Manta Diving Madeira

A lift inside the Sentido Hotel Galomar in Caniço de Baixo carries divers from the hotel grounds straight down to Manta Diving Madeira's base and its own 6-spot house reef, set inside the Garajau Marine Reserve. Stefan Maier has managed the centre since 1997, and it has run in Madeira for more than 40 years. In 2015, independent trade press confirmed it as the only dive base in the Atlantic then holding ISO 24803/EN14467 certification, a standard the centre still advertises.

Open Water Diver runs under IAC or SSI certification, with CMAS examination dives available on request, and the course ladder continues through Advanced, specialty courses and instructor training. A dedicated freediving programme runs alongside the scuba side, with depth-marked stations at 5, 10, 20 and 30 metres on the house reef. Independent diving is offered to experienced buddy teams who have completed a check dive; other divers go out guided.

Boat trips add roughly ten further sites, among them the Corveta Afonso Cerqueira wreck and the rocky point at Cap Garajau, visited several times a week depending on weather, five to thirty minutes out. Three Bonex underwater scooters, a nitrox membrane system and two gear-drying rooms round out the equipment on offer, alongside regulators, suits and computers the centre replaces every two years.

Divers who try several Madeira operators keep coming back to Manta Diving. One account describes switching to the centre after trying four other Madeira shops and staying loyal since; another diver recommends it in one write-up in 2019 and again, separately, five years later. Reviewers describe a professional operation with abundant marine life, including one visit covering six dives that took in an Open Water course, a beginner-friendly wreck penetration and a beginner-friendly cave dive. The one recurring practical note is water temperature: one diver logged 19 degrees Celsius in October, true of Madeira diving generally and not particular to this centre.