Last updated: September 2026
Some dive trips you do early. Others you build up to. Galápagos, Cocos Island, Palau and Raja Ampat are the second kind: liveaboard trips that reward logged dives and current experience, and pay you back with diving you cannot get on an easy reef holiday. Here is what each one is for, when to go, and what you want under your belt before you book.
What makes a dive destination “advanced”?
It is rarely about depth alone. The trips on this page ask more of you for a mix of reasons: strong currents that need good buoyancy and a reef hook, cold thermoclines that come up from nowhere, long open-ocean crossings, and remoteness that puts you hours from a chamber. Most operators at these sites want to see an Advanced Open Water card and a real number of logged dives before they take you, and they are right to. Do them in the wrong order and you spend the week overfaced instead of enjoying it. Do a season or two of channel and drift diving first, and they become the best weeks of your diving life.
Galápagos: hammerheads in the blue
The Galápagos diving that people cross the world for is up at Wolf and Darwin, two specks in the far north of the archipelago reached only by liveaboard. You hang on a rocky slope in the current and wait, and schooling hammerheads come out of the blue in numbers that are hard to describe. Whale sharks pass Darwin from around June to November, riding the cooler, plankton-rich water.
It is not warm, gentle diving. There is surge, current and a thermocline that can drop the temperature sharply, so a good wetsuit and comfort in moving water matter. Read our guide to diving the Galápagos before you go, and see the Galápagos liveaboard itineraries for how the trips run.
Cocos Island: the shark trip you cross an ocean for
Cocos sits 550 kilometres off Costa Rica, reachable only by liveaboard on a ten to twelve night trip out of Puntarenas, and getting there is part of the deal: a long open-water crossing each way. What you cross for is sharks. Seamounts like Alcyone and Dirty Rock hold hammerhead schools year round, with the biggest aggregations in the wet season from June to November, when the water is greener but thicker with life. Whale sharks show most often from August to October.
The currents are strong and the sites are exposed, so operators typically want 50 to 100 logged dives and an Advanced card. If Galápagos is on your list, Cocos belongs next to it. See the Costa Rica liveaboard itineraries to reach it.
Palau: reef hooks and Blue Corner
Palau is the most accessible trip on this page, and still firmly an advanced one. Its signature dive, Blue Corner, is a current-fed wall where divers hook into the reef and hang in the flow while grey reef sharks patrol and schools of jacks and barracuda wheel overhead. Down the coast, German Channel is a manta cleaning station that fires up around the new and full moons, with the peak from March to April.
The best conditions run October to May, when the seas are calm and visibility often passes 30 metres. Because so much of the diving is in current, it suits divers who are happy drifting and using a hook. The Palau liveaboard itineraries also take in the WWII wrecks and Jellyfish Lake.
Raja Ampat: the richest reefs on the planet
If the others are about big animals, Raja Ampat is about sheer abundance. This corner of eastern Indonesia sits at the heart of the Coral Triangle and holds some of the highest fish counts ever recorded on a single dive. Reefs are dense, colourful and busy from the shallows down, and manta rays gather at cleaning stations in the Dampier Strait.
The diving is at its best from around October to April, when conditions are calmest. Currents at the famous sites can be fierce, which is what feeds the life, so it rewards good buoyancy. The Indonesia liveaboard itineraries cover Raja Ampat and the wider region.
How the four compare
| Destination | Best months | What you want first | You come for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galápagos | June–November (whale sharks) | AOW, current and cold-water comfort | Schooling hammerheads, whale sharks |
| Cocos Island | June–November (peak sharks) | 50–100 dives, AOW | Hammerhead schools, remoteness |
| Palau | October–May | AOW, comfort drifting on a hook | Blue Corner, German Channel mantas |
| Raja Ampat | October–April | AOW, good buoyancy | Biodiversity, manta cleaning stations |
Who these trips aren’t for
If you have just qualified, or you dive once a year on holiday, these are not the trips to cut your teeth on. You will spend the week managing yourself instead of watching the sharks, and on some of these sites that is a safety question, not just an enjoyment one. Build up on easier current diving first: the Red Sea, the Maldives central atolls, somewhere the stakes are lower. If you want the big-animal drama without the long build-up, our wider best scuba diving holidays guide has trips that deliver a lot for far less commitment.
Common questions
What certification and experience do I actually need?
Advanced Open Water is the baseline for all four, and for Cocos in particular most operators want 50 to 100 logged dives. More than the card, they want recent, current-confident diving. If it has been a while, a refresher and a few working-up dives before you travel are worth it.
Could a fairly new diver still go?
Palau and parts of Raja Ampat have gentler sites, so a newer diver can get a lot from them with the right guide and honest briefing. Galápagos and Cocos are not the place to learn current diving. Tell us where you are and we will steer you to the trip that fits, not the one that sells.
What about Socorro?
Socorro, in Mexico’s Revillagigedo Islands, belongs on this list too: giant oceanic mantas, a season running November to May, and a liveaboard-only crossing of around a day from Cabo. It is a strong alternative to Cocos if giant mantas are the draw more than hammerhead schools.
How far ahead should I book?
Nine to twelve months for the popular boats, and further for peak shark and manta weeks. These are small vessels with few berths, and the best dates go early.
Do all of these have to be liveaboards?
Galápagos and Cocos are liveaboard only for the sites that matter. Palau and Raja Ampat can be done from a resort, but a boat reaches more in a week. We can price both ways.
These are trips worth planning properly. Tell us your logged-dive count and roughly when you want to travel, and we will match you to the right boat and the right week.
