Albufiera.

[realitbytes]

Hello there everyone.

Has anyone dived in Portugal? I'm going to Albufeira at the beginning of August and I'm looking for a good cetntre to dive with.

[BrianSc]

If you look for earlier posts on diving in Portugal you'll find details I have posted about SubNauta who are a top class outfit. They are a bit along the coast from Albufiera in Portimao. Other than them I've only dived with a couple of schools operating out of hotels and they weren't that cheap and nothing like as well set up.

Brian

[Arfie]

I dived with Atlantic Divers out of Albufiera, but it was in 2002, so god knows if they are still there. I wouldn't recommend doing AOW with them cos god knows how they passed me and my mate, we were shit at navigation! A skill that still elludes me

The diving was OK though.

Arfie

[Gav6280]

I went about 2 years ago and couldn't find any dive centres at all, which would suggest there isnt any good diving beacuse if there was then it would have loads!!

Albufiera is definitely more of a song singles party town and is basically the san antonio of portugal.

[ratcliffe]

I wrote this about a trip to Albufeira last October....

There are two dive centres that operate out of the marina at Abufeira, which is just to the west of the main town.

I dived with a centre called Activscuba about three weeks ago. I was the only customer they had one day, and only one other person on the boat on the other day that I dived., so its hard to rate groups etc, but they were good for me.
They operate from an industrial unit on the far side of the marina which is a little awkward to get to by vehicle, or you can walk all the way around the marina which I reckon would be a 10-15 minute walk, but if you are in a car you can park by the centre.

They charged me 20 Euros per dive, which was a direct division of the price for a ten dive pack, rather than the normal price per dive. I think it was because I booked for six dives on the first day, so they did me a deal, with it being out of season etc. I think the normal individual dive price is either 25 or 30 Euros.

They have a nice little boat, which is quite well set up for the diving with spare cylinder storage under the seating etc. The owner of the centre is friendly and the guide I had was pretty good at knowing the local dves.

The only slight negative was that they tend to do short surface intervals, after a 40 minute dive to 20 metres (right on the edge of my computer wanting deco) they said to kit up again after 35 minutes meaning we would be in the water 45 minutes after the first dive, which I don't consider long enough. I requested longer, and they accommodated that. (I just like having an hour between dives as it allows my conservative computer to give me some botom time for the second dive!

I would recommend them as a centre, the dive sites they took me to were pretty good, plenty of life on them, which I wasn't expecting for that area of ocean. The other good thing about the centre was that they took details of where I was staying and contact numbers which proved necessary when my final days diving had to be cancelled, and they left a message with the hotel to deliver to my room to let me know.

Another dive centre based at the marina is Algar diving.They are a little more expensive at 40 Euros per dive and use a Rib rather than the hard bottomed boat that ActivScuba used, but on this water thats not a problem. They are based on the main road side of the marina in one of a number of small booths. It isn't a centre as such, literally a hut on the side of the marina, but it is easy to find. I have had no dealings with this centre, but I was going to use them, except they were closed when I went to see them, and the other centre happenned to be open, which is why I went with them.

Hope this helps...

[CotoChris]

I dived with Atlantic Divers out of Albufiera, but it was in 2002, so god knows if they are still there. I wouldn't recommend doing AOW with them cos god knows how they passed me and my mate, we were shit at navigation! A skill that still elludes me

The diving was OK though.

Arfie

I did my Pady AOW with them in 2001 I think, their deep dive was a 20m and navigation was a laugh! Then I used them quite a bit, I particuraly enjoyed they bar by the beach but....

Since it has been sold to a father & daughter who were very good but I think they have since closed. Certainly not called Atlantic Divers anymore. I havn't been that far south for years but when I next go to Albufeira I'll find out.

I'm way out of date regarding centers so will not comment. With Algarve it is the foillowing: Further west the clearer the waters but colder.