Scuba Diving in Santorini

I love the water. I grew up going to the beach or the pool almost every weekend and practically lived in the water. 6 year old Melissa had high hopes of getting into the mermaid profession when she got older. Things don’t always pan out like we hope, but we make do.

The first time I went scuba diving, I was 18 and went to the Dolphin Reef Beach in Eilat, Israel while on a weekend trip there. It was such an exhilarating experience. One of the dolphins came close enough I could touch it. So sleek and slippery.

Coming to Greece, I knew I wanted to go diving again. The clear, blue waters were calling me. In Naxos, I did some snorkeling and even around the shallow edges of the beach there were tons of fish around.

I researched ahead of time the best diving centers on the island, and almost all of them went to the same spots depending on weather and there wasn’t so much difference in ratings. I saw also my hostel had special rates for dives, so I ended up just going with Volcano Dive Center. They charged €90 for 2 dives, which is around how much I expected to pay in Santorini. There were only 4 of us plus the guide in the beginner’s dive, and it was great. We started out at Caldera Beach, but it was too windy for our beginner group so we drove out to Perissa Beach instead where the water was much calmer.

It was a great dive. The water was clear enough we could see pretty far ahead, there were tons of fish following us around, and we got to a depth of about 12 meters, which didn’t feel like we were that deep at all.