Ask any diver about their favourite way to dive and you will hear the same answer: from a boat. Not wading in from a crowded beach with gear over your shoulder — stepping off a deck straight into blue water, directly above the site you came for.
Every Side Diving · Atalay Hoba trip is a boat trip. Our custom dive boats sail from five bases along the Turkish Riviera — Side, Kumköy, Kemer, Antalya and Alanya — carrying everything the day needs: your fitted equipment, a galley preparing fresh lunch, sun decks for the hours between dives, and room for the friends and family who would rather snorkel than scuba.
Why We Dive from Boats, Not from the Shore
The simple truth about this coastline: its best underwater scenery is not within walking distance. The sunken sculpture exhibits of the Side Underwater Museum, the caves and shoals off Antalya, Kemer's rock formations where octopus are often spotted, the rocky reefs in the waters off Alanya's Cleopatra Beach — these are places a boat reaches easily and a shore diver simply cannot.
Diving by boat changes the quality of the whole experience:
- You arrive above the site. No long surface swims, no fighting through shorebreak with a tank on your back. You descend where the scenery is, from the first minute of the dive.
- Energy goes into diving, not logistics. Your equipment — tank, regulator, wetsuit, mask, fins — is fitted and waiting on deck. Between dives you rest properly instead of hauling gear across a beach.
- Two genuinely different dives. The boat lets us structure the day: a gentle morning dive at 5–8 metres, then a deeper afternoon dive at 12–13 metres — with a real break, and a real lunch, in between.
- The journey is part of the day. The cruise itself — coastline sliding past, mountains behind, castle views at Alanya — is scenery you would never get from a shore entry.
It is also, honestly, the more comfortable way to be a beginner: everything happens in one calm, contained place, with your instructor a few steps away from briefing to final ascent.
Life on Deck Between the Dives
A full-day dive trip is only half underwater; the other half happens on deck, and we take that half seriously too.
After your morning dive you climb back aboard to a boat that is set up for recovery and comfort: sun decks to stretch out on, shade when you want it, and the smell of lunch already drifting from the galley. Every trip includes a freshly prepared lunch cooked and served on board while the boat lies at anchor — not a packed sandwich, but a proper meal eaten with the sea on every side.
That long, lazy midday break is not just pleasant, it is good diving practice: you rest, warm up in the sun and let the morning settle before the deeper afternoon dive at 12–13 metres. By the time your instructor calls the second briefing, you are relaxed, fed and genuinely ready — which is exactly when diving feels best.
Bring the simple things — swimsuit, towel, sunscreen, sunglasses — and a little cash, since beverages and optional underwater photos or videos are the only extras not included in the price. Everything technical is already on board, checked and fitted to you. Full trip pricing is on the prices page, and the day's complete structure is described under daily diving trips.
Not Diving? Come Aboard Anyway
One of the best things about diving from a proper boat: nobody in your group has to sit the day out at the hotel.
Non-swimmers, nervous partners, grandparents, kids who are not yet old enough to try-dive — all are welcome aboard as boat visitors at a reduced rate. They get the same cruise along the coast, the same sun deck, the same freshly prepared lunch at anchor, and while you are below they can snorkel at the surface, often directly over the dive site, watching your bubbles rise. Everyone comes home with a version of the same story.
For mixed groups this changes everything. The diver gets two guided dives; the snorkeller gets a swim over a reef; the sunbather gets the best terrace on the coast — and you all share lunch in the middle of it. Passenger insurance covers every guest on board, diver or not, and the free two-way hotel transfer collects the whole group together.
If someone on deck watches your first dive and decides they want in, that happens constantly — point them to our discover scuba diving page for their own first breath underwater, or simply book a second day from another of our five bases.
Where Our Boats Sail
Five bases, five different seascapes — same boats, same crew standards, same included-everything pricing:
- Side — €45, 7 hours. The flagship trip over the sunken sculptures of the Side Underwater Museum, with hand-feeding of exotic fish and small groups of 3–4 divers per instructor.
- Kumköy — €43, 6 hours. The compact day: both dives and lunch with the earliest return, ideal for families.
- Kemer — €43, 8 hours. Reef fish, octopus and rock formations, with PADI-certified instructors leading the dives.
- Antalya — €50, 8 hours. Reefs, caves and shoals — and boats with particularly generous sun decks.
- Alanya — €43, 8 hours. Caves and rocky reefs off Cleopatra Beach, with Alanya Castle above the bay for the whole day.
Every trip includes two guided dives, all equipment, free two-way hotel transfer, lunch on board and full passenger and diving insurance. Reserve free online, pay on the day in cash or by card, cancel free up to 24 hours ahead. Compare them all on the tours page.
