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.
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Reef & Rainforest is an agency for travelers that scuba dive.
Consider us THE experts for planning your diving vacation to Solomon
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Bilikiki Cruises Bilikiki Cruises is a long running, well regarded operator running superb live-aboard diving in
the remote and beautiful Solomon Islands. |
Diving Solomon Islands Reader Reports and Feature Articles
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Latest Reader Reports from Solomon Islands
from the serious divers who read Undercurrent
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All 10,000+
Reports |
Bilikiki Cruises Report
in Solomon Islands

"Awesome Boat and Crew" filed Sep 15, 2023 by ROBERT PECORARO (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 15 reports, Contributor )
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We spent 10 days aboard the Bilikiki dive boat from Honaira, Solomon Islands. The boat offered 5 dives a day, on most days, including ... ... Read more

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Bilikiki Cruises Report
in Solomon Islands

"Diving, History and Culture" filed Aug 28, 2023 by Gary & Robin Schiendelman (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 26 reports, Sr. Contributor )
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Our first trip to the Solomon’s on board the Bilikiki was in 2006 so it’s been a long time! We have wonderful memories of our first tri... ... Read more

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Bilikiki Cruises Report
in Solomon Islands

"Great hard corals!" filed Aug 28, 2023 by Sherry M. Wren (Experience: Over 1000 dives, 5 reports, Reviewer )
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This was my second trip to the Solomons. The best is there are no other boats in the region, the down side is the topography doesn't c... ... Read more
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Dive Gizo/Fatboys Report
in Solomon Islands/Gizo, Ghizo.
"THIS BEAUTIFUL!!" filed Apr 14, 2023 by Mary Adams (Experience: 501-1000 dives, 21 reports, Sr. Contributor )
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I flew to Gizo after disembarking Bilikiki. I stayed at Fatboys Resort for 10 days and dived with Dive Gizo for 7 days, 14 dives.
Div... ... Read more
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Bilikiki Cruises Report
in Solomon Islands/Guadalcanal to New Georgia

"Awesome 2 weeks on Bilikiki." filed Dec 28, 2022 by Mary Adams (Experience: 501-1000 dives, 21 reports, Sr. Contributor )
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This was a trip-of-my-lifetime on Bilikiki. I had trouble getting to Honiara, but the airlines have likely resolved that by now. I had ... ... Read more
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Complete Articles Available to Undercurrent Online
Members; Some Publicly Available as Indicated
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Diving Solomon Islands Articles - Liveaboards
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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 |
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Diving Solomon Islands Articles - Land Based
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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 |
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Solomon Islands Sections from Our Travelin'
Diver's Chapbooks
Reader Reports filed for
that year |
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
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 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
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.
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.
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