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Top 100 2015: Best Overall Destinations

By Brooke Morton | Updated On February 2, 2024
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Top 100 2015: Best Overall Destinations

Our readers weighed in on their most prized dive sites around the world — from North America to the Caribbean and Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans — to bring our 22nd annual 2015 Top 100 Reader's Choice Awards to life.

For variety, we have featured one destination in each region (Caribbean and Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and North America). Not all selections are the first-place winners in the Best Overall Destination category. Check out the complete list of Top 100 Readers Choice winners in this category below.

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC

1. Belize

2. Cayman Islands

3. British Virgin Islands

4. Bonaire

5. Turks and Cairos

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: NORTH AMERICA

1. Florida

2. California

3. British Columbia

4. Texas

5. North Carolina

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: INDIAN AND PACIFIC OCEANS

1. French Polynesia

2. Indonesia

3. Hawaii

4. Galapagos

5. Palau

Thousands of subscribers and Web users rated their experiences at dive destinations in a variety of categories on a scale of one to five. Final scores are an average of the numerical scores awarded. A minumum number of responses was required for a destination to be included in these ratings.

Jeff Yonover

Firmly anchoring the Coral Triangle — the world’s richest marine environment — Indonesia shelters coral species by the hundreds and fish species by the thousands. This year it ranked high for Best Overall Destination in the Pacific and Indian oceans. It has some of the world’s most species-rich places, like Raja Ampat. It also delivers encounters with big stuff, like mola molas at Nusa Lembongan. Plus, with both rainbows of soft corals and muck that’s home to all manner of oddities, you get beauty and beasties.

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/indonesia

Christian Vizl

Firmly anchoring the Coral Triangle — the world’s richest marine environment — Indonesia shelters coral species by the hundreds and fish species by the thousands. This year it ranked high for Best Overall Destination in the Pacific and Indian oceans. It has some of the world’s most species-rich places, like Raja Ampat. It also delivers encounters with big stuff, like mola molas at Nusa Lembongan. Plus, with both rainbows of soft corals and muck that’s home to all manner of oddities, you get beauty and beasties.

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/indonesia

Jeff Yonover

Firmly anchoring the Coral Triangle — the world’s richest marine environment — Indonesia shelters coral species by the hundreds and fish species by the thousands. This year it ranked high for Best Overall Destination in the Pacific and Indian oceans. It has some of the world’s most species-rich places, like Raja Ampat. It also delivers encounters with big stuff, like mola molas at Nusa Lembongan. Plus, with both rainbows of soft corals and muck that’s home to all manner of oddities, you get beauty and beasties.

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/indonesia

Ian Shive/Tandem Stock

Everything is bigger in Cali — from the giant kelp to the sheer number of reasons to name it one of the Best Overall Destinations in its region: Monterey Bay; the Channel Islands; the oil rigs, Wreck Alley and shore diving off SoCal; and a collection of marine-protected areas that is the envy of divers everywhere.

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/california

Doug Perrine/SeaPics

Our top finisher in the Caribbean and Atlantic region is a perennial favorite with Top 100 voters. Its Great Blue Hole is justifiably famous, but that’s only a fraction of what awaits divers along the world’s second-longest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican (two words: whale sharks).

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/belize

Roberto Rinaldi

Our top finisher in the Caribbean and Atlantic region is a perennial favorite with Top 100 voters. Its Great Blue Hole is justifiably famous, but that’s only a fraction of what awaits divers along the world’s second-longest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican (two words: whale sharks).

GO NOW: scubadiving.com/belize

Our readers weighed in on their most prized dive sites around the world — from North America to the Caribbean and Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans — to bring our 22nd annual 2015 Top 100 Reader's Choice Awards to life.

For variety, we have featured one destination in each region (Caribbean and Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and North America). Not all selections are the first-place winners in the Best Overall Destination category. Check out the complete list of Top 100 Readers Choice winners in this category below.

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC

1. Belize

2. Cayman Islands

3. British Virgin Islands

4. Bonaire

5. Turks and Cairos

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: NORTH AMERICA

1. Florida

2. California

3. British Columbia

4. Texas

5. North Carolina

BEST OVERALL DESTINATION: INDIAN AND PACIFIC OCEANS

1. French Polynesia

2. Indonesia

3. Hawaii

4. Galapagos

5. Palau

Thousands of subscribers and Web users rated their experiences at dive destinations in a variety of categories on a scale of one to five. Final scores are an average of the numerical scores awarded. A minumum number of responses was required for a destination to be included in these ratings.