Diving on Grace Bay Beach

Amazing Grace Bay Beach Diving Close to Villa del Mar

Is diving on Grace Bay Beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands on your diving bucket list? Famed explorer Jacques Cousteau regarded it as a world class place to scuba dive. Now his grandson Fabien raves about the islands as home to “some of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean,” during his visit in early 2014 to support the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund.

Selected as one of the Top 25 Beaches in the World by TripAdvisor, Grace Bay is situated off Providenciales, and is home to many spectacular sites for diving and other water activities.

The Pinnacles

One extremely popular site is The Pinnacles. If you take the Leeward Highway, it’s about a 14 minute drive west of Villa Del Mar. As described by Provo Turtle Divers, The Pinnacles is an example of a “spur and groove reef”, spur referring to the coral ridges, and groove, the channels in between them. The reef begins at a depth of about 25 feet which is ideal for new divers and drops off to over 100 feet for experienced divers.

The Cathedral

Another noteworthy site is The Cathedral which features interesting canyons, rare black coral, a green moray eel den, and a conch zone. This Grace Bay diving site is northwest of Villa Del Mar, and only a 10-15 minute boat ride out.

ScubaDiving.com reports that this dive site in the Turks and Caicos is home to “layer upon layer of plate coral,” and a wide assortment of fish, including reef sharks.

The Cathedral reef begins at about a 25 foot depth and drops down at around 100 feet to a sandy bottom that is teeming with life. You never know what you might have the privilege to see.

Other Grace Bay Diving Locations

Diving is available all year long in the calm and clear waters of Grace Bay, however for maximum visibility the placid days of the summer months offer the best opportunity to explore the variety of corals and schooling fish. If you’ve enjoyed The Pinnacles and The Cathedral, you may wish to dive at Piranha Cove, Boneyard, or Grouper Hole.

Diving tour operators are plentiful on the island, and excited to show you all the magical beauty just below the surface of Grace Bay.

Contact Villa del Mar if you would like some help finding a dive operator on Grace Bay Beach.