Most bodies of water can and are used for recreational diving including:

• seas and oceans - consist of salt water and a huge variety of flora and fauna. Among the favourites are:
  • Atlantic Ocean - temperate diving
  • Caribbean Sea - coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Indian Ocean - coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Pacific Ocean - huge number of islands with coral reefs and wide variety marine fauna
  • Red Sea - one of the best tropical marine life diving areas
• lakes - small lakes are often used for diver training. Large lakes have many features of seas including wrecks and a variety of marine life.
• caves - these are more adventurous and dangerous than normal diving. See cave diving.
• rivers - are often shallow, murky and with strong currents
• quarries - abandoned rock quarries are popular in inland areas for diver training as well as recreational diving. Because they are not "wild" and usually privately owned, quarries often contain objects intentionally placed for divers to explore, such as sunken boats, automobiles, aircraft, and even structures like grain silos and gravel chutes.

The following list of popular or interesting dive sites is shown by region, country and place.

Africa

• Egypt
  • Red Sea - fantastic tropical marine life
• Kenya - coral fringe reefs
• Mozambique - coral fringe reefs
• South Africa
  • Sodwana Bay - sharks and other tropical marine life
• Sudan
  • Red Sea - fantastic tropical marine life
• Tanzania - coral fringe reefs

Americas - North, Central and South

• Bahamas
• Belize
  • The Cays - remote coral islands
• Bonaire
• Canada
  • Coast of British Columbia
  • Great Lakes / Saint Lawrence Seaway - Ship wrecks

• Cayman Islands
• Cuba
• Martinique
• Mexico
  • Cozumel 20.5° N 86.9° W
• Tobago
• United States
  • Great Lakes - Ship wrecks
  • Pacific Northwest - The Puget Sound area has a huge amount of underwater life; it was reportedly one of the best places to dive by Jacques Cousteau

Australasia

• Australia
  • Byron Bay - Great mix of tropical and temperate marine life.
  • Coral sea - Better than Great Barrier Reef
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • Ningaloo Reef - Whale shark early in the year.
• Fiji
• India
  • Andaman Islands - many large fish due to isolated islands with little commercial fishing
• Indonesia - coral reefs and wide variety of marine fauna
  • Alor
  • Ambon
  • Bali
  • Flores
  • Sangalakki
  • Wakatobi
• Japan
  • Okinawa
• Malaysia
  • Layang-Layang - Hammer head sharks
  • Sipadan Island - remote drop off, pelagics and nice coral reef fish
  • Tioman Island - average reef diving
• Maldives - many small islands with tidal currents and great marine life
• Papua New Guinea - Untouched reefs, everything from muck to pelagics.
• Philippines
  • Busuanga Island or Coron - site of WWII Japanese wrecks from operation to retake Philippines
• Solomon Islands
  • Guadalcanal - site of American and Japanese wrecks
• Thailand
  • Pattaya
  • Phuket - Simmilan islands, Richelieu rock, good reef diving.

Pacific

• Cocos Island - Spectacular diving, pelagics, hammer head sharks.
• French Polynesia
• Galapagos Islands - Spectacular diving, pelagics, hammer head sharks.
• Micronesia
  • Palau - Blue corner, famous for Gray reef sharks
  • Truk Lagoon - site WWII Japanese wrecks of Operation Hailstone
  • Yap - Famous for Manta rays
• New Zealand
  • Bay of Islands
  • Cavalli Islands
  • Great Barrier Island
  • Poor Knights Islands - great sub-tropical marine life

Europe

• Britain
  • English Channel - extremely busy international water way with hundreds of wrecks
  • Scapa Flow - site the scuttling of the German Kaiserliche Marine High Seas Fleet of World War I
• Cyprus
• France
  • D-Day beaches - site of British and American WWII wrecks
• Greece
  • Aegean Sea
• Ireland
  • Skellig Islands - clear water and great variety of marine fauna
• Italy
• Norway
• Portugal
  • Madeira
• Spain
  • Canary Islands
• Turkey
  • Aegean Sea

Other diving regions

• Arctic ocean
• Antarctica
  • Little dived for recreational reasons. Mainly dived by scientific research organisations such as the British Antarctic Survey.