What it’s Really Like to Dive the Great Blue Hole

Blue Hole Belize
Reading Time: 6 mins

The Great Blue Hole is a giant marine sinkhole near the center of Lighthouse Reef Atoll, a small atoll off the coast of Belize, in the easternmost part of its barrier reef. The hole is circular in shape, stretching 300 meters (984 ft) across and 125 meters (410 ft) deep.

Even though it is an incredibly deep hole, the great visibility underwater allows divers to easily see its cave formations and marine wildlife, which has led to the site being consistently ranked as one of the top dive sites in the world.

Related: The Best Belize Diving Resorts

Yet, the Blue Hole dive notoriously disappoints many divers. Why? Imagine, after weeks or months of anticipation and after the many hyped up articles and advertisements with cliché captions, you complete a dive and realize that you would be just fine to never do it again?

This is the reaction I have mostly witnessed over the hundreds of trips I have supervised at the Blue Hole. And I feel obligated to mention, before I go any further, that this dive site is a tad bit overrated, and could be very disappointing if you are the type of diver who is not keen on cave diving and prefers colorful coral reef diving.

See also: Top 5 dive sites in Belize and Top Things to Do in Belize

It saddens me to say that the Blue Hole has become known only as a “bucket-list dive”, because, for most, it’s the type you absolutely must get off your list but really don’t care if you ever visit again. There’s hope, however, for I think false assumptions and expectations are one of the main causes of disappointment. This dive site is different, it is the sort of novelty dive that, given the right conditions, can be enjoyed if approached with the right mindset and expectations.

So here I will describe exactly what it is like to dive Belize’s Great Blue Hole.

Diving Belize’s Blue Hole

Diving in Belize is one of the main reasons why tourist visit Ambergris Caye.

To begin, there is a lot to be enjoyed from the Blue Hole dive but it also requires a certain level of experience and responsibility that some new divers just don’t have. On a day where the visibility is excellent and wildlife are roaming, it can be an otherworldly experience.

The dive begins with a descent of 40Ft/12M to a sandy limestone shelf that surrounds the Blue Hole. The shelf begins as a wall at about 1ft or 1/3 of a meter and is covered with coral until about 18ft or 6 meters where it becomes a gentle sandy incline that leads up to a dark abyss. If you dive off the local dive boats, you are given about a minute or two to descend and equalize then you are led to the drop off where you will descend freely into the darkness. As you descend, the depths drain the colors to a gloomy hue not much different from the natural light you see right after dusk. The only reference is a limestone wall to your left.

At about 60 feet, you begin to see silhouettes with that familiar streamlined shape, of one of the ocean’s most fascinating predators. Soon enough, depending on your luck, you descend past 10 to 15 Caribbean Reef Sharks circling off to your right in the watery void. Your descent is continuous up until about 100 Ft/ 30 meters where you veer off toward grayscale columns hanging off a ceiling in a cavern carved out of by erosion during the last ice age.

Scuba Diving the Belize Blue Hole

You now feel as though you are in a sort of gothic tale; quiet, overcast, and eerie. It’s as though you are personally experiencing a vague memory of a dive story being retold by a stranger in a dimly lit bar after a few beers. Then, you suddenly hear the clear sound of your dive leader banging on his tank, a tone that travels clearly, as though he is right next to you. It jolts you back into reality. You look in front of you and see him telling you to level off, you are at your maximum depth; 132Ft/40M, and the cavern appears in front of you.

You feel buzzed and realize that you are experiencing what your dive leader spoke of just a few minutes before you jumped in the water; the effects of the sometimes unavoidable Nitrogen Narcosis. You now recall him saying, that you should not be afraid of the effects and that it wears off as soon as you come up shallower, and that you might like it if you stay calm. You don’t ascend, you continue to follow your dive leader and realize that it does feel, at the least, interesting.

You continue past enormous stalactites that hang from the ceiling like Stone Age chandeliers, a sure reminder of Actun Tunichil Muknal, the caving expedition you had probably done earlier in the week if you were previously in the jungle. These cave formations have existed several millennia before Christopher Columbus’s famous voyage. In the distance, some 40 feet above you, you can still see the silhouettes of sharks as they circle their territory, occasionally, one or two of them will shoot up from the blackness below like jet fighters at an air show; bolting toward shallower depths above. On uncommon occasions, a Hammerhead that lives near the area may appear out of the darkness, keep an open eye, Hammerhead sightings can make any dive exciting. Though I must admit, after hundreds of dives there, I’ve only met him/her twice.

