Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X

Your Guide to Diving Solomon Islands
Including Uepi and Gizo

All of Undercurrent's information on diving Solomon Islands, including articles, reader reports, Chapbook sections, ...

Diving Solomon Islands Overview

Accessed via Nadi (pronounced Nandi) in Fiji, the Solomons may be difficult to get to, but divers who opt for the liveaboard experience are well rewarded with excellent and varied diving including war wreck and coral reefs. Malaria is endemic and around a third of the population of the capital, Honiara, suffer, so take all precautions. Guadalcanal was the scene of fierce fighting during WW2, and there are still airplane wrecks hanging in the trees where they crashed as well as a few underwater to dive. Two Japanese wrecks near Mbonegi had been unloading supplies onto the beach when they were bombed. Iron Bottom Sound is so named for the number of vessels lost there in battle, but it's too deep to dive. Gizo has the wreck of the Toa Maru.

Solomon Islands Seasonal Dive Planner

The Solomons are hot and humid year-round, with the most rain falling between December and March. Annual rainfalls are well above 100 inches (2.5m), but mountainous islands do produce rain shadows resulting in much less rainfall on some coasts. Between December and April winds blow periodically out of the west (calm spells are broken by storms). The southeast trades blow from the end of April to November. The better months to travel are probably July through September when the rainfall (and therefore malarial mosquitoes), heat, and humidity are lowest, or in November when there's a good chance the seas are flatter.

Featured Links from Our Sponsors
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Bilikiki Cruises
Bilikiki Cruises
Bilikiki Cruises is a long running, well regarded operator running superb live-aboard diving in the remote and beautiful Solomon Islands.
Reef & Rainforest, Let our experience be your guide -- Reef and Rainforest
Reef & Rainforest
is an agency for travelers that scuba dive. Consider us THE experts for planning your diving vacation to Solomon Islands.

Diving Solomon Islands Reader Reports and Feature Articles

Attention!
You must be an Undercurrent Online Member to view the complete members-only reports and articles.
Some articles that can be fully accessed by the public
have a Publicly available articles button..

Subscribe Now

Latest Reader Reports from Solomon Islands

from the serious divers who read Undercurrent

All Reader Reports from Solomon Islands

All 10,000+
Reports
Bilikiki Cruises Report in Solomon Islands LiveAboard
"Spectacular Reefs, but Bad Viz."
filed Nov 29, 2023 by David Marchese (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 20 reports, Sr. Contributor )
4 stars

This was our second 14-day trip on the Bilikiki. Our first time was in 2006, and we were the only two guests onboard for that trip! How... ... Read more


Uepi Island Resort Report in Solomon Islands/Uepi Island
"Quiet tropical retreat, Abundant fish and corals"
filed Nov 19, 2023 by Christian Andersen (Experience: 251-500 dives, 2 reports)
5 stars

Travel to Uepi Island is not especially easy from the US, but our travel was seamless both ways. We flew from Los Angeles through Fiji... ... Read more


Solomon Master Report in Solomon Islands LiveAboard
"Great Diving in the Solomon Islands"
filed Nov 11, 2023 by Judi Radtke (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 8 reports, Sr. Reviewer )
5 stars

10 days aboard the Solomon Master Liveaboard is the perfect fix for fish lovers and adventure/wreck divers. This was a one way trip f... ... Read more


Solomons Master Report in Solomon Islands LiveAboard
"Great Diving but not much Macro"
filed Nov 9, 2023 by Catherine May (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 3 reports, Reviewer )
4 stars

Right from the start, I was very impressed with their focus on safety. Our orientation to the boat included putting on our life jacket... ... Read more


Dive Gizo/Imagination Island Report in Solomon Islands/Gizo
"Dive Gizo in the Solomon Islands"
filed Oct 24, 2023 by Emmette Murkett (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 6 reports, Reviewer )
5 stars

Number one on my bucket list was a trip to the Solomon Islands, which was postponed twice because of COVID. It started with a World War... ... Read more Photos available


See Instant Reader Reports On All Destinations  
  Subscribers Can Submit a Reader Report Here
Top
Complete Articles Available to Undercurrent Online Members; Some Publicly Available as Indicated

Diving Solomon Islands Articles - Liveaboards

MY. Bilikiki Solomon Islands, Southern Pacific MY. Bilikiki Solomon Islands, Southern Pacific -- Publicly Available, a dive destination that has it all, 10/23

