22 Best Places to Go Freshwater Diving

We certainly love our oceans here at PADI - you don’t have a motto like “Seek Adventure. Save the Ocean.” without a marine obsession.

But don’t let that make you think diving’s only good in the salty seas. Around the world, freshwater divers navigate underwater trees, splash with manatees, swim in the world’s oldest lake, and touch two tectonic plates at once. 

Expand your dive repertoire with these 22 refreshing freshwater scuba havens:

1. Lake Kaindy, Kazakhstan

The algae-draped submerged trees of Kazakhstan’s Lake Kaindy create a surreal mood befitting a Haunted House in a Dr. Seuss book.  The electric-green, sunken forest stands with ghostly whimsy in the murky waters, inviting divers to marvel at scum stalactites. Make trip arrangements with the Dolphin Dive Club.

2. Capo D’Acqua, Italy

This lake that swallowed the remains of two mills and a village constructed in the Middle Ages is privately owned, which means you need permission and a guide. The nearby Atlantide Divers School offers both, plus a hearty farm lunch after the morning dives. atlantidesub.com

3. Tobermory, Ontario, Canada

“If you’re used to diving salt water, you’re used to asking, ‘Now what is that?’” says Lynn Graham, former owner of Divers Den in Tobermory, a town four hours drive north of Toronto. In the ocean, marine corals, sponges and algae knit man-made vessels into an unrecognizable organic patchwork. In the cold waters off Tobermory, little life gathers on downed ships, not even zebra mussels. “Here you can tell what is what — you get an appreciation for all they had to do to get these to sail,” says Graham. “These” are the hundreds of wooden schooners scattered throughout the Great Lakes; the best example in Tobermory is Arabia, a 132-foot/40-meter sailing barque. Lake Huron’s chilly water — even colder around the mud bottom at 120 feet/37 meters — helps preserve wooden vessels like the Arabia. The ship’s bow is intact, with a bowsprit and two anchors still in their cradles.

4. Negro River, Brazil  

In Manaus, Brazil, a town once called “the heart of the Amazon,” find the pink, freshwater dolphins of Negro River, one of the world’s four nonmarine species. They’re unusual for having Big-Bird-like beaks and a boxy shape. amazondiver.com.br

5. Andros Island, Bahamas

Maybe it’s cheating to include the inland blue holes of Andros since the fresh water sits atop denser ocean water. But who cares with a site this cool? You’ll slip through a halocline and encounter grottoes, stalactites, and trees with roots fingering through the freshwater. smallhope.com

6. Shicheng City, China

Shicheng City became China’s Atlantis in 1959 when the government flooded the Xin’an River for hydropower. Fresh water ran through Han Dynasty-era archways, gates, homes and statues, creating 220-square-mile Qiandao Lake — and a modern legend. News of its existence reached Leigh Chen in 2008 (local divers had discovered it in 2001). The co-owner of the Shanghai-based Big Blue Diving, Chen loves exploring the lake, which located about a five hour westward drive from the shop. “The archway is the highlight because it is still standing, and the carvings are still on it,” says Chen of the dragons, lions, and other animals embedded in the designs. The city has withstood the test of time as well as water pressure -  it was built in 200 A.D.

Editor's Note: The dive site is reportedly closed to the public. Please check with local operators for current details.

7. Pet Cemetery, Playa del Carmen, Mexico

“These animals have all disappeared from Mexico,” says Vincent Rouquette Cathala, PADI IDC staff instructor for Phocea Dive Center, of the species that once trod the floor of a cavern called Pet Cemetery, located an hour’s drive south from Playa del Carmen. “You find animal bones from the last Ice Age — camels and horses.” The artifacts are only one reason Cathala names this site as his favorite cenote among those accessible to those without full cave training. “Everything is so white — the stalactites and stalagmites — that it looks like it’s from space, not made by nature,” Cathala says. The shallow cavern has a maximum depth of about 20 feet, but Phocea Mexico takes only advanced divers.he formations are so delicate that pinpoint buoyancy skills are a must to keep from brushing against them.

8. Lake Tahoe, Nevada  

For the best diving in Nevada, put in at Lake Tahoe’s Incline Village and the Sand Harbor Recreation Area — the visibility is 100 feet and beyond. Other highlights include massive boulders, crawdads and the occasional school of rainbow trout. Dive deeper to find a barge and fallen trees. sierradive.com

9. Lake Baikal, Russia  

It’s big enough to be an inland sea — and it has seals. The world’s deepest and oldest lake, explored by Jacques Cousteau, holds sponge gardens, walls, canyons, and train tracks. Overall, its sites and attractions are enough to support several liveaboard dive boats. Note that, while the sights are impressive, the visibility often isn’t. baikaldiving.ru

10. Crystal River, Florida

They’re the pandas of the oceans: Nobody argues the cute factor of manatees, but they’re also quite intelligent. “If you ever film them and watch the footage on fast forward, you’ll see that everything they are doing is on purpose, and they have clear patterns,” says marine biologist and photographer Alex Mustard. The Crystal River area north of Tampa, Florida, is a hot spot — literally — for these half-ton mammals. Manatees feed here year-round, but only when winter temperatures turn brisk are they reliably found cozying up to springs such as Three Sisters for the warmer water. By law, the encounters are snorkel only, but the usually calm animals are often curious. “You go to see them and it’s like visiting a Zen temple,” says Mustard. “They do everything slowly — it’s very peaceful.”

