Belize Barrier Reef Liveaboard Diving

Liveaboard Diving in Belize Barrier Reef

What to expect on a Belize Barrier Reef Liveaboard

Liveaboard diving to the Belize Barrier Reef means exploring some of this 300km long area, part of the Mesoamerican reef system and the world's second largest coral reef system. With 7 UNESCO World Heritage sites renowned for their marine life, liveaboards to the Belize Barrier Reef offer various diving possibilities for all skill levels. Its 3 distinct atolls, 7 marine reserves, and 450 cayes provide diverse scuba diving opportunities, including walls interspersed with sand channels, pinnacles, and reef flats.

Belize Barrier Reef Underwater

Divers on a Belize Barrier Reef liveaboard will not be disappointed. With a healthy population of reef sharks, common sightings of spotted eagle rays, and the rarer, luckier ones of manta rays, hammerhead sharks, and even manatees in the shallow seagrass waters, the Barrier Reef is a healthy ecosystem for most marine species. Serving not only as a protective home to underwater wildlife, the reef is a natural breakwater protecting the coastlines from erosion. A living wall, designed by millions of coral colonies such as the staghorn, elkhorn, and brain coral, these organisms keep the reef alive.

Dive Sites Of Belize Barrier Reef

TURNEFFE ATOLL REEF is the closest and the largest of the 3 atolls. Great drift dives with some of the larger pelagic, such as gigantic shoals of trevallies, snappers, black-tip and hammerhead sharks, and the occasional small pod of bottlenose dolphins.

LIGHTHOUSE REEF is the most easterly of atolls of the Belize Barrier Reef. The atoll is oblong, around 35km long and 8 km wide. Offering fantastic walls, grooves and channels, caves, and colorful reef topography, this atoll is home to several notable diving sites and the infamous Blue Hole.

GREAT BLUE HOLE, approximately 60 miles off the mainland out of Belize City, right in the center of Lighthouse Reef, is a large, almost perfectly circular limestone sinkhole more than 300m across and 135m deep.

HALF MOON CAYE sits at the lower southeast corner of Lighthouse Reef. The island is crescent-shaped and a national park. Mixed with diverse wildlife, both above and below the sea, this is known to be one of the most picturesque dive sites in Belize.

AMBERGRIS CAYE makes up 40km of the Belize Barrier Reef, with calm waters dense with coral gardens, deep canyons, sand flats, colorful sponges, many Caribbean reef fish, and water visibility exceeding 46m.

HOL CHAN MARINE RESERVE is a marine reserve just south of Ambergris Caye, divided into four zones and covering approximately 18km/sq of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests. This is one of Belize's most popular dive areas, with great marine biodiversity and spectacular coral formations.

Top Tips For Divers

Liveaboard diving to the Belize Barrier Reef is available year-round. The water is calmer in the summer with great visibility, and the water temperature stays around 80ºF (27ºC) throughout the year.

Getting To Belize Barrier Reef

Your Belize Liveaboard will take you there, departing from the Radisson Ft. George dock in downtown Belize City's heart. If you land at Belize City International Airport (BZE), transfer is provided to and from the yachts.