Nassau
The Azores (Santa Maria) diving holidays, with the Portugal experts.
Santa Maria is the southernmost and sunniest island in the Azores — and one of the finest destinations in Europe for luxury scuba diving holidays.
Why you'll love diving in The Azores (Santa Maria)!
Luxury Diving Holidays In Santa Maria, Azores
- Baixa do Ambrósio — only 45 minutes by RIB. Widely regarded as the most reliable site in the Azores for sicklefin devil rays (mobula rays). Intermediate and advanced divers regularly encounter dozens of rays, often accompanied by tuna, barracuda, and the occasional whale shark or oceanic manta.
- Formigas Islets and Dollabarat Bank — a full-day expedition to a pristine marine reserve. Expect dramatic volcanic topography, large schools of almaco jacks and barracuda, dusky groupers, blue sharks, and other pelagics in some of the clearest water in the North Atlantic.
- Local inshore sites (Pedrinha, Ilhéu da Vila, Calçada do Gigante, Gruta Azul) provide excellent cave, reef, and pinnacle diving with groupers, triggerfish, morays, rays, and colourful reef life when offshore conditions are less favourable.
- São Miguel delivers greater variety of coastal diving (walls, arches, caves, the Dori wreck, Vila Franca crater), a broader selection of luxury eco-resorts and boutique hotels, whale watching, thermal springs, and a more cosmopolitan base in Ponta Delgada.
- Santa Maria specialises in pure pelagic spectacle — closer access to Ambrósio, Formigas, and Dollabarat, warmer water, superior visibility, and a quieter, more exclusive feel.
Speak to a Portugal expert
We've dived The Azores (Santa Maria) ourselves and stayed in the hotels we sell in Portugal. Send us your dates and your certification, and we'll say if it's the best fit.
Skill level match
How The Azores (Santa Maria) suits divers at each level, new or experienced.
Learn To Dive 30%
Qualified diver with daily dives 100%
50 dives or more 100%
The Azores (Santa Maria) in pictures
Recommended hotels in The Azores (Santa Maria)
We've stayed in these hotels and checked the diving that goes with them. They're the ones we'd book in The Azores (Santa Maria).
Live price check
We lose sleep so you don’t.
We take every booking personally. Here's what happens after you book a dive trip with us, before you fly and while you're away.
Your money stays in trust
Your payments go into a trust account, not our bank, and stay there until after your trip. If we ever stopped trading, the money would come back to you.
Your diving booked before you fly
Your dives with the centre or the boat, the flights, the transfers and the room you chose are all confirmed before you leave home. The driver who meets you will be there and will speak English.
A call before you go
Documents, visas, your certification card and insurance that covers your diving. We go through it on the phone, and you can ask anything else while we're talking.
On WhatsApp the whole trip
Wherever you are and whatever the time, there's one number to message or call. Flight delayed, room not right, a problem at the dive centre: the person who answers already knows your booking.
Plan your trip with people who dive.
Tell us when you can travel, your certification level and what you'd like to see underwater. We'll send a shortlist of resorts or liveaboards, usually within one working day.
Book your free consultation
Mon–Thu 9am–6pm, Fri–Sat 9am–5pm
