Explore and Dive St Helena
Reefs, Rays, Pelagics, Wrecks, & W halesharks!
Dive St Helena
Imagine a British Island in the middle of the warm clear Atlantic Ocean. An island with schools of dolphins and pelagics. An island endemic fish, seasonal aggregations of whale sharks and massive rays. This is St Helena island, the jewel of the Atlantic Ocean. St Helena island has to contain some of the most remarkable scuba diving on earth. A subtropical dive destination with walls, reefs, pinnacles and schools of fish, she makes up for her lack of coral reefs with vibrant colourful caves, swimthoughs and marine life. St Helena is home to seasonal gathering of both male and female whale sharks between January and March every year. This gathering is unusual as it is spectacular.
Historic St Helena
Apart from the diving, St Helena is home to the Emperor Napoleon's grave, historic buildings and fortresses. St Helena is a cultural and natural holiday destination in its own right. Her friendly people welcome you on It has mind blowing hikes, tiny remote beaches, a stunning diversity of landscapes, endemic wire birds.
The character of St Helena is largely unchanged since the days of the RMS St Helena being the only way to get to the Island.
St Helena Dive Safari Combination
A Dive vacation on St Helena Island can easily be combined with an private African Safari Holiday. We specialise in tailor made safaris in Zimbabwe or private safari tours in Zambia. This means that when you fly to Johannesburg on your way home from your St Helena diving holiday, you merely hop on a 90 minute flight to Victoria falls and your private safari vehicle will be waiting for you at the airport! St Helena now becomes an amazing two centre safari holiday destination.
The most isolated island in the South Atlantic!
There are no two ways about it, St Helena is incredible and so are our St Helena scuba diving tours. For many years St Helena Island was an inaccessible rock in the South Atlantic Ocean. It was so hard to get to, that it was chosen as Napoleon's prison island. The British kept quite a few people on the island including Boer Prisoners of war. But this remoteness ended when Spider Hill Aerodrome opened the island to the world. The world has to come through Johannesburg, but once a week a jet aircraft lands at St Helena.
St Helena is famous for its schooling whalesharks, but the scuba diving is amazing in its own right. Amberjacks, tuna, chubbs, devil rays and trevally swirl around you in the crystal clear water, which make St Helena scuba diving tour such a memorable experience. There are also a plethora of nudbranches, shrimps and butterfly fish. The island also has some first class accommodation in the Mantis Hotel, and some very reasonably priced self catering accommodation options. A dive holiday package week on St Helena including flights from Johannesburg, 10 dives, accommodation in the Mantis Hotel, and two whale shark snorkels starts at: £1805.00. As an ATOL bonded travel agent, we can also arrange international flights from anywhere in the world to Johannesburg.
St Helena is a British Overseas Territory. The island is in the sub tropics, It has a British administration which means that its conservation policies and laws are excellent. Which in turn means it is packed with fish. One mile offshore Pan Tropic Dolphins leap into the air. But there is so much more to St Helena than simple adventure diving. The island has four ecosystems, from the subtropical desert at sea level and just above, to cool, temperate fields, orchards and forests reminiscent of England. Albeit a very sunny and pleasant England.
Britain’s Tropical Scuba Diving Destination
For experienced divers St Helena has a series of deep dives, wreck dives, underwater pinnacle dives, and wall dives with schools of pelagics swarming around you. For the intermediate level diver, St Helena has multi-level dives, reef dives, and swim-throughs from 6 metres to 26 metres. And for the beginner, there are a series of enchanting 6-12 m wreck and reef dives that play host to schools of smaller fish and endemic species. St Helena should now be on every diver's diving holiday list. St Helena diving tours are a must, while it remains so charming and quiet.
Brits love our St Helena scuba diving holidays! The diving tours in St Helena are absolutely unique. St Helena is not an island with white sandy beaches, she is an outcrop of rock, that was deemed so isolated that the French Emperor Napoleon was exiled here by the British Government. Indeed he died on the rock and was buried here.
While the history of the island is quite enthralling, the dive holiday opportunities in St Helena are even more incredible. Diving in St Helena is mind-blowing.
