Scuba Diving with a School of Fishes in Santorini, Greece

Everybody knows that it’s a must to catch the beautiful sunset of Oia in Santorini, especially for lovers going on a romantic vacation, but what about adventure seeker like me? Santorini is not all about sunsets, rugged landscapes and whitewashed cubist houses in the villages. If you explore the deep… there’s no chance you’d want to miss the chance to check out the scuba diving scene.

It was nearly the end of their season and some establishments were closing up for the year until they reopen in spring. I was lucky to seize the opportunity to a private scuba dive with a guide from Santorini Dive Center.

They were awesome and arranged me a private dive because there weren’t any group dive available at the time. They even picked me up from the Fira Bus Station in the morning before the dive.

It was about 10:15am when I arrived at the dive station where they planned to take me to the reef in the front of the station. I was lucky that I didn’t need to rent a GoPro as I already brought my own, so if you don’t have one, you can rent GoPro from them if you want awesome videos and selfies underwater.

The dive guide briefed me on the dive before the plunge.

And off I went.

Exploring the Underwater World of this Unique Volcanic Island

As I plunged into the shallow water of Caldera Beach in Akrotiri and dived alongside the slopes of the crater, I can assure you that I was impressed with the amazing rock formations, the huge boulders, the lava, the numerous caves and caverns, the large pinnacles and the several reefs. They were quite unique comparing to other dive sites I had done in Thailand and the Philippines.

Remember, Santorini is an island formed from a volcano, which makes their marine life a lot more interesting and different than many dive sites.

It was just marvelous to find marine life such as lobsters, moray eels, clams and spirographs hiding amongst the rocks. I swam through schools of fish and it appeared that they loved my presence and they started swarming around me as if I was their reef.

My head started to spin as I spotted many colorful sponges, nudibranchs, groupers, and many more I couldn’t list. I was utterly in awe of their bright color coming through the crystal deep blue water. The water was as clear as it can be, but it still had that bright deep blue color in the glow the water got from the natural light.

Final Thoughts

Back at the dive center, I took off my dive suit thinking that I couldn’t be more pleased with the decision to dive with Santorini. I was fascinated by the marine life Santorini had to offer and the lava formations on the slopes and walls of their crater. It surely made my experience unique from other dives I’ve had done and it made me more grateful that I didn’t miss the chance to check out this kind of wild underwater scenery.

Kudos to Santorini Dive Center for operating an excellent dive, and be sure to grab the chance to dive with them if you come to Santorini. You don’t have to worry if you aren’t certified as they do offer a non-certified scuba diving program where you will take a brief introductory lesson in scuba diving before swimming underwater to the reef to a depth of maximum 6-7 feet. All that will be conducted in two hours.

Bottom line: Santorini Dive Center is the way to go if you want to see the marine life in Santorini.

Santorini Dive Center

• Address: Perissa Beach road, Perissa, Santorini 847 03, Greece
• Email: info@divecenter.gr
• Website: http://www.divecenter.gr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Santorini-Dive-Center-103930870488/