Available to the Public
Island Scuba Destinations That Will be Gone in Less than a Century, 9/19
MV Taka, Solomon Islands, and a word about the Bilikiki, 5/18
Our Bilikiki Confusion, 1/17
Snafu in the Solomons, 9/14
M/V Bilikiki, Solomon Islands, fishy reefs and WWII wrecks, 5/12
Solomon Sea, 7/95
Spirit of Solomons, 10/94
M.V.Kirio, Solomon Islands, South Pacific, the Best Of Wrecks And Reefs, 3/92
Bilikiki, 3/92

Diving Solomon Islands Articles - Land Based

Decaying WWII Wrecks Threaten Coral Reefs, 1/23
The Loss of a Diving Icon, 9/21

Available to the Public
Kiribati, Yeah; Kri, Nay, important updates for dive travelers, 5/06
Reports From Readers: Part I, Cozumel’s adult dive operators, Bonaire bummers, 8/04
Uepi and Gizo, 8/94
Uepi, Anuha, Guadalcanal; Solomon Islands, 1942, 1962, And 1987 In The South Pasific, 9/87

Solomon Islands Sections from Our Travelin' Diver's Chapbooks

Reader Reports filed for that year
Top

Solomon Islands Liveaboards

For Members Only

2024 2023 2022          

For Public

2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2014 2013 2012
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004
2003 2002 2001          

Land Based Dive Resorts in Solomon Islands

For Members Only

2024              

For Public

2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2009 2008
2007 2006 2004 2003 2002 2001    
Top

Editor's Book Picks for Scuba Diving Solomon Islands
Including Uepi and Gizo

The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com; just follow the links. -- BD

Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific
by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach

Paul Humann and Ned Deloach have done it again, releasing a definitive identification guide to 1600 extraordinary reef creatures of the Tropical Pacific. with this 500+ page softbound guide, you get upwards of 2000 exceptional photos of shrimp and crabs and stars and worms and lobsters and nudibranchs and slugs and squid and bivalves . . . well, all those invertebrates that move along the reefs of this region without fining, so it seems. There are several photos of some creatures to help you identify them during different life stages, and about ten percent of the book is descriptive copy so you can tie down your identification. Even if you have no plans to go to the tropical Pacific, just to thumb through the pages, gawk at the complexity and uniqueness of these animals, and read a thumbnail sketch will give any serious diver vicarious thrills for endless hours.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.



Reef Fish ID Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific
by Gerald Allen, Rodger Steene, Paul Humann, & Ned Deloach

At last, here's a comprehensive fish ID guide covering the reefs of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The generous 500-page text, displaying 2,500 underwater photographs of 2,000 species, identifies the myriad fishes that inhabit the warm tropical seas between Thailand and Tahiti. The concise text accompanying each species portrait includes the fish's common, scientific and family names, size, description, visually distinctive features, preferred habitat, typical behavior, depth range, and geographical distribution. This is an essential book for every diver traveling westward. 6x9 inches.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.



Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef
by Neville Coleman.

With 2900 reefs in 220,000 square miles, the enormous Great Barrier Reef has incredible dives -- and some very ordinary ones. If you're contemplating a trip, Neville Coleman's Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea will help you ensure you pick the best. This 176 page book, with good maps and scores of colorful photos, describes the significant sites, the topography and the critters, then rates and ranks them so you can pick the best. Don't even consider a trip to Australia without consulting this. $24.95



Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide
by Gerald R. Allen, Roger Steene.

I was trying to pack light for a change. Surely the Solomon Sea would have good identification books aboard. Not so; the only book on the boat belonged to a fellow passenger. It was one that I had not seen before, the Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide, by two of the best fish guys around, Gerry Allen and Roger Steene. The problem was this fellow passenger kept it in a plastic baggie most of the trip and I had to beg to see it. Great book, good traveling size, and it covers everything from fish, shells, marine plants, mammals, corals, and invertebrates to sea birds and more. Now I've got my own, and it won't do you any good to beg me to borrow it. This is one of two books that I will not travel to the Pacific without. Good for travel to the Red Sea, East Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Andaman Sea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii, it has 1,800 color illustrations in a 6x8 1/2 paperback format with 378 pages. $39.95.



Diving Southeast Asia There's a Cockroach in My Regulator
by Undercurrent

The Best of Undercurrent: Bizarre and Brilliant True Diving Tales from Thirty Years of Undercurrent.

Shipping now is our brand new, 240-page book filled with the best of the unusual, the entertaining, and the jaw dropping stories Undercurrent has published. They’re true, often unbelievable, and always fascinating. We’re offering it to you now for the special price of just $14.95.

Click here to order.



You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's Book Picks section.

Top

Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

[cd1234]: Computed in 0.08 seconds