The islands clear waters give your St Helena Dive vacation the pure enjoyment of experiencing the underwater world situated around the island. The visibility generally hangs around the 25-40m mark. St Helena Diving is unspoiled, this cannot be overstated. The British administration has superb conservation policies that have clearly worked. There are fish everywhere. Fishing in St Helena is strictly controlled and some dive sites are sole use sites. This means that fishing near the dive sites is forbidden. So there are literally fish on every dive, under every rock and in the wheelhouse of every wreck.
Schools of Amber Jacks swirl around the hulls of the wrecks and rainbow runners charge up to you playfully seeing what and who you are. St Helena scuba diving is like diving used to be 25 years ago in other locations. Unshy schools of fish with nudibranches, black coral, soft coral, and endemic species of fish. The night dives here are incredible. Hundreds of lobsters and more nudibranches come out of their holes to wander along the wreck of the Papanui.
In addition to the fish, our St Helena scuba diving tours will take you to explore different wrecks that vary in depth from 12m (the Papanui) to 27m (the Frontier Wreck) and down to 42m (the RFA Darkdale wreck). All of these wrecks are home to so many different species of reef fish, and attract devil rays (mobula rays) and schooling pelagics. Finally the single reason to bring divers and snorkellers from around the world to St Helena Island are the resident whale sharks. For six months of the year the island of St Helena is home to both male and female whale sharks. Research is being done on their movements as this website goes live, but through Sub Tropic Adventures, we offer high quality, low impact snorkelling tours with the whale sharks. In addition, most divers will see a whale shark while diving, when they arrive unannounced.
Dive Holidays on St Helena
The time to book your St Helena dive holiday is now. The Island is unchanged by its weekly flight, and maintains its character and charm. We know this, because in January 2018, the African and Oriental Travel Company became the first company ever to take a dive group to St Helena. This was nothing new to us, Raf Jah pioneered recreational diving in India (The Andaman islands) and Tanzania (Pemba Island) and so it seemed almost natural to be the first in St Helena. We chose our own diving pioneer Anthony Thomas of Sub Tropic Adventures to be our diving partner on the island of St Helena. After much research, we offer three levels of accommodation for our St Helena dive holidays. The World Class Mantis Hotel, the atmospheric Consulate Hotel, and the self catering bungalows of the Williams Estate. All three of these places have their own charm and good reasons to choose them.
The African and Oriental Travel Company is the only British Dive Specialist Travel Company to have visited St Helena, and in keeping with our principles of "we only sell what we have checked ourselves" we are happy to offer some amazing dive and non diver package deals to St Helena island. Simply book your St Helena Dive Vacation through us.
Your stay in the Mantis Hotel
The Mantis hotel is the South Atlantic Ocean's only boutique hotel. It sits close to the sea wall and opposite the Governors' fortress. Managed by Matt Joshua and his consummately professional team, this hotel is unique in that it is truly luxurious, on a small rock in the Atlantic Ocean and welcomes scuba divers.
We offer St Helena dive packages that include flights from Johannesburg accommodation, transfers and diving from £1400-2010 for one week.
Been on Safari?
As the flights to St Helena depart South Africa, there is a wonderful opportunity to add an African Wildlife Safari to your dive holiday itinerary. As longtime Safari Experts, we love Africa and believe that this is an absolute “must do”. With a Zambian or Namibian Safari so easy to add to Dive St Helena, this makes for the perfect safari and dive holiday combination.
Add a week in Zambia staying in South Luangwa National Park seeing the leopards, lions and elephants for an additional £1250.
Or you could choose to go on a private safari in Namibia for an additional £1500.
All safaris include flights from Johannesburg.
A dozen reasons to visit St Helena. By African Oriental Travel Co.
St Helena - Price Guide:
Mantis Hotel package starts at £2295pp.
Includes:
- Return Flights from Johannesburg to Jamestown
- 7 nights accommodation Bed and Breakfast in the world class Mantis Hotel
- 5 days of 2 tank morning dives with SubTropic Scuba
- 2 whale shark snorkels With SubTropic Scuba
- 1 full day island tour with Aaron's adventure tours
- Return airport transfers in St Helena (By the Mantis Hotel)
- 1 night in a Johannesburg airport hotel prior to departureSelf Catered or B&B options available starting at £1705pp.