Belize Blue Hole
Scuba Diving at 130 Ft. in the Great Blue Hole

After five minutes that seemed more like ten, you begin your slow ascent from your maximum depth, then all of a sudden, before you even notice, your Nitrogen buzz is gone. You come up past the sharks again, occasionally a curious one comes within arm’s reach inspecting the visitors in its territory. You again find yourself on the sandy shelf, this time you are treated to tiny bubbles dancing out of tiny holes in the sandy floor, they are the bubbles that you exhaled at your maximum depth seeping through the cracks in cavern roof on their way to the surface. Finally, the shape of your dive boat appears above and your dive leader signals for you to do a safety stop. In total, the Blue Hole dive is about 30 minutes long, with 25 to 27 minutes being the norm. This is one last potential disappointment to mentally prepare for if you’re the sort of diver who loves 60-minute dives.

Flying over the Belize Blue Hole

A Scenic Flight over Belize’s Blue Hole

For those that don’t dive, flying over the Great Blue Hole is a great way to see this amazing site!

How To Be Prepared

Scuba diving in Belize's Blue Hole

The Blue Hole, with just a dash of luck, can be a worthy experience, but it is also important to be aware of the dangers of this type of dive, and the personal duties you have as a diver, even when under the supervision of an experienced Dive Master. I shall share a few tips but if you are really unsure about your capabilities or if any of what I mention is completely new to you, you should do a little more diving or get some deep training before you dive at such depths.

First, ascend until you get the signal from the DM and ascend when they tell you to.  Second, if you have a dive computer or are renting one, adjust your depth according to your No Decompression Limit (NDL).  If you have a rental computer, this is rather obvious, make sure you are briefed on how to use it and always ascend at a reasonable rate.  Be sure to take the steps necessary to remove as much potential causes of stress and you will definitely have a better dive.  Lastly, find a Dive Buddy who will not be one of those stress factors and not be the cause of stress for another diver.

Many divers come up unmoved by what the site has to offer but maybe, just maybe, if your expectations weren’t inflated, and the conditions were excellent, the dive will be UNFORGETTABLE.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Monica says

    We’ll be diving the Blue Hole in a few weeks & I appreciate the description. How cold is it there? Our deepest dive to date is 85′ in Caribbean waters….5mm suit enough?

  2. Tereza says

    My husband doesn’t dive, so can he just use the snorkel while I dive?? Is it possible?

  3. Scuba Ninja says

    Not sure if this is better late than never, but the shallower profile does offer some benefits, for one, there usually sharks hanging around 20 meters, and also, you do not need an advanced certification to do such a deep dive, the most important thing is dive experience, the rule, set by Belize Diving Services, the leader in safety standards in Belize, deems anyone with more than 24 dives experience enough to go down to 40 meters.

  4. John Cappert says

    Some diver's that I know that have done this dive, say it's not a big deal, but I disagree! This was one of the coolest dives I've done. The stalactites and the 9' Caribbean Reef sharks swimming around in there were awesome!

  5. Ramon GT says

    I went to the blue hole finally and WOW!! O.o Epic dive!! I went all the way down to the cave floor, some 155 ft, and then ascended slowly to complete a 40 min dive. Awesome!!

    • Lorenzo Gonzalez says

      Hi Simon,

      Sorry for the late response. You can’t dive the Blue Hole if you’re a new diver. I think you need to have 23+ dives under your belt. One way to do it is by buying a dive package (10 tanks = $500-600 USD) and by the end of the week you will be able to dive the Blue Hole. I recently recommended this to a reader who was visiting Caye Caulker and she did it and LOVED it.

  6. Simon Blatcher says

    So it sounds like you only get the real benefit of the blue hole if you dive down to 40M ? A diver who has only done there open water PADI course is limited to 18M ? So is it worth it if you are only open water certified ?

  7. Ramon GT says

    Great description, thank you very much! I really hope to do the blue hole soon

  8. Evelina Karlsson says

    Great post! Going to Mexico and Belize in Dec/Jan and I am wondering if you would say if that is a good time for a dive in the area? Thanks in advance.

  9. Gratitude says

    My thought exactly! Thanks for this post. I wanted to dive it just because it was on the list, but grew up in the Caribbean and am often disappointe by dives elsewhere. Ill pass this time and enjoy other things Belize has to offer. I appreciate it!

  10. Anita Mac says

    Sadly, I am not a diver. Looking at that aerial shot, makes me wish I was….but I hear what you are saying about a place become a bucket list place! (That is mostly what I write about so I am very guilty of visiting bucket listable destinations) I visited the Blue Grotto in Croatia and was mesmerized by the beautiful waters. It too became a very popular tourist bucket list place and now it has become super crowded and has changed the experience! Expectations for the experience change with crowds and hype. Still loved the Blue Grotto and know I would love the Blue Hole experience too!

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