A good source of inspirationAugust 28, 2007 5 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is lavishly illustrated book that I suspect will appeal more to those who are thinking about where to start diving. It is really a coffee-table book. More serious divers are more likely to pick up a copy of the "Diver Travel Guide". The "Diver Travel Guide" is updated annually or at least very regularly. I'm fairly sure that I picked up a complimentary copy with "Diver" magazine but it can certainly be bought separately.
The "Diver Travel Guide" provides a concise description of each destination followed by a fact file which summarises the relative cost; water temperature and an indication of what thickness wetsuit to wear; visa requirements and inoculations. To be fair, similar information (though less detailed and nothing on relative costs and innoculations) is included as an appendix to the "Dive Atlas".
If what you are looking for is some inspiration about where to go diving you could do much worse than get a copy of "Dive Atlas of the World".
Good, but not excellentDecember 15, 2003 103 out of 105 found this review helpful
As many other Scuba diver in the northern hemisphere, my dream dive vacation is somewhere with corals, warm water and tropical fish. Usually, books that claim to list the best dive sites or dive vacations in the world list places with all those treats I want and only places like that. Sites such as the northern Atlantic coast of USA, Scapa Flow in Scotland and the Mediterranean sea are excluded. These books are usually nothing more than hundreds of pictures and little if any fact about the dive sites.
Dive Atlas of the World: An Illustrated Reference to the Best Sites does not fall in that trap, it actually lists several non-tropical dive sites and does a decent job at describing what kind of diving one can expect in as diverse sites as Malta, Maldives and Manado.
The pictures are excellent, but only serve as illustrations to the text. What I would have wanted to see more of was practicalities on travelling to the described sites. This information is now nested away in the back of the book. What I did like was the information on coral reef ecology, on oceanography and other topics all divers should be aware of.
Overall, I would strongly recommend this book to divers who travel, plan to travel or just wish to dream about travelling.
