Our diving base on Nungwi beach is the starting point for your excursion to the best dive sites in Zanzibar. The beautiful coral gardens of Tumbatu Island, the unique marine life of Nungwi’s reefs and the stunning colorful wall dives of Mnemba Island.
On most days we offer two different boat trips:
- Daily tour to the famous Mnemba Atoll marine park. We visit two dive sites, usually Kichwani, Wattabomi or aquarium. The trip most days departs at 08:30, returning around 15:00.
- Daily tour to North Zanzibar’s best dive sites, that are located closer Nungwi. Each day we visit two different dive spots. The locations and time are decided 1-2 day earlier depending on conditions, tides and customer preferences. Our most visited sites on this boat are: Hunga, Nankiville, Magic Reef, Tumbatu Island, Leven Bank and Mbwangawa
- As well, we offer night dives off the beach on our home reef on most nights.
Tumbatu Island
Undoubtedly, Tumbatu Island offers the nicest coral gardens in North Zanzibar. All three dive sites, Shetani, Popobawa & Mwana have spectacular, flourishing corals reefs, with a large variety of both soft and hard corals.
The main reef starts at 3 meters and drops down to 12 meters deep. This makes Tumbatu a great place for beginner and snorkelers.
Tumbatu is home to many Turtles, Seahorses, Leaf Fish, Octopuses, Scorpion Fish, Moray Eels, Nudibranchs.
Magic Reef
Magic Reef is a heaven for photographers. A diver cannot swim for more than few meters on this reef, without stopping to have a closer look at some unique creature.
The Reef lays between 12 to 20 meters. If you swim slow enough and look close enough you will find on every dive: Seahorses, colorful Leaf Fish, Scorpion Fish, Frog Fish, Mantis Shrimp, Octopuses, Moray Eels, Mauritius Scorpion, Nudibranchs, Crocodile Fish, Cleaner Shrimp, Turtles.
Hunga / Nankiville
Two of the best dives in Nungwi, usually having great visibility. Both dive sites are big circles of huge bommies covered in great and colorful variety of corals.
Hunga and Nankiville lay next to each other on a flat bottom covered with corals. Hunga reef is 16 meters deep while Nankiville is 12 meters.
You can often find shoals of Barracuda, Snappers, Sweet lips, Unicorns as well as individual Napoleons, Groupers. If you look at the sand in between the rocks you are sure to find Crocodile Fish, Scorpion Fish.
Leven Bank
Spectacular! One of Zanzibar’s best dives. Leven Bank is a sea mountain in open ocean which slops from 12 to 55 meters. Due to often strong currents, we recommend this site to experienced divers only.
This site is a home to a great diversity of corals, nudibranchs, big honeycomb moray eels. Leven Bank is the best place in Zanzibar for game fishing and very often you can spot Tuna, Trevally, Kingfish, Shoals of Barracuda, Groupers, Stingrays.
In August- September, humpback Whales can be spotted off the boat quite often.
Unfortunately, there are only several days a month when sea conditions and tides fit well for diving in Leven Bank.
Mbwangawa / Turtle House
As part of Zanzibar’s barrier reef, Mbwangawa slopes down from 8 to 18 meters.
Drifting along it, you will find great brain corals, big variety of soft corals, spectacular areas of Plate Corals and lots of tropical fish. At the bottom of the slope, the reef end on a flat sandy area where it is very common to see Stingrays, Guitar Fish, Blue Spotted Rays.
Nearly at the end of the reef lays a site, unique to Spanish Dancer Divers, which is called Turtle house. Located over a sandy area with small rocks, where we once counted up to 12 turtles in one dive.
