Diving in Spain

The Mediterranean coast and the Balearics hold the reserves and most of the wrecks. The Canary Islands add volcanic Atlantic walls and angel sharks, and at Tarifa the Strait of Gibraltar puts kelp and strong current where the two seas meet.

The Costa Brava is where reserve diving is easiest to reach, and the Illes Medes are the reason. The islets sit under a daily diver quota, grouper encounters start at beginner level, and the gorgonian pinnacle of Carall Bernat is the best-known site. Next door the Costa del Montgrí covers the mainland side of the same coast with tunnels, arches and two wrecks, without the reserve fee.

North and south of the Medes the coast gets more demanding. Cap de Creus is a park of Paleozoic schist walls and pegmatite pinnacles, a 2025 park plan limits operators there, and exposed pinnacles such as Massa d'Or turn serious in strong current and tramontana wind. Palamós brings the Boreas wreck with its keel at 32 m and the Ullastres walls, and Begur has granite walls, Roman amphorae and the Furió pinnacle facing the open Mediterranean, an advanced dive.

The gentler Catalan bases are Tossa de Mar, with resident seahorses and six routes from the single shore entry at Mar Menuda, and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, where the six-tunnel Port Salví system sits in a sheltered bay and one local operator runs winter dives. The Costa del Maresme serves Barcelona with rocky bars and the El Santuari sunken fish farm.

At Cabo de Palos in Murcia the Islas Hormigas reserve holds submarine mountains such as Bajo de Dentro and wrecks including the Naranjito, and the currents point most of it at Advanced divers and up. At Tarifa slack water decides when the kelp, the walls and a paddle-steamer wreck can be dived.

Wreck divers have a choice across three seas. Don Pedro off Ibiza is a 142 m ship sunk in 2007, Cabo de Gata holds the 1928 Vapor in habitual current, Cabo de Palos has the Naranjito, and Menorca's Malakoff lies at 38-40 m. Menorca also adds limestone caves and two reserves, Mallorca a recovering grouper reserve at El Toro with Cala Ratjada caves, and Formentera posidonia clarity beside La Plataforma artificial reef.

Canary diving runs through the winter. Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife share angel sharks on sandy bottoms and volcanic terrain, Tenerife adds basalt walls and lava tunnels, and Lanzarote the Museo Atlántico sculpture park. At El Hierro the Mar de las Calmas has been a state reserve since 1996, and El Bajón, a twin-pinnacle volcanic mountain, is the island's signature dive for experienced divers. A national marine park for the Mar de las Calmas is a government proposal that went to public information in 2025; it is not yet law.

South of Murcia the Mediterranean gets quieter, and the choice turns on shelter. La Herradura on the Costa Tropical is the easy start: a horseshoe bay with orange-coral walls, where Punta de la Mona is the one advanced headland. Cabo de Gata is the volcanic alternative, a reserve of caves and craters that, like La Herradura, is practical only by car. Marbella is resort diving with a single reason to leave the coast, the Las Bóvedas seamount, a RIB ride out to sea. Around Alicante the draw is protection: the Tabarca reserve (1,754 ha, 0-40 m) and Cabo de San Antonio at Dénia-Jávea, with the Marina Alta caves behind them.

Real Decreto 550/2020, amended in 2025, is the national safety framework. Every recreational diver needs accident and civil-liability insurance, scuba is capped at 40 m on air or nitrox, and the decree has the centre collect a signed health declaration. Each try-dive participant is accompanied individually by an instructor who supervises no more than that one participant. Certification equivalences sit in regional rules, so carry your card; the Balearic reserve authorisation asks for a valid official recreational certification.

The depth ranges on the area cards reach 55 m and beyond at Cabo de Palos, Palamós and Begur. They describe the sites. Recreational scuba stops at 40 m, and deeper diving is reserved for adults with the technical equipment of Annex III, so the lower part of those sites is not a recreational dive.

Reserve access differs by region. The ministry lists twelve state marine reserves of fishing interest, among them Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas, Cabo de Gata-Níjar, Tabarca and La Restinga-Mar de las Calmas, and the Illes Medes and the Balearic reserves follow regional regimes. The Balearic authorisation is personal, and its 2026 fees are 5.24 EUR a day and 52.82 EUR a year.

The Mediterranean main season runs May to October. Surface water reaches 21-25 °C from July to September and cools below the thermocline; in January to March it sits at 11-15 °C, which means 7 mm or a drysuit, where 5 mm does for summer. The Canary Islands dive all year, at around 22-23 °C in summer and 17-18 °C in March at Lanzarote, with El Hierro warmer and Lanzarote and La Graciosa the coldest. Their thermocline is weak, so the bottom stays within a degree or two of the surface, and Mediterranean thermocline figures do not carry over. Each area page gives its own best months.

Airports shape the logistics: Barcelona and Girona-Costa Brava for Catalonia, Palma and Ibiza for the Balearics, Tenerife South and Gran Canaria for the Canaries, Málaga for Andalusia, with Alicante, Almería and Murcia-Corvera serving their own coasts. Cabo de Gata and La Herradura are practical only by car. For decompression-chamber locations, DAN Ibérica and the regional health services hold the current lists.