Scuba Diving on Andros Island

With dozens of dive sites within a 15-minute boat ride from our dock, it's rare to dive the same site more than once during your stay. Our weekly scuba diving schedule includes colorful coral gardens, wrecks, reefs, walls, caverns, and open ocean blue holes, as well as a shark observation dive.

Our Dive Center offers PADI certification courses, including Open Water Diver, Adventure Diver, and Advanced Open Water Diver. Specialty classes include certifications for Enriched Air Diver, Underwater Naturalist, Night Diver, Wreck Diver, and more. We happily accept referrals from diver certification agencies too.

Remember to bring along a valid C-card if you plan on scuba diving while you’re here. We may also ask you to demonstrate your mask and regulator clearing skills, allowing you to get comfortable and adjust your buoyancy in the water.

• One Tank Scuba Dive: $100
• Two Tank Scuba Dive: $122
• Night/Shark Dive: $100 (Minimum of 6 divers)
• Boat Snorkel: $45 per person
• Specialty Dives: contact us
• Nitrox Fills: $15 per tank
• Mask, Fins & Snorkel: $12 (for your whole stay)
• BCD, Regulator & Wetsuit: $35 per day

*Fees do not include equipment rentals. Please contact us for a full list of equipment availability and rental fees.

• PADI Open Water Scuba Diver: $300
• Open Water Referral: $150
• PADI Advanced Diver: $200
• Other Certifications: contact us

*Save 10% off your course fee with our PADI e-learning discount!
**Prices do not include equipment rental or required dives
***You do not need to prebook dives but please inquire for specialty dive eligibility.
****The Bahamas has a 10% VAT on all goods and services. It is not included in these rates and will be reflected on your bill at check out.

Three Sisters

This is a lovely false wall site, just east of Jeff's Ladder. The top edge of the wall is a transition from Jeff's Ladder where the sandy bottom leads to a plateau scattered with individual coral heads.

Sea Turtle Ridge

While the name suggests sea turtles, we cannot guarantee their presence, but the numerous sponges that dot the slope show evidence of turtle predation.

Queen Angel Ridge

Queen Angel Ridge (QAR) is made up of a thick coral ridge right on the edge of the wall. This site has particularly nice soft corals that gently wave in the warm clear waters.

Black Forest

The hard coral formations looming from the sandy bottom of this site create a landscape that resembles a forest. Divers can swim to the base of the corals and meander through the sandy channels.

Over the Wall

This is a Small Hope Bay Lodge signature dive, with something to see at every level. Plummeting down to an ice age shore line at a depth of 185 feet, or you prefer to make your way along the coral grottos along the top of the wall filled with marine life of every description, this site has plenty to offer.

The Coliseum

A fabulous false wall, the Coliseum is just east of The Barge, one of our wreck dives. Typically, we anchor at the Barge and swim out to the Coliseum. A gradually sloping false wall leads to a plateau that plunges down into the Tongue of the Ocean.

Giant Staircase

Experience multi-level wall flying, as we follow ancient streambeds where water falls once cascaded into the sea, and then cruise back up, soaking in the dense proliferation of sponges, invertebrates and tropical fish.

Turnbull's Gut

Right on the edge of the Tongue of the Ocean, there is a large fissure in the coral buttress running along the edge of the wall. This feature provides an excellent swim-through, which you can enter on the top of the wall and swim surrounded on all sides by coral. When you exit at 120 feet, you'll see nothing below you but thousands of feet of water.

Whip Wire Wall

This beautiful multi-level dive is located on a nearly vertical wall covered in whip and wire corals. Only seen at deeper depths, these unique corals coil out away from the wall into the blue in a riot of pastel colors.

Dianna's Dungeons

Spectacular swim-through coral passageways are a main feature at Dianna's Dungeons. These wide and well-lit formations are easily observed as you wind your way in and out of the false wall. This site is home to a variety of soft corals that wave elegantly on the top, as well as amazing red encrusting algae found on the inside of all of the swim- through.

Alec's Caverns

On this dive, you'll see rare cryptic sponges, schools of sleeping Glassy Sweepers, along with a proliferation of Squirrel Fish, and the occasional sleeping Nurse Shark. The inside of the caverns is out of this world, as light trickles down through natural windows filling the tunnels with a magical glow.

Cara's Caverns

This lovely site has a honeycomb of numerous caverns clustered along a false wall, with two plateaus stepping down like terraces. There are many winding passages and tunnels to swim through and explore. Look for Glassy Sweepers in the tunnels and caverns.

Coral Caverns

This wonderful site is made up of spur and groove coral formations that are so ancient they have grown together, creating swim-throughs and numerous small caverns. Life is teeming here, as the spaces in the caverns provide shelter to thousands of tropical reef fishes, as well as ample hunting ground for predators like barracuda and nurse sharks.

SHARK FEEDING

Our shark encounters provide a small amount of supplemental food to the sharks on an irregular basis so that they are not dependent on us for food. As our boat approaches the site, Caribbean reef sharks begin to gather around. We then lower a chum ball composed of frozen fish parts 30 feet below the surface.

DIVERS PROTOCOL

Divers kneel off to the side on the sandy bottom at a depth of 50 feet. Other than providing them with a free meal, we do not interact with the sharks in any other way. After the sharks swim away, divers have an opportunity to look through the sand for fallen shark teeth.

WHAT SHARKS WILL WE SEE?

Although the Shark Observation Experience primarily attracts Caribbean reef sharks, divers may also encounter nurse sharks, blacktip reef sharks, lemon sharks, silky sharks, and the occasional hammerhead. Shark feedings also attract a number of scavengers like barracuda, grouper, and snapper, who come to eat the leftovers.

*There is an extra fee for the Shark Observation Experience and a minimum number of divers is required.

As you are guided along the rim of the blue hole you will first descend down an ancient waterfall chute and then begin to make your way along the rim of the of the blue hole you will pass under an enormous swim through call the “sky light” room where giant boulders have wedged themselves between the rim of the blue hole, be sure to look up and appreciate the geological forces that have created this natural treasure.

The Marion

Once an AUTEC. crane barge, the Marion now serves as an excellent dive site It's located on a large sandy area dotted with coral heads. Sea life is plentiful here, from the southern stingray that glides over the sandy bottom, to the spiny lobster and the green moray eel that hide among the wreck's crevices, to the curious silky shark that seems to disappear no sooner than it appeared.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced snorkeler, there are plenty of great sites right offshore at Small Hope Bay. We'll give you a map of our favorite places to snorkel as well as a list of the marine life you can expect to see.

Never snorkeled before? Let us show you how, for free! We love snorkeling and we can teach you at our dive center. There’s a variety of marine life around the dock, on the patch reefs off the beach, and in the nearby creeks through the mangroves.

With dozens of dive sites within a 15-minute boat ride from our dock, it's rare to dive the same site more than once during your stay. Our weekly scuba diving schedule includes colorful coral gardens, wrecks, reefs, walls, caverns, and open ocean blue holes, as well as a shark observation dive.