The Sunday Six: Places to Ride A Submarine

You don’t have to be in the navy to ride a submarine any more. Here’s six places where you can do just that as a tourist.

1: Honduras

One of very, very few deep sea submersibles available to tourists is based out of Roatan, Honduras. Two people and the pilot can descend to the deep, dark depth of 2000 feet in the Cayman Trench – a chance to see luminous sponges and coral, and the absolutely crazy animals from tripod fish downwards that exist at those depths. The vehicles are home made and uninsured, but have made over 1000 descents.
Stanley Submarines

2: The Maldives

Want an experience hitherto reserved for the super-rich? Come to the Conrad Resort on Rangali Island in the Maldives. Their miniature, 3-person sub, will take you and a friend down to almost 100 feet, and guide you through some of the fabulous reef around the island. It’s the closest non-divers will get to diving.
Conrad Rangali

3: Bali

At Amuk Bay, in Bali, you can descend as far as 150 feet down through colourful reef in a tourist submarine with space for 36 people. Fish-feeding – a practice often frowned upon – ensures a galaxy of colourful reef fish fluttering around the windows of the sub.
Odyssey Submarine

4: Waikiki

Ever wanted to see sunken ships and airplanes close-up? Put aside the epic surf and href=”http://www.tikicocktails.com/”>tropical cocktails, and ride the Atlantis submarine in Waikiki. It brings you up close and personal with the coral and marine life that flourish on the residue of war. With a capacity of 64 people, the experience is hardly intimate, but dramatic all the same.
Atlantis Adventures

5: Barbados

As decadence goes, drinking champagne underwater is hard to beat – though decadence is what the Caribbean’s all about. Atlantis submarines offer the chance to do just that, albeit in the company of 40-odd others, and explore the dazzling underwater world as you do so.
Atlantis Adventures

6: Benidorm

One possible reason to holiday in Benidorm is a submarine tour of the bird and water park on Benidorm Island. As common in the rest of Europe and North Africa, the submarine is actually a semi-submersible – or sub-aqua catamaran. So the top of the craft remains above the water, although the underwater viewing deck is fully submerged.

Image credit: USS Chicago (SSN 721) at periscope depth off Malaysia via Wikimedia Commons.