Guided Trips

Small groups, somewhere that earned it

I have dived and scored every destination I run trips to, and some of the places on this site did not earn a second visit. Trips go to the ones that did. Groups are small, the diving comes first, and you'll know the difficulty before you book rather than on the first descent.

Waitlist

Trips are announced here first

Groups are small and they fill from this list before they go anywhere else. Tell me where you want to go and roughly when, and I'll be in touch when it's happening. No newsletter, no drip sequence, no reminders about anything else.

No spam. You'll hear from me when there's a trip, and not otherwise.
In planning

What's being organised

Dates below are provisional until deposits open. Everyone on the waitlist hears first, in the order they joined.

Reef scene at Misool, southern Raja Ampat
Southern Raja Ampat, Indonesia

Misool

. Ten out of ten on every underwater axis, and a resort that strengthens the trip rather than distracting from it. Advanced diving — sustained current, walls and pinnacles.

97 · A+ Advanced 10 guests Provisional: Nov 2027 Waitlist open
Read the Misool guide
God's Pocket Resort, British Columbia
Port Hardy, British Columbia

Browning Pass

Cold-water diving with more biomass on one wall than most tropical reefs manage across a week. Drysuit required, no international flights, and close enough to run properly rather than expensively.

84 · B+ Demanding 10 guests Provisional: Sep 2027 Waitlist open
Read the Browning Pass guide
Money

Why the headline number is never the number

The single biggest budget shock in dive travel is not the price of a resort. It is discovering that the price of the resort was never the price of the diving.

At Misool — and at Wakatobi, and at most places at this end of the market — the brochure rate is accommodation. Diving is a separate purchase, added on top. So is snorkelling. So is the marine park permit. A guest reads the headline figure, budgets for it, and arrives to a bill that is a third higher.

Accommodation
Room, all transfers, four meals a day, kayaks, house-reef snorkelling. The number on the brochure.
Diving
A separate line, bought either as a package or by the dive. Frequently a third again on top.
Permits and extras
Marine park fee, single-occupancy surcharge, equipment hire, fuel surcharge. Small individually, not collectively.
What I publish
Every trip price on this site shows accommodation and diving as separate lines, with a total. No exceptions.

A twelve-night villa at Misool is $8,220. Add the complete dive package and it is $11,460 — before the park permit.

The advice that saves most people a thousand dollars

Do not prepay a complete dive package unless you genuinely intend to dive four times a day, every day. Most photographers do not — they shoot two or three long dives and then work on the images.

Twelve nights, diving on ten of them, twenty-five dives in total, billed by the pack rather than the package: $1,830 instead of $3,240. Misool bills at the end of the stay and applies the cheaper combination for you without being asked. Not every operator does. Ask before you prepay anything.

Rates quoted are 2027 accommodation and 2026 diving, per person, double occupancy, in US dollars. They are indicative and they will move. Get the dive rates in writing before you commit and add them up yourself — a resort quote and a dive-trip budget are not the same number.

Payment plan

A quarter now, the rest across the years you're waiting

The best resorts take group bookings three to four years ahead, and they want a deposit that never comes back. Mine matches theirs exactly — because any promise softer than the resort's own terms would be paid out of my pocket, and eventually that means no trips at all.

At booking
25%
Confirms your place and fixes the price. Non-refundable from the moment it is paid.
24 months out
25%
Second instalment
12 months out
25%
Third instalment
90 days out
25%
Final balance

On a four-year Misool booking that is a quarter of the cost now and the rest spread across three years. Shorter lead times compress the same shape — eighteen months out runs 25% at booking, 50% at nine months, the balance at ninety days.

Be clear about what the deposit is. Misool takes 25% up front and does not return it under any circumstances. I hand that money straight to them, so I cannot return it either. If you cancel after paying in full, the deposit is still gone — but if I can resell your place I will return the remaining 75%. I will always try. I cannot promise it.

This is why travel insurance is a requirement here rather than a suggestion. Buy it when you pay the deposit, not later. Reminders for the instalments come by email; missing one means a conversation, not a lost place. You can pay ahead at any point.

How these run

What you're actually buying

The number that matters is divers per guide, not guests per trip. A group of ten runs as small teams in the water — typically four to a guide, which is what the good resorts do anyway. Ten people on the manifest, three or four in your buddy group, nobody shooting over your shoulder.

Guidance happens in the water. I'll talk about strobe position on the surface interval, but the useful version is the one at eighteen metres while the subject is still there.

Destinations are chosen on score. If a resort offers a better rate to bring a group somewhere that scores 68, the answer is no — and you can check the number yourself before you ask.

Disclosure

Group bookings in dive travel usually work on a comp basis — bring ten paying guests and the organiser's own place is free. Mine is no different, and the resorts I take groups to are resorts I also score on this site.

You should know that, so it's here rather than buried. The scores don't move for it. The lowest Operation score on this site is a , given to a liveaboard I paid to be on, and Bali Dive Resort scores 67 having hosted me this year. If a comp were going to buy a better number, it would have bought one by now.

Booking

Deposits, balances and cancellation

Published up front so there are no surprises at the point of payment.

Group size
Small groups. If a trip doesn't reach its minimum, everything paid is returned in full.
Cancellation
The 25% deposit is non-refundable from the day you pay it. Cancel after paying in full and the deposit is still forfeit — if the place resells, the remaining 75% comes back. Best efforts, never a guarantee.
Transfers
You can pass your place to someone else only where the operator allows it, and only inside their window. Four years is a long time and lives change — ask early and I will find out what is possible.
Insurance
Dive and travel insurance are required, not optional. Proof requested before departure.
Experience
Every trip states its rung on the difficulty ladder. If you're below it, I'll say so before taking any money.
Price
Held at the figure quoted when you join, provided the schedule is kept. Fuel surcharges and marine park fees are the only exceptions.
Prototype — not live