11. Silfra Fissure, Iceland  

Silfra Fissure's “Big Crack" is where you can place one hand on the Eurasian tectonic plate and the other the North American plate. Dive Iceland offers day tours from Reykjavik to the tundra of Thingvellir National Park, 31 miles east of the capital. A small staging-area platform leads to the narrow underwater corridor with three major hollows: Silfra Hall, Silfra Cathedral, and Silfra Lagoon. The water is 39.2°F/4°C at its warmest. In between the jagged rock walls, the glacier-fed water unfurls visibility, stretching to 330 feet/101 meters by Hossi Elefsen’s estimates. “This visibility gives you the feeling of floating in outer space like an astronaut," says the Dive Iceland instructor.

12. Lake Lyngstøylvatnet, Norway

An avalanche in the spring of 1908 in western mountains of Norway sent boulders down the valley of Norangsdal, damming the river to create Lake LyngstøylvatnetFortunately, the hundred or so farm residents of the summer village hadn’t returned yet for the season, but the stone walls, homes and fieldstone bridges instantly became a dive site — one that Svein Wollstad has been diving since 1983. Wollstad is the owner of Ålesund Dykkersenter, a dive center in the city of Holmestrand, south of Oslo. He enjoys the site for the scenes he imagines while swimming. “I look — there’s a goat, there are people,” he says. “I imagine how hard this life was. There’s a magic to swimming here. I feel something different every time.”

13. Niagara River, Ontario

You won’t go over the famous falls, we promise. Start near Fort Erie, Ontario, and be ready for 5-knot currents, 40-foot/12-meter visibility, and encounters with walleye, sturgeon, and pike. The site is about three-and-a-half hours north of Cleveland. justaddwaterscuba.com

14. Piccaninnie Ponds, South Australia  

The excitement starts when you enter the “gash in the Earth,” as Darren Walters, owner of Mount Gambier-based Blue Lake Diving Center, calls the narrow opening that leads to interior rooms. You must have cavern or cave experience to explore the white limestone walls of the cathedral and beyond. Contact Walters at +61 408-845-511.

15. Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming

Diving in this national treasure seems equal parts dare and pleasure. At West Thumb Geyser Basin — accessed by boat — you can get as close to the attraction as common sense allows. No boat? Try Firehole River, which empties into Yellowstone Lake. nps.gov/submerged/ Parks/yeLL.html

16. River Verzasca, Switzerland

In southernmost Switzerland is this fast-moving, gin-clear ride known for smooth, unusual rock formations. This is an advanced adventure best explored in the summer months. You will need a guide, as there are waterfalls and other hazards. The sandy bottom is never deeper than 30 feet/9 meters, and the water temperature is 50°F/10°C at its warmest. scubalino.ch

17. Cooper River, South Carolina

It’s dark, and you have to time your dive with the tides, but this river outside Charleston continually churns up and carves out prehistoric-shark teeth and other relics; dive this area year-round. charlestonscuba.com

18. Kingston, Ontario

This is one of the more wreck-centric stops along the St. Lawrence River, where you’ll find the PS Comet, a 174-foot/53 meter twin-paddle-wheel steamer in 80 feet/24 meters of water. northerntechdiver.com

19. Lake Walchensee, Germany

Stories from this lake 47 miles/76 kilometers south of Munich tell of giant catfish and a sunken pot of gold. What’s confirmed are the submerged World War II aircraft, boats, cars, and more. It’s a pristine mountain lake where char, whitefish, pike, burbot, and perch thrive — if you do see the catfish that’s grown to mythical proportions, take its picture. walchensee.net

20. Lake Attersee, Austria

Highlights of this lake near Salzburg include impressive visibility, an underwater mountain, and a submerged forest where pike, brown trout, eels, carp, and perch have replaced squirrels and birds. Its 30 sites cater to all experience levels; those with technical training can also explore a U-boat. 

21. Lost Villages of Cornwall, Ontario

Even the name is haunting: The Lost Villages of Cornwall is a collection of flooded communities, including a power plant that became part of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958. Ron MacDonald, owner of Ron’s Scuba Shop, can give you directions to Lock 21 — the only shore dive — or take you via boat to more-popular sites such as the Mille Roches Power House. Ron’s Scuba Shop, 613-933-1362

22. Lake Jocassee, South Carolina  

Take a scuba dip here to see a Civil War graveyard and the Mount Carmel Church. Note that the water level varies: the church sits between 140 and 160 feet/43 and 49 meters. Keep exploring, and you can also swim among the trees in a submerged forest. Lakejocasseediveshop.com

Start your adventure today.