scuba diving vacations

You don’t need as much as you think you do on your next dive trip. Stroll onto the dive boat with less stress and a lighter load with this list of our six favorite things to leave behind. 

Individually, Utila and Roatan are world-class destinations worthy of weeks of exploration. Together, Honduras’ Bay Islands offer just about every conceivable experience, enough to last a lifetime.

Bonaire’s an out-there destination — blink and you’re in Venezuela, just 50 miles to the south — with its wide-open, otherworldly landscape of salt mountains, giant cactuses, rosy flamingos and rugged stone coasts. There’s a freedom here — to go where you will and dive when and where you like, 24/7 — that’s utterly intoxicating.

Photographer Jeffrey Yonover and Sport Diver Senior Editor Patricia Wuest explore the best of the British Virgin Islands