Side Diving: 5 Best Scuba Diving Tours 2024
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READY TO BOOK YOUR SIDE DIVING TOUR?
You’ve come across the right article as you’re about to discover the 5 best Side diving tours that you need to book your spot on.
I’ve been scuba diving in Side and it was so fun, an incredible experience, but it’s so important to have the right tour.
There are lots of options for diving from Side, but lots of them aren’t great. That’s why I’ve created this list of the 5 best options!
🏆EDITOR’S PICK: Best Side Diving Tour = Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit
Ready to explore the best options and book your tour? Let’s get straight into it!
My Top 3 Picks: Side Diving
#1 TOP PICK
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit
✔️ 40+ 5 star ratings
✔️ 2x dives
✔️ Lunch included
#2 PICK
Side: Scuba Diving with Lunch
✔️ 2x dives
✔️ Lunch
✔️ Underwater Museum
#3 PICK
From Side: Full-Day Scuba Diving in Manavgat
✔️ 2x dives
✔️ Lunch
Best Side Diving Tours
Just off the coast of Side is the Underwater Museum, which most diving tours will use as their dive spots. It’s really cool and offers a very unique diving experience. It was actually in Side where I went scuba diving for the very first time, so it holds a special place in my heart. So here are the 5 best Side diving tours.
1. Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit
⭐RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars (40+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 7.5 hours |
🤿 DIVES: 2x 20 minute dives | 🌊 BOOK NOW
The number one best Side diving tour is the Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit which is the tour you need to book if you are looking for the outright best experience overall.
If you skipped over that review, I would encourage you to go back and read it. Reviews are one of the best ways to get an idea of what a tour is like.
When booking a tour, I always like to go with a tried and tested option, and this tour has certainly passed the test of lots of travellers before, with an impressive rating of 4.5/5 with nearly 50 reviews!
It’s also the tour I took while in Side and I really really enjoyed it, I can’t recommend it highly enough. The dives are amazing, with one at the museum and one out in the open, and the instructors are really helpful.
Whether it’s your first time diving or your 100th, the staff are more than happy to cater to your experience, and there were lots of PADI holders on my boat that were allowed a lot more freedom than beginner me haha! I hadn’t got my qualification yet – but I got it at a later date in Koh Tao.
What makes this tour extra special is that it’s a full-day experience. It lasts for nearly 8 hours but as the saying goes, “time flies when you’re having fun”.
The atmosphere on the boat is really nice, the food is good, and when there are no dives going on, you are allowed to jump off the boat and snorkel or swim.
Just over €40 for two dives is also a really good deal, especially considering it includes a hotel pickup and lunch, and 7.5 hours at sea.
You really can’t go wrong with this tour, so I urge you to book the Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit ASAP!
2. Side: Scuba Diving with Lunch
⭐RATING: 4.4 out of 5 Stars (15+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 6 hours |
🤿 DIVES: 2x 30 minute dives | 🌊 BOOK NOW
Another really good Side diving tour is Side: Scuba Diving with Lunch which is also really highly rated.
What makes this tour stand out is that the two dives you get are 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes like the previous tour. These extra 20 minutes in total of diving for an extra few euros are definitely worth considering.
The good thing about these diving tours, and Turkey in general, is that everything is really affordable. 60 minutes of scuba diving, lunch, hotel pickup, and 6 hours at sea, for the same price it would cost to do a walking tour in some places. It’s incredible value for money!
Diving at the Underwater Museum is perfect for first-time divers, as the instructors are all regulated and the rules are very strict, it’s also a really nice place to explore for your first time.
And it’s equally as good for experienced divers as you are given a lot more freedom, and unless you’ve been to Side before, you’ve probably never experienced a dive site like this one. It’s over 100 statues and sculptures put together to create a museum.
Another nice bonus of these diving tours is that you are on a boat with people for the best part of the day, so you often make new friends and meet some really incredible people. That’s one of the best parts of travelling is the people you meet, right?
For a full hour’s worth of diving in Side, make sure to check out Side: Scuba Diving with Lunch.
3. From Side: Full-Day Scuba Diving in Manavgat
⭐RATING: 4.1 out of 5 Stars (65+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 9 hours |
🤿 DIVES: 2x dives | 🌊 BOOK NOW
From Side: Full-Day Scuba Diving in Manavgat is the most tried and tested of these Side diving tours, with over 65 reviews averaging at 4.1/5 – a very impressive rating.
As the above review says, this is one of the best excursions you will ever go on. It’s a really high-quality diving tour.
What I haven’t mentioned so far is that on top of facilitating first-time divers, most of these tours also give short lessons on what scuba diving entails. Now they won’t qualify you for a PADI certificate, but knowledge is power, right?
And this tour in particular really prides itself on tailoring your experience to your diving level. That’s why beginners and experts can equally have amazing tours.
