Vanuatu Views

Santo diving gives access to some of the world’s finest reefs and underwater caves, plus two of the world’s most accessible shipwrecks. On the reefs and in the underwater caves you can see hundreds of colourful and interesting fish.

Great reef dives can be found in most areas of the coastline. The dive operators tend to stick to the south-east coast, where you will find the wrecks of the SS President Coolidge and the USS Tucker and an area known as ‘Million Dollar Point’. Most of the wreck and reef diving is suitable for divers of any ability who have completed basic training.

There are two quality wreck dives just meters from the coastline, both highly accessible to those diving in Santo. The wrecks are American ships sunk during World War II. The SS President Coolidge is a American luxury liner that was converted to a US troop ship during the second world war. It sank just meters from the shore and is now the premium dive in Santo. Novices can dive the main bulk of the ship, whereas more experienced divers can go deeper into the wreck to look at life on the inside.

The second wreck is the SS Tucker, an American destroyer that was stationed in Vanuatu during the second world war. Unfortunately it was accidently sunk by a US mine and now it too lies just offshore, close enough to be accessible to those diving in Santo.

Diving the relatively shallow Million Dollar Point, divers can see huge areas of military war surplus that was simply dumped into the ocean when the Americans left Vanuatu at the end of the war. This Santo dive includes ammunition boxes, military vehicles and even the odd bulldozer – items which understandably make this one the most popular sites for Santo Diving