DIVE's Top 10 Diving Destinations

Glorious soft coral at Wakatobi in Sulawesi, Indonesia

By Max James

The most popular dive destination for 2017 is Indonesia. It won by a large margin with 22,552 votes from our readers, Papua New Guinea came in second with 6,089 votes and the Philippines third with 3,313.

DIVE readers could pick up to three destinations and a total of 47,547 votes were cast by the closing date of 31 December. Only one set of votes was allowed from an individual IP address and votes came in from across the world.

Indonesia was always clear favourite to win the title with such a staggering array of world-class diving. From Raja Ampat to Bali, from Komodo to Sulawesi, Indonesia has more celebrated dive resorts than any other country. 

The Indonesian Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya told DIVE: 'We highly appreciate all the voters from across the world who voted for Indonesia as the best diving destination. We have the second longest coastline in the world with more than 17,000 islands and 85 per cent of all the world's coral species can be found in our waters. There are so many fabulous dive sites in Indonesia it would take you a lifetime to explore them all.'

And the Top 10 of diving destinations selected by our readers reflects the very best diving available around the world from Papua New Guinea to Mexico, from the Philippines to the Maldives. See below for the count for your favourite 10 destinations.

Nineteen destinations were nominated by our readers and voting was open for six months. The other nine countries in the 2017 vote in descending order were the Galápagos Islands; Malaysia; Malta; Aruba, Curacao & Bonaire; Cuba, Cocos island, Iceland, Turkey and French Polynesia.

You can nominate destinations for 2018 now by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  with the subject DESTINATIONS 2018. and our poll for next year will go live in the summer and the winner for 2018 will be announced at the World Travel Market in London in November.

An aerial view of Raja Ampat, Indonesia

We are preparing a series of articles celebrating the diving in Indonesia - if you have any favourite spots, great stories about diving in the country or photographs & video you would like to share please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject INDONESIA.