How do I find inspiration for my next diving trips?

Before starting planning, the key to an efficient trip organisation is to know what you want. The start of a trip project can come from many things: a photograph of a landscape that seems surreal, an animal you love and you would like to see in its natural habitat, a foreign language you want to practice or a good friend you promised to visit on the other side of the world.

However, with always more options and so many places to see, how do I make sure it is the kind of trip I’m after? To do so, there are useful tools out there that will help you discover new ideas and save your favourites. By building a routine around these,  I always ensure I have enough information before planning my next underwater adventure.

I’m a loyal reader of fellow dive travel bloggers

I believe that you can’t blog if you don’t read other blogs. And if these bloggers are into the same kind of things as me, what more can I ask for? While top 10 lists are good for getting a quick understanding of what’s on offer in a destination, I prefer when people describe their experience in detail on their diving blog. So have a look around, find the bloggers that fit your travel style, and read through their experience to get an idea if this is for you.

Here are my top 3 favourite bloggers who also love adventure travel and scuba diving like me:

• Marlies, from the Netherlands, of Dive o’clock
• Steph, from Germany, of A Nomad’s Passport
• Ara, from the Philippines, of Diver Bliss

I collect scuba diving books

 The Internet is not everything. That may be a little old fashion, but I love books. There is something exciting about looking for information on paper and turning pages. There is also something soothing about being surrounded by books in my work area. A few books about scuba diving all over the world or general travel books are always excellent references to have nearby to complete and maybe challenge the information you find online. Here are my favourite books, the ones that I use all the time:

• “100 diving sites“: By far my favourite scuba diving book. I bought it at Kuala Lumpur Airport for almost nothing on my way back home after my divemaster training, and it has remained the book I always make sure to consult before any trip project. It mainly focuses on recreational tropical diving, but it also features a good number of cold-water diving destinations too.
• “Ultimate diving adventures“: the perfect complement for advanced divers. This book focuses on more technical dives with the details of the best wreck dive sites in the world but also adventure dives including animal encounters or challenging scenic dives (not many books mention St Kilda in Scotland where you can dive a tunnel crossing below an island).
• “The place to be today“, by Lonely Planet: This is my reference book to check for marine animal migrations or cultural festivals all around the world. I also like reading it randomly to pick new ideas based on where I’d like to travel.

I keep track of my ideas with my World Dive Map

Since school, I always loved geography and maps. I always had an atlas book at home, and then one day the internet brought us Google Maps. Then I started creating many maps with it, logging all the places I had been and all the places I wanted to go. One day, even before worldadventuredivers.com was created, I started my World Dive Map by pinning places I was dreaming about and where I thought there could be some exciting diving. Step by step, after years of research, I have 150 of the best adventure dive sites in the world on this map!

The map helps me to refocus when there are too many things I want to do at the same time and check if I could associate in one trip some of my dream dive sites located in neighbouring regions.

Pinterest is a goldmine of ideas

When you have no idea where to start, Pinterest is the best place to look for inspiration. More like a visual search engine than other social media, users create pins by mixing beautiful pictures with catching titles. Type a few keywords in the search box like “scuba diving ” and “travel”, and you’ll find lots of new ideas.

For the last couple of months, I’ve become addicted to Pinterest to dig into many of my interests. On my account, I created boards for every destination I’ve been to, or I’m planning to visit one day. I’m mixing my own content with my best finds by theme. Have a look at my account and join me on Pinterest!

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