Dive Destinations
Verified dive centers and liveaboards across the world’s best waters — pick a country and start planning.
Chile
Chile runs over 4,300 kilometers down South America's Pacific edge, from the driest desert on Earth to sub-Antarctic fjords - and its coast holds a cold-water diving scene most visitors never expect to find.
Diving in Chile
Chilean diving is a cold-water, Humboldt Current scene, not a coral one - think kelp forests, sea lions, and rocky reefs rather than tropical color. The center of it all is the stretch of coast west of Santiago around Valparaíso: Los Molles is widely called the "diving capital of Chile," with Quintay, Pichidangui and Las Tacas (Coquimbo) rounding out the main dive resort towns, most running PADI courses from Discover Scuba Diving through Divemaster and Instructor. Water is chilly year-round, so a good wetsuit or drysuit matters more than the calendar.
Far out in the Pacific, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) offers a completely different kind of diving: volcanic rock formations and some of the clearest water in the world (visibility regularly beyond 40 meters), with no coral and few fish by tropical standards, but a striking, otherworldly seascape found nowhere else.
Dive Centers in Chile (14)
Country
Chile stretches along the western edge of South America between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, bordering Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The population is around 18.5 million, with Santiago as the capital and largest city; Valparaíso, on the coast west of Santiago, is the seat of the legislature and the historic port for the country's diving hub. Spanish is the official language, and the currency is the Chilean peso (CLP).
The country also administers Easter Island (Rapa Nui) far out in the Pacific and claims a slice of Antarctic territory. The climate ranges from the Atacama Desert in the north, one of the driest places on Earth, through a Mediterranean-like central zone around Santiago and Valparaíso, to cold, wet, windswept Patagonia and fjords in the south.
Chile is a high-income economy, one of the most stable in South America, with a modern air network connecting the length of the country.
Most biggest airports
Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL), Santiago - the country's main international gateway, a short drive from the central-coast dive towns around Valparaíso.
Mataveri International Airport (IPC), Easter Island - the only airport serving Rapa Nui, with flights from Santiago.