Puerto del Carmen, Canary Islands, Spain

Playa Chica

Playa Chica is the most famous shore dive in the Canary Islands, an inviting cove on the southern edge of Puerto del Carmen on Lanzarote. The entry is across a sheltered black sand beach with easy access for tank gear, and the dive site fans out across multiple itineraries from 6 metres down to a wall that drops past 40 metres. The most popular routes lead to the Blue Hole at 30 metres, an open chimney through the wall, the Cathedral cavern at 38 metres and a cluster of small wrecks deliberately sunk at 25 metres. Marine life is exceptional for the eastern Atlantic, with consistent angel shark sightings between November and March, butterfly rays, eagle rays, common octopus, electric torpedo rays, large groupers, barracuda and dense schools of salema and bastard grunt. Visibility is regularly above 20 metres and the bay shelters divers from the northeast trade winds, making Playa Chica diveable nearly every day of the year.