Las Planetas

Boats moor at one of the buoys above a peninsula and divers drop onto the shallow plateau at 6-10 metres. From here you pick up one of the sand-floored corridors and let the depth build progressively to 20-25 metres at the corridor mouth. Five rocky tongues run from the headland into the sea, parallel to one another, with sand floors between them. The corridor walls are perforated rock holding cavities, and that is where the dive's character lives. Small scorpionfish wedge into pockets at eye level. Larger Scorpaena scrofa ambush higher on the wall, motionless against the rockfall. Lobster antennae poke out of the deeper holes near the corridor mouth. White gorgonians and yellow encrusting anemone work the corridor walls; sponges and hard and soft corals fill the gaps. The route is open and easy to follow, not the ceilinged-tunnel atmosphere of nearby Port Salvi. You return over the next ridge, and the profile climbs naturally back onto the plateau for the safety stop. A 2015 forum write-up captures the rhythm: divers diverted here from Eden Rock by Garbi spotted squid eggs on the mooring buoy on descent, then worked the buoys for the macro stops the site is known for.

The combination is the point: Garbi shelter, all-level profile, and a documented seahorse callout in one site. The wind shelter is the practical lever local centres pull when the SW chops out their first-choice dives. The multilevel layout means OW students and AOW divers run the same dive plan from the same boat, which is rare among the area's other named sites. The long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) is uncommon enough in Mediterranean centre listings to be a specific reason to dive here rather than generic reef copy, though the animals are well-camouflaged and centre guides track individuals. The sunken water slide on the seabed is the curiosity, a long-standing local oddity whose origin remains unexplained. The site reads as functional rather than dramatic, which is why community framing places it as the year-round backstop in the Sant Feliu rotation rather than the headline site.

The cavity-rich corridor walls are the macro stop. Long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) is the headline subject and worth flagging to the centre guide before the dive — the animals are well-camouflaged in the rocky substrate and guides track individuals, so working blind tends to burn half the bottom time. The corridor cavities reward slow work: small scorpionfish wedged in pockets, blennies (Parablennius pilicornis) at eye level, lobster antennae poking from deeper holes, white gorgonians and yellow encrusting anemone (Parazoanthus axinellae) on the walls. Spring is the calendar window for nudibranchs and squid eggs on the mooring buoys, both reported on May community dives. Visibility runs 10-25m site-specific, with the wider area calibration favouring autumn (15-30m) over the spring bloom (5-15m) for cleaner files. A focus light is worth carrying for the deeper cavities even on day dives.

Plan the dive multilevel: corridor mouths at 20-25 metres early, work the macro on the plateau on the way back, safety stop at 6 metres. Carry an SMB and compass as for any boat dive. The corridor walls are macro territory, so a focus light helps in the cavities; spring through May brings nudibranch concentrations and squid eggs on mooring buoys per community reports. Local centres run boat trips to the site around ten minutes from Sant Feliu port — SubLimits, Piscis Diving, and Varadero Dive among them. Try-dive and Open Water training groups operate here regularly because of the shallow tops, so weekday morning slots tend to be quieter. The Garbi (SW) shelter is the operational signal: if other Sant Feliu sites are running chop, ask whether the centre is rerouting to Les Planetes that day.