2024 - 2025 Scuba Diving Holidays, Liveaboards and Learn to Dive Courses to the Maldives, Red Sea, Canary Islands, Far East, Caribbean and the Pacific.

home

about us

destinations

dive courses

holidays

liveaboards

information

offers
- Newsletter Signup
- Brochure Request

Type of Diving	Your Level	Extras
Land Based		Singles/Group
Liveaboard		Honeymoon/Spa
Tours & Safaris	Choose a month	Family
Special Interest		Multisport

General Information

Hotels

Dive Centres

Dive Sites

Latest Offers

EL GOUNA RED SEA DIVE HOLIDAY

from £1599pp INC FLIGHTS!

EL GOUNA RED SEA - INCLUDING 5 DAY 10 Dives Pack.
Dive Hotel minutes from Abu Tig Marina. Choice of 3*, 4* and 5* Hotels including return flights from UK, transfers, BB, Half board or All Inclusive board basis. Learn to dive, specialist dive course or day boat diving packages available.
Depart selected dates in 2024.

View all offers

News

CAPE VERDES - GUIDE TO DIVING ON SAL ISLAND

Cape Verdes offers a range of dive sites from Sal Island just 6 hours flight from the UK. With year round diving you can dive from beautiful Santa Maria beach. There are over 60 endemic species with mix of diversified sites with overhangs, drop offs, caves, wreck plus protected turtle, shark, rays, barracuda, lobster, nudibranch even occasional manta and whale shark.

View all news

Cape Verde Islands, Africa

A year round diving desitnation, the Cape Verde Islands are located approx 450 kms off the west coast of Africa. The archipelago consists of eleven volcanic islands, the flattest of these being Sal, where vast expanses of white sand form the stark landscape. The islands gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Equally impressive are the beautiful, stunning sandy beaches, stretching for over 4km at Santa Maria. Enjoy the laid back atmosphere of the cobbled streets, local surf bars and traditional restaurants. Stay in hotels right on the beach and walking distance to the town with your dive centre a short walk from the hotel.

Diving
The diving in Sal is incredibly varied catering for all levels of diver from beginner to expert offering great year round weather, uncrowded dives, an abundance of marine life. The underwater fauna and marine life is a mis of Atlantic-Mediterrean tropical features with over 60 endemic species including rocky outcrops, over hangs, walls, caves and wrecks.The Santo Antao Wreck provides a shallow wreck site just a short distance from shore. The Kwarcit Wreck is a 50m long Russian fishing boat that was sunk in 2006 as an artificial reef. A feature of diving off Sal island are the caves, grottoes and many crevices and overhangs. The variety of volcanic underwater topograpy make for interesting diving with beautiful coral, tiny macro life to schooling fish, turtle and shark as well as turtles and Manta rays, large concentrations of bigeye squirrelfish, yellow guinea grunt, cornetfish, scorpionfish, moray eels, turtles, manta rays, sharks, parrotfish and cuttlefish. Ideal for underwater photographers and naturalists.

Culture and Activities
The Cape Verdes Islands are barren islands, characterised by desert landscapes and sandy beaches. A former Portuguese colony the island cast a spell over visitors local Cape Verdeans call "Sodade", which means "yearning". The fun loving locals will make you feel right at home. "You do not need much to be happy" - This saying could have originated on these islands. Apart from fishing, which is the locals main source of food and income, music also plays a decisive role in the Cape Verdean life. Other activites popular on the island are windsurfing, kitesurfing and SUP surfing. Mainly it is a popular winter beach holiday destination with beach hotels with local bars and restaurants.

Gallery

Cape Verdes diving holiday - Santa Maria, Sal Island.

View full gallery >

Fact File

Diving Conditions

Suitability:

Beginners

Intermediates

Advanced

Technical

Best Time: Year Round

Average Air temps: 22-29°C

Average Water temps: 20-27°C

Visibility: 5-100m (Jan-June)
Up to 200m (July - December)

Top Dive Sites:
Sal Island - Santa Maria sites: Santo Antao Wreck, Choclassa, Kwarcit Wreck, Farol Baixo, Trés Groutas, Pontinha. Palmeira and Mudeira sites: Morrinho das Pedra, Ilheu, Palmeira Caves 1 & 5 and Buracona Cave. More >

Dive Centre: Courses and Dive Packages More >

Great Reasons to Dive in Cape Verdes

Short flights just over 6 hrs.
Uncrowded diving.
Whales (Mar-May).
Mantas and Whale Sharks (July-Nov).
Dives dives from 11-40m with sites for advanced divers.
Platforms, drop offs and Cave diving.
Protected turtles, shark.
Multi sport options windsurfing, kitesurfing
and surfing.

Dive Holidays Sportif

Sportif Dive is a specialist tour operator offering a wide range of diving holidays all over the world. Our choice of destinations is extensive from established locations in the Red Sea, Maldives, Caribbean and the Far East to the exotic and unusual such as Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean, Wakatobi, Truk, Palau, South America & the Pacific. Whether you are looking to for a Learn to Dive course, group expedition or trip of a lifetime we can help. With over 30 years experience and a personal approach, we can advise on the ideal location to suit your needs, at a price to suit your budget.

Our extensive knowledge of the destinations means we can recommend the right location for you. Our diving centres are selected for their excellent standards of service and safety. Whatever your priority, whether starting out or wishing to dive a technically challenging site we can recommend a range of options offering the best diving for when you wish to travel. We can organise all your travel arrangements for you, pre-book equipment and diving packages in advance to maximise your time when you get there.

As an independent tour operator, we select only the hotels, liveaboards and diving centres that offer the best standards and quality of service but at the right price. Without the overheads of a large mass market operator, we can offer the best value diving holidays often with great discounts and special offers.

Our consultants have many years experience in travel and are divers. They are able to closely match your needs and take time to recommend from a carefully selected range of accommodation and diving packages. With first hand knowledge, they are passionate about diving and travel and providing the perfect holiday for you.

Sportif also have a specialist multisport division offering instruction and rental packages for windsurfing, kitesurfing and surfing. Our specialist centres are located in some of our diving resorts, often minutes from the Dive Centre for easy coordination of activities. Packages offered included taster and learn to right through to intensive coaching weeks up to expert level. Children can start from 8 years.

Sportif Dive are an ATOL bonded operator which means that every element of your holiday is secure. With the worry of disruption to your holiday plans from weather disruption or airline failure you can be sure that we will be there to help every step of the way.