Tarifa & the Strait of Gibraltar

The diving is one island. Both centres found here work out of Tarifa town and the port beside it, and the day is a short boat run to Isla de las Palomas, the island that carries almost every named site on its Atlantic or Mediterranean face. Puerto Fenicio, on the island's Atlantic side, can also be entered from the beach. Plans follow the tide: currents in the strait are strong and change through the day, and the funnel of coastal massifs on both sides makes wind strong enough to stop boat work.

Underneath is rock, not coral. Las Calles stacks rock corridors, wall and sand into routes between 8 and 18 m, La Pared is a straight wall run of 5–19 m with lobster, moray and snapper in the cracks, and El placer del macro is a field of overhangs at 5–15 m carrying benthic growth, nudibranchs and schools of salema. Three wrecks sit on the sand around the island: the San Andrés at 25–40 m with groupers and congers in its holes, Las Calderas at 14–25 m with three boilers still recognisable, and Las Gorgonias at 19–32 m. Some points have no park buoy, so the boat anchors.

It suits divers who are comfortable with tide planning and want an Atlantic-Mediterranean junction rather than a reef, with wrecks in a compact area and pelagic traffic overhead. The island sits inside the Strait of Gibraltar Natural Park, which moors many of the sites on its own buoys, and Andalucía has protected its underwater archaeological ground as cultural heritage since 2009. Divers after warm, clear water and calm conditions should look to the Canaries, where El Cabrón and Lanzarote offer rock-and-wreck diving without the strait's currents and wind.