Dive Sites in Netherlands (Europe)

Dive wrecks in the North Sea, explore the Oosterschelde and many fresh water diving opportunities with tiny lobsters and unusual attractions including underwater houses with working telephones.

Select a Dive Site:

Want to find out more?

Explore Dive Sites View Dive Centres

We offer FREE, impartial advice to help you create the best dive travel experience

Overview
Dive Site Map
Live Weather
Special Offers

Add a dive site

Dive Site Overview for Netherlands

The Netherlands is a relaxed country renouned for its dutch mills and tulips, great cheese, canals, nightlife and more importantly, some really quite interesting and rewarding diving.

Diving opportunities in Holland are plentiful, with a large number of lakes and inland locations to dive as well as some great wreck diving in the North Sea.

The underwater marine life in Zeeland Grevelingenmeer and the Oosterschelde are hugely popular and at times are busier than the Mediterranean Sea. You can expect to see a huge array of fish from gobies, sculpins and flat fish to small shark species and even the occasional seahorse.

During April and early spring in the Oosterschelde you can witness cuttlefish and squid breeding -this is usually around the same time the algae blooms when water temperatures reach 13-14?C. The Oosterschelde is a rare place where cuttlefish are very approachable and usually don't shy away from divers so you can take some really amazing underwater photographs.

If driving to Zeeland is not for you, there are plenty of freshwater lakes to dive in Holland. In comparison to Zeeland, the underwater marine life is sometimes less of n attraction often overshadowed by the numerous underwater objects that are submerged by enthusiastic divers from buses, tire reefs, cars and houses complete with (working) phones! Often the lakes have been created by sand or gravel extraction thus resulting in good visibility. Fresh water diving in Holland offers plenty of pikes, basses and carps, not forgetting the freshwater lobsters (usually only about 15cm big).

There are many amazing wreck dives in the North Sea -some sunken trawlers, coasters and cruisers at a depth of upto 30 metres lie in clear green water that act as a haven displaying a huge amount of life on the otherwise not so interesting sandy bottom.

Underwater visibility can range vastly depending on your dive location in Holland with the best time of year to dive being between May and October when the water is at its warmest. During the summer months, water temperauture can reach up to 20?C, and in the winter it can drop to just above freezing.