Again, this tour includes 2 dives. One at the Underwater Museum and one in the open waters of the Mediterranean. It’s truly beautiful out there. And also hotel pickup and lunch like the two previous tours too.
Did you know that in Turkey, you’re able to see sea turtles, clownfish and a whole load of other exotic underwater life? I definitely didn’t know before taking a Side diving tour!
Diving from Side is amazing, so book your spot on From Side: Full-Day Scuba Diving in Manavgat as it gets popular during the summer months.
4. Side: Scuba Diving Under Water Museum
⭐RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars (15+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 5 hours |
🤿 DIVES: 2x dives | 🌊 BOOK NOW
If you don’t want to spend a full day at sea, and you’re looking for a slightly shorter Side diving tour, then Side: Scuba Diving Under Water Museum is the option for you as it’s 5 hours compared to the 7-9 hours of the other tours.
And don’t worry, the shorter time doesn’t mean you miss out on any dives, you still get 2 diving sessions with this tour. There is just less time between the dives and after your second dive until you return to land.
Naturally, it’s also the cheapest of the tour options. But being the cheapest doesn’t mean the standard of the tour is neglected, it’s just because it’s a shorter option. It’s still a really really good tour.
I’ve not mentioned it until now, but it’s worth noting that the use of diving equipment is included in the price for all of these Side diving tours. The value for money is really quite unbelievable. The amount of things included in the price is extraordinary.
For some of the fish and animals you are able to see, you would pay extortionate prices for the opportunity to see them in other countries. The fact there are sea turtles in Turkey is pretty uncommon knowledge, so it’s a real bonus that people find when taking a diving tour.
But in terms of the Underwater Museum, it’s so cool to explore. And there’s always a photographer too. Most tours sell the photos separately, but in my opinion, they’re worth paying for. Every photo in this article was from the photographer on my tour. They’re quality!
So if you’re looking for two separate dives but don’t want to spend a full day at sea, book the Side: Scuba Diving Under Water Museum for a 5-hour trip!
5. Scuba Diving in Side
⭐RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 7 hours |
🤿 DIVES: 2x dives | 🌊 BOOK NOW
Last but by no means least of these Side diving tours is the Scuba Diving in Side which is still rated impressively at 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐.
As the photo of me above shows, I love diving in Side! ❤️
What’s unique about this tour, is that, unlike the others, it doesn’t actually visit the Underwater Museum. Which tends to lead to a more typical scuba diving experience, exploring the natural underwater beauty of the Turkish waters.
You’re taken well out into the Mediterranean, where you get two dives to discover the coral reefs and the beautiful marine life that is lucky enough to call it home.
There’s nothing quite like simply diving in open water and seeing what you can spot. Especially in waters so diverse as those of Side and Turkey.
Oh and by the way, Turkey is pretty warm all year round, so you can even go diving if you visit Antalya in Winter.
On all of these tours, if you have family members or friends who don’t want to dive, they can book on as a non-diver and simply enjoy a day out at sea and maybe enjoy a bit of snorkelling along the way. It’s a good option if you don’t want to leave someone behind.
They’d be silly not to dive though, as this tour will leave you with memories to last a lifetime. It’s one of the most underrated diving spots in the world in my opinion, is Side.
But for a more traditional diving experience that explores the stunning coral of Side, book the Scuba Diving in Side.
🏆EDITOR’S PICK: Best Side Diving Tour = Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit
Side Diving: FAQ
Below are some questions related to Side diving along with my answers.
Yes, Turkey is really good for scuba diving. It’s really cheap and affordable, and the dives are excellent. There’s an opportunity to see some really exotic marine life in Turkey, with the likes of sea turtles and clownfish found off the coast of Turkey. The water is a nice temperature too, and there are coral reefs to explore too!
Yes, diving in Side is a really good experience. It’s really unique too, as there is an underwater museum which most tours will visit. It’s exactly what it says in the name, an underwater museum made up of over 100 statues and sculptures, which creates a dive site unlike any you will have dived before.
Yes, the Underwater Museum in Side is really good for diving, for both beginners and experts. Most tours will tailor your dive to your experience, so it won’t be boring if you are a diving expert. The museum is so cool to explore, and it’s unlike any diving site you’ve driven before. With over 100 sculptures and statues, it’s like exploring a lost town.
Side Diving: Conclusion
And there you have it, a complete guide to Side diving and the 5 best tour options.
Remember, the best tour is the Side: Underwater Museum Scuba Diving Visit which I personally went on and I can vouch for as being an amazing experience.
But no matter which of these 5 tours you choose to go on, you are guaranteed to have a great time. Diving in Side is spectacular, so make sure you give it a go during your trip to Turkey.
So get your tour booked, and enjoy your dive!
