LIVEABOARD DIVING

While there are many great local and land-based destinations, a liveaboard might be the ultimate experience for a vacation dedicated to diving.

But the benefits of liveaboard diving, such as travelling to incredible dive sites that can’t be reached from shore and filling your days with dives, require some extra preparation. If you have decided to take the plunge on your first liveaboard trip, here are some tips to ensure smooth sailing.

When you start planning your trip, make sure you are conscientious about your travel arrangements. Doing a little research about your destination and having an idea of your entire itinerary will be worthwhile. Some exotic destinations require several connecting flights; you will need to coordinate not only your international flight but also domestic travel arrangements from your arrival airport to the liveaboard port. Time is the key factor: You need to have enough time on arrival to make it to your boat and enough time after your liveaboard trip to make your flight back home while also adhering to DAN’s guidelines for flying after diving (www.DANAP. org/_pdf/flying.pdf).