My son and I stayed at Atlantis in July 2014. The staff at the resort are VERY friendly and helpful. By the second day, they knew everyone in our group of 22 by their first name. The dive masters are very good at spotting all manner of critters, especially small stuff, and this place abounds in such! Stuff I'd never seen before: orangutan crab, ornate ghost pipefish, spiny devilfish, zeno crab, two morays making love, sexy shrimp, etc. All of the boat rides except Apo Island are no more than 10 minutes from the resort. Every dive site had something unique to offer. The accommodations are somewhat basic, but more than adequate for divers--your basic bathroom with no shelves, leaky shower, spartan beds, etc. However, the air conditioning works and you won't be doing much but sleeping in the room. The food is very good, with multiple choices for each meal. The massages are fantastic and very inexpensive. I took a one-day photo workshop with Paul Ancla at the resort, and vastly improved the quality of my U/W photography as a result. I highly recommend this place.

I've dived Cozumel several times, and each time the visibility never ceases to amaze. It may be the best in the world. The dive sites are much-visited, but quite spectacular. Virtually all diving is drift diving, so you have to be comfortable with that. The marine life is quite good for the Caribbean. Up north of town is a wall dive called Cantarel for more advanced divers (85' and strong current) where you can see squadrons of eagle rays up close in Jan/Feb. If you're vigilant, you may get to see a splendid toadfish, which are endemic solely to Cozumel. Go with an operator who has fast boats, so you can get to the best dive sites south of the town before the rest of the boats show up. The town of San Miguel on Cozumel has many good restaurants, virtually all within walking distance of the town square. If you're there on a Sunday night, don't miss the festivities on the square--live band, dancing, all kinds of vendors and artists.

The best parts of Palau diving are the German Cut (mantas and really giant clams), WW II wrecks, Blue Corner and the mandarin fish lagoon. The fresh water jelly fish lake is also cool, if you're into that. Palau is definitely a live-aboard type destination, as the dive sites range over a large area. We were on a liveaboard, and service was excellent. Day boat diving would miss much of the good stuff. The week we were there, the visibility wasn't great, but it was adequate. Be sure to bring a good quality reef hook, or purchase one before going out--absolutely essential at places like Blue Corner. I would definitely go back to Palau. It has some unique things to offer, such as being able to dive on a variety of WW II Japanese ship wrecks, some of which still have depth charges scattered around on deck! You can also dive through a short underwater tunnel and surface in an enclosed cavern. Also of interest are the land tours of Koror and especially of Peleliu, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of WW II, where you can go into the 1000-man cave and still see sake bottles and personal items lying where they were left 70 years ago.

Any dive excursion on the Great Barrier Reef should be great, and this one delivered. The only disappointment was that we couldn't go out to Osprey Reef due to high winds. The marine life on the GBR is outstanding. We saw the full range of South Pacific critters. Special ones included a large crocodile fish, manta rays, bumphead wrasse, stonefish, lacy scorpionfish, wobbegong shark, coral shrimp, and an aquarium full of colorful tropicals. For an intro to South Pacific diving, the GBR is hard to beat. The SOF is a good boat, with a very good crew and dive masters. The crew is over-the-top helpful and friendly, and the dive masters let you do your own thing after they were confident of your skills. SOF is a little cramped compared to other live-aboards I've been on, but quite adequate. Food was quite good and plentiful. I was diving in the late summer (April). Would like to go back in their winter to see the dwarf Minke whales.