Bodrum

The pattern is a day boat out of Bodrum harbour, often a converted wooden gulet, running across to Karaada or along the peninsula for two dives with a long lunch stop between them. Underwater it reads as Aegean rock and seagrass rather than reef: sloping boulder shoulders, short walls, sand and posidonia meadow in the shallows, and cavern mouths cut into the island flanks. Depths stay moderate on most sites, roughly 8 to 35 m, which keeps bottom times generous.

Karaada carries the set pieces, the caves and the hot spring that vents into the sea close inshore, and it is near enough to town that boats are there quickly. The Pınar 1 is the one dive that needs planning: a cargo ship sunk deliberately as an artificial reef, sitting upright at 30 m, so Advanced or a deep certification and a single controlled descent rather than something to wander around. Küdür Point, on the exposed western side of the peninsula, holds the best fish density and is best on a calm morning.

It is a forgiving coast to dive and a common one to learn on, with training sites on shallow rock and sand and little current to work against. Experienced divers should read it as gentle rather than dull, since the interest lies in the seagrass life, the cavern light and the wreck. The season runs roughly April to October, and the meltemi is the main disruption; it can blow hard through midsummer afternoons, so boats tend to leave early and be back before the worst of it.