Best places to scuba dive in August
August is when cold water starts doing useful work. Galápagos can deliver hammerheads and whale sharks if the upwelling is healthy, while Komodo offers more reliable day-to-day variety. Princess Alice Bank is for blue-water mantas and the Solomons for reef and wreck diving. Check recent Galápagos sailing reports before making it the first choice.
Where should you dive in August?
Komodo is the first trip I would book. It ranks #9 overall at 8.9/10, and August sits inside its strict peak window of July — August. Go for reef mantas, drift dives, sharks and tuna.
Read the Komodo guide →4 places clear the bar
The order stays tied to the overall ranking. The first card is the answer.
Komodo
Mantas one day, fast reefs the next.
Komodo has range. One day you watch mantas over a rubble channel; the next you fly past anthias, reef sharks and tuna on a northern pinnacle. Not every reef is pristine, but the best sites mix current, colour and big animals unusually well for somewhere this easy to reach.
- Peak window
- July — August
- Signature
- Reef mantas · Drift dives · Sharks and tuna
Galápagos
Great when the cold water turns up.
In a normal cold-current year, Darwin and Wolf are top-three diving: hammerheads, whale sharks, Galápagos sharks and turtles in the same frame. The warmer water reported in 2026 has made that action less consistent. I would still go, but not without reading logs from the previous few sailings.
- Peak window
- August — October
- Signature
- Hammerheads · Whale sharks · Galápagos sharks
Princess Alice Bank
Mobulas over a seamount in the Atlantic.
Princess Alice is an offshore seamount where Chilean devil rays circle divers in blue water. Tuna and jacks are common enough to matter; blue and mako sharks are bonuses. The boat ride is long and the weather can cancel it, so leave spare days.
- Peak window
- July — September
- Signature
- Mobula aggregations · Tuna · Blue-water seamount
Solomon Islands
Several good trips hiding in one country.
Mary Island has the schooling fish, Uepi has the blue-water walls, and Munda has reefs and wrecks. The boats are few and the logistics can be clumsy. That is partly why the underwater side still feels like Pacific diving before the big resort build-out.
- Peak window
- June — August
- Signature
- Schooling jacks · Barracuda · Healthy walls