Sint Maarten

Diving here is land-based and short-range. The centres sit in Simpson Bay, Cole Bay and Philipsburg on the Dutch side, with two more at Nettle Bay and Marigot on the French side, and boats run out to nine official dive sites inside the Man of War Shoal Marine Park south of Philipsburg, all in 10 m to 22 m. Only one boat may tie to each mooring for a maximum of two hours, anchoring within 50 m of a mooring is banned and every diver needs a daily or yearly park tag, bought through the dive shop or direct from the Nature Foundation. Most shops run programmes timed to a cruise ship's stay. When the exposed sites are rough the boats simply move to sheltered ones.

The ground is low reef and sunken hulls. The Proselyte, built in Rotterdam in 1770 as the 36-gun Dutch frigate Jason, re-armed with 32 guns after her crew handed her to the British in a 1796 mutiny, and lost on the shoal on 4 September 1801, is now a spread of cannon and anchors in roughly 15 m off Great Bay. Seven wrecks are on most shops' lists: the Carib Cargo, deep enough that recreational divers get little time inside; the tug Porpoise upright in 24 m to 28 m; the Teigland beside its reef in 21 m to 22 m. Between them are the cratered reef at Moonscape with resident stingrays, swim-throughs at Mike's Maze from 12 m, and ledges at Shark Hotel where reef sharks are a fair bet.

This is a place for divers who are already on the island, or who want easy warm-water wreck dives and Open Water training rather than a dedicated trip. Sharks, turtles and dolphins are among the park's listed protected species, and southern stingrays gather on the sand around the Carib Cargo, but the diving is shallow and calm rather than dramatic. Divers after pinnacles, current and sharks should fly the short hop to Saba, and those after drowned colonial history should go on to St. Eustatius; both are reached through Sint Maarten's airport in any case. There is no liveaboard base worth planning around.