PADI diving course in Lanzarote?

[Chamomile]

Totally stuck about holidays this year, not helped by all the news about cancellations etc. I’d probably rather just stay at home, but my teens have just said they fancied learning to dive. Has anyone done a dive course in Lanzarote or elsewhere they can recommend? I thought the idea of the underwater museum with the sculptures in Lanzarote looked pretty cool, but it’s not somewhere I’ve ever thought of visiting so I don’t know anything about it and would be grateful for any suggestions.

Make sure you go with a 5 star padi centre as they are the safest

i dont dive. But i've been to lanzarote a few times and there are always a lot of divers on one of the beaches in porto del carmen. one of the waitresses was telling us they set up a dive school that went bust due to covid, having moved specifically from uk to do this (again suggesting its good). She was saying that there were some special fish (or were they molluscs?) in the area.

My husband did some of his early diving lessons in Playa Blanca a few years ago. He wasn't allowed to go deep enough for the museum at the time iirc but he's got further experience elsewhere and we retured to Lanzarote at the beginning of the month. He enjoyed the museum and the other dives he did.

I think out of all the places he's dived, he feels happiest with the PADI Dive College there.

I've dived a few times in Lanzarote and have been to the sculpture museum. It was a bit meh to be honest, but that could be because I'd wanted to do it since it opened and had built it up in my mind to be something more than it ended up being. I much enjoyed my second dive that day, due to seeing lots of wildlife.

There's a dive centre right on the beach in Playa del Carmen, who are very good and it's a good site for beginners as you can walk out of their front door into the sea - its called Safari diving. They also have a good boat, with a lift I think, last time I asked they didn't go down to the Sculpture museum, it's quite a way and they have plenty of good dives on their doorstep.

Playa del Carmen is quite a nice place to stay as long as you stay in the older part to the west of Safari diving. Going east, it's a bit 'Brits on the piss' and English breakfasts.

Malta and Gozo are also great places to learn to dive. I prefer Gozo and Marsalforn is a nice little resort with half a dozen dive centres and amazing pizza from the seafront restaurants, but if the teens want something a bit more lively, Malta might suit more.

We took the DC to Malta to learn to dive (in 2015) and would recommend the dive school. The drills we learned highlighted DH's air was not turned on when he and I were diving on a boat dive on a subsequent holiday elsewhere in 2017, so we were very grateful for the drills we learnt with the dive school in Malta.

I think the website is a little clunky but it is still Stuart's business so he is obviously still successful. He is English and he and the team were very professional and, we think, safety concious. Once qualified we did a variety of dives (shore/boat, night, wrecks), and the holiday was deemed a success by us all, at a time when holidays with DC can be tricky. DD has been back to dive with them since, and DH, DS and I have also been back without her.

The website is Dive Malta and they are based in St Julians. We followed an SSI course but they also do PADI.

Thanks for all the responses. I’ll have a look at Malta and Gozo, too. I like the sound of Gozo as I prefer a quiet resort as long as the teens aren’t too bored.

It’s long haul and a bit of a pain to get to but I learned to dive in the Bay Islands in Honduras. Diving courses, food lodging etc are cheap which might offset the higher flight price? And there’s a lot more to see underwater. Caveat this was 20 years ago so things may have changed but I know it’s still the cheapest place in wthe world to learn to dive.

Malta is a bit of a marmite place. No way on earth would i go back, but then we did have awful weather in Sept/Oct - flooding, tornadoes. Much prefer lanzarote - but i dont dive