A couple of years ago me and my dive buddy Jeroen worked out an idea to locate prime dive destinations within the European continent that have fantastic diving opportunities, good dive facilities and are also very affordable. Yes, we prefer to dive the Maldives and the Bahamas, but you need a big wallet to be able to do this all the time. And we do not have big wallet, but we do want to dive prime locations whenever we can.
So after a lot of time spent online and chatting to a lot of people on both the Paris Dive Show and the Dusseldorf Dive Show we made our choice: the very first dive location was to be the famous Medes Islands on Spain’s Costa Brava.
We chose to fly with Transavia as they offered cheap direct flights to Girona starting at EUR 100,00 for a return ticket. And on the last weekend of May in 2015 we packed our dive bags with all our gear and took off from Schiphol Airport to Girona. Spain here we come!
Once arrived in sunny Girona it only took us 1,5 hour to reach L’Estartit by local bus. So here we were in front of the Medes Islands. Wauw finally!
For accommodation, we chose the Flamingo Hotel for only EUR 30.00 per person per night (Half Board). And for diving we chose ‘La Sirena Diving Center’ who charged us EUR 30,00 per dive exclusive equipment rental.
But before you dive in Spain you need to get the paper work done and that means proof of dive insurance and a dive medical statement not older than 24 months. Once that is done you can take you gear on the boat.
In the end we dove for 3 days straight and saw groupers, gorgonians and lots and lots more. And to finish it of we dove the pinnacle called Bernat which was absolutely amazing. We could not have asked for a better way of ending our short dive holiday. And all that combined very comfortable dive boats and a heated locker room for drying your dive gear in between your dives. It all added to a great dive experience.
The Medes Islands are today one of the most important marine flora and fauna reserves in the western Mediterranean. Here you will really be amazed about the spectacular wealth of the seabed and the marine environment! From stone fish, barracuda’s, eagle rays, moray eels, beautiful underwater caves and sea walls teeming with gorgonians to encounters with Mola Mola’s for the lucky few!
In the end the whole trip was very cheap and the diving absolutely spectacular.
For more pictures click here.
