Guide to Gambia scuba diving holidays

Gambia is an increasingly popular holiday destination, with a rash of new resorts on its gorgeous beaches. The country is a friendly, lively place to visit with lovely scenery and lots of colour. Most travel there to lie on a beach. But what if you want to do something a little more active? Can you explore the underwater world on a Gambia scuba diving trip?

Diving isn’t yet established in Gambia. There is some snorkelling off the beaches, but to get to the reefs, you’ll need a dive boat to take you to blue water. Until dive operators get themselves started up in Gambia, the best option for divers is to make the short hop over to Cape Verde, where there is an established diving scene.

Cape Verde is a collection of islands around 500 km off the African coast. To get there from Gambia, travel up to neighbouring Senegal and fly from Dakar. There are dive sites all around the islands, with reef, wreck and cave diving all on offer.

Cape Verde’s volcanic islands make for some spectacular diving. Explore the underwater volcanic rock ridges and caves, and visit the many wrecks that have failed to negotiate them over the years. The sea floor around Cape Verde is a ships’ graveyard. Unusually, you’ll find wrecks at shallow depths – as little as 10m. There are reefs, too, attracting a wide variety of marine life. Expect to see plenty of colourful schools of reef fish, and maybe rays, nurse sharks, barracuda and tuna.

Take a Gambia scuba diving trip over to Cape Verde and explore a fascinating and very diverse dive area, with over 25 dive sites to try.