Summer holiday with PADI Open water

[Ali85]

We'd like to do a big post-A level holiday this summer (probably July) with teens age 15 and 17. They've done a few trial dives before and are very keen on doing their PADI open water. Does anyone have recommendations of good places at that time of year? DH already has his and has some experience so would probably want some interesting dives. I am undecided about whether I'd do it, so wouldn't want the whole holiday to be just diving.
Thanks for any advice.

Could they do it before you go? You could do either all of it or the pool sessions before you go and then finish off the diving while you're in holiday which would mean it wouldn't be every day. A lot of the pool stuff isn't much fun so might be better to get it out of the way?

We did our open water all the UK and then did some diving in Greece but have friends who did the open water test in Croatia and found that worked really well.

Club la Santa in Lanzarote. Both DS & I did our open water there. Great teachers & good diving.

Our teens did their pool and theory work in the UK and finished with their open water dives in Sharm El Sheikh last year. Definitely get the majority of it done before going on holiday if you can. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Sharm - it wasn’t fantastic diving. Hopefully someone more experienced willl share some recommendations for that time of year.

Thanks v much for the replies. I was thinking they'd try and do the book work and pool part of the course before we go and then do the open water bit when we're there. There'd not be much time between exams and going away so not sure whether we'd manage to cram it all in.

Malta and/or gozo would be my recommendation

Idea: take a resort, all-inclusive or not, so you have stuff to do around, DH can do his thing while the kids are picking up their PADI.

Though I never stayed in the resort itself, we were on the beach outside the Divi Resort on St. Maarten, a pretty beach with calm waters and a fort. Our friends did their PADI / diving tours from there in those same days. In 2024, a British company was building an Underwater park here of 300 underwater sculptures where you can dive / snorkel to and I regretted I missed that. But snorkeling (which I did) was great by itself as under the fort (and basically on the resort beach itself) is one of the most popular spots in the region. Which itself led to a charming view of sailing boats mooring off and on.

We stayed at Valamar Lacroma hotel in Croatia and DH dived at Blue Planet Dive Centre, which was within walking distance but we hired bikes from the hotel which made getting around easier. It's a great options for families as they have various room set-ups and lots to do. It's just outside Dubrovnik so a nice short transfer and I was able to spend a few mornings in the city centre at museums or shopping!

Club La Santa has been mentioned already - if you and your family are sporty then there is no place like it. If you just want to chill then there is a pool and a spa, but really it’s all about the trying out different sports - over 80 to try. We did a try dive with CLS and the kids loved it. We then did a Padi open water referral course in the U.K. and did our open water dives to complete our certification on the Great Barrier Reef. We are going back to CLS this summer and will go diving with them again. It was a great holiday!

Port des torrents in Ibiza has a padi centre. Perfect location for it. There's a tui blu and what was a holiday village but I think it's gone back to a Sireniis now. Both in a great location.

I would also second Malta as we took DD and DS to learn to dive in Malta a few years ago (but the English run company in St Julians has now closed down I think). We did all the 'pool' stuff in the sea.

Thanks v much for the great recommendations.