Seven Scuba Diving Destinations You Can Visit Right Now

Travel restrictions are easing as vaccine distribution continues.

Shutterstock.com/Marc Henauer

The end of the driest surface interval on record is in sight. As the world starts to reopen, here are seven dream dive destinations you can visit today and the COVID requirements you’ll have to navigate before your splashy-ever-after.

Mexico

This classic dive hub has been one of the most accessible to North American divers over the last year. Visitors do not need a negative COVID test to enter. Instead, travelers have to pass a health screening and several temperature checks and submit an affidavit that they have not had any COVID symptoms in the last two weeks.

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Maldives

Before leaving for the Maldives, visitors need to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 96 hours of their departure flight. Within the last 24 hours before the flight, travelers must submit an online health statement.

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Belize

A vaccine or negative COVID test is required to enter Belize. Proof of vaccine must show you received the vaccine more than two weeks ago. If unvaccinated and using a COVID-19 PCR test, results must be from the 96 hours before the flight. A rapid test is acceptable if taken within the 48 hours before the flight. Visitors that arrive without a negative test or proof of vaccination will be charged $50 for a rapid test at the airport. All travelers have to register on the Belize Health App in the 72 hours before their flight.

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Bahamas

All visitors must obtain a Travel Health Visa and COVID-19 health insurance that covers the entirety of the trip. A negative COVID-19 RT-PCR result from the five days before arrival is required to enter the country, and visitors staying for more than four nights have to take a rapid antigen test on the fifth day on the islands.

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Galapagos

Travelers to Ecuador must present either proof of COVID recovery more than 30 days before their flight, proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID RT-PCR taken no more than three days before departure. Visitors that have COVID signs may be tested by Ecuador’s ministry of health even if a negative test result is presented. If that test is positive, the traveler must quarantine for ten days.

A “salvoconducto,” or letter of transit from the booked tour operator, and negative test result less than 96 hours old are required to enter the Galapagos islands. One test is sufficient for entering the country and islands if the test is taken less than 96 hours before arriving at the islands. If spending a few days elsewhere in the country before going to the Galapagos, travelers need to pay for another test administered by a lab registered with Ecuador’s Quality Assurance Agency of the Services of Health and Prepaid Medicine.

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Egypt

Travelers need a negative test and proof of health insurance to enter the country. Those coming from North and South America, Japan, China, Thailand, Canada, London Heathrow, Paris and Frankfurt must have a test result from the 96 hours before departure. A 72 hour limit is applied to all other origins. Visitors entering through Sharm El Sheikh can be tested upon arrival.

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Seychelles

As of March 25, all visitors must present a negative PCR test taken 72 hours prior to departure to enter the island nation — even if you are vaccinated.

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Note: COVID-19 travel restrictions and border closings are constantly evolving. Nonessential travel is banned between some destinations, and others mandate a two-week quarantine period for travelers at the start or end of a trip. Please refer to the U.S. Department of State's "COVID-19 Country Specific Information" center for up-to-date information on travel restrictions and coronavirus statistics.

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