Diving in Illes Medes

The gentlest island dives are the slope of El Salpatxot and the shallower sites of Sant Istiu, Embarcador del Francès and Cova de la Reina, with groupers, octopus and nudibranchs. Try dives and Open Water course sessions run from Montgrí-coast sites such as Punta Salina and El Negre del Falaguer. The centre checks your card against the reserve's requirement, shown in the regulations module, before it takes you out. Carall Bernat and the Tascons suit divers with some experience, and Pota del Llop and the Reggio Messina wreck are Advanced.

Published maximum depths run deep and disagree with each other. Tascó Gros is listed at 5 to 45 m by one centre and at a 30 m maximum by another. La Vaca is 12 to 45 m in one account and 15 to 25 m on the Park's own page. Pota del Llop is 12 to 57 m in one account against about 50 m on the Park's page, which adds that its walls often exceed the responsible limits of recreational diving. Read each as the site's maximum, not a depth to dive; plan to your certification and ask your guide for the planned profile.

Divers report a 5 mm hooded suit as the usual choice from July to September; a 3 mm is too thin for anyone who feels the cold, even in July. In early season, around June, a 6 mm hooded or 7 mm semi-dry suit is the safer pick. The surface sits near 22 to 24 C in summer, but a sharp thermocline brings it to about 17 C at depth.

Regulars recommend it: the water is still warm, the boats are less crowded and visibility tends to be at its best. It is a recommendation, not a guarantee, and the busiest September days are the Catalan holidays on the 11th and the 24th, which regulars advise avoiding.

Snorkelling in the reserve is not free of its rules in every case. Going deep on a breath or wearing long fins can make the outing count as a scuba dive, and centre-run snorkel outings are guided and licensed. Ask the centre what applies to your plan before you book.

Opinion splits. Visiting divers often treat it as a European bucket-list reserve, while Spanish divers' recurring complaints are summer crowding and price, and some say it is a great site apart from those two. A week works because the sites run from shallow slopes to tunnels, caves and walls, and the Montgrí coast adds a fallback when island slots or the wind close in. Compare quotes like for like by checking what each includes, such as the guide, cylinder and weights.

Island sites are five to ten minutes by boat from L'Estartit and the Montgrí coast ten to twenty-five. Centres typically run two to four departures a day, with single-tank dives of about 45 minutes, two to four divers per guide underwater and boats of roughly seven to fifteen divers. Sites rotate between boats according to wind, swell and licence slots, so name the dive you most want when you book.

La Vaca's tunnel is about 30 m long and around 5 m wide, and bright enough to see the far end. The narrower caves at Racó de la Vaca are dark and are not recreational dives, and the Park's own page for La Vaca warns about them. Take a dive light, follow the guide and stay where daylight reaches.