keys is the variety of dive sites for all levels of diver. Many of the best coral reefs teeming with fish are found at beginner dive sites like Molasses Reef and French Reef. With depths from 30 to 50 feet, these are perfect dive sites for newly certified divers as well as those wishing to do night dives. There’s even some good wreck diving at shallow dive sites like the Benwood Wreck, where the resident marine life won’t let any diver down. For more advanced divers, there are some spectacular deep dives with large wrecks like the Duane, a former coast guard ship that stands upright. The most recent ship to be sunk for diving is the Spiegel Grove, which is again for advanced divers.

Many divers from North America and other parts of the world come to the Florida Keys for their open water certification dives, as well as for more advanced training. Accommodations are plentiful in communities throughout the Keys and range from simple motels to luxury resorts. Many have special packages just for divers where there is an agreement with one of the local dive operators. There are also relatively inexpensive accommodations in Florida City, which is the closest community on the Florida mainland, about 20 minutes from Key Largo. After the day of diving, there are plenty of restaurants serving fresh seafood for even the hungriest of divers.

Another attractive feature of diving in the Florida Keys is the cost. Especially for the quality of the dive sights, the cost of diving here is lower than many of the Caribbean destinations like the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. For those not ready to try scuba diving, there are some decent dive sites in the Keys, including one of the best in the US at Looe Key. The marine life that can be seen here has convinced quite a few divers to finally get scuba certifications. The Florida Keys have enough other things to do besides diving to keep non-divers busy. There is interesting shopping, water sports, beaches (near the western part) and even two places to interact with dolphins. Of course, there’s also the funky Key West scene.

The one aspect of diving in the Florida Keys that some divers may not like is that the dives are not guided by the divemasters of the various dive operators. Divers who are used to following a local divemaster like diving in destinations like Cozumel will just have to band together in groups of friends here in the Keys. Despite this drawback, the Florida Keys still offer excellent tropical diving without leaving the US.