These are some notes on recent holidays and diving around the world.

The Cayman Islands must be in the top ten dive destinations in the world. The diving is first class, with easy shallow dives on local reefs and wall dives for the more experienced. Whilst the islands are becoming more built up with hotels on Seven Mile beach most of the island retains its charm and it is easy to get away and find your own secret spot.

Rum Point is a fantastic place to stay, or just visit for the day. It has its own dive centre and organises boat trips to Stingray City and other dive sites on the north of the island.

Stingray City is a shallow dive with big rays. There is also Stingray Sandbar, which is a snorkel encounter with the rays. It must rate as one of the top dives we have ever done, which may surprise you, as it may not be considered good for the animals and conservation. Each time you go in the water there are lots of rays keen to check you out. They are fed by the dive leaders, which may change their behaviour and stop their natural feeding, but if they were in the UK somebody would have dropped a long line in and they would have been fished out by now. Their popularity with divers has kept them alive because they bring money into the islands. I would rather see them alive than in the local fish market. If I could change anything, I would try to encourage the dive leaders to make it more educational.

The Turtle Farm really bothered me. It is sold to its' visitors as a centre for turtle conservation, but in fact the majority of turtles raised go for meat production. Of ten thousand turtles raised each year only two thousand are released into the wild, while eight thousand are used for supplying the meat trade. Visitors are not made aware of this but they are allowed to handle the turtles and lift them out of the tanks, causing the turtles to become highly stressed. Unfortunately the turtle farm are now trying to open a dolphinarium. I feel their track record with turtles is not good, so should they be allowed to keep dolphins? 

This Dutch island in the Caribbean way outside the hurricane belt, so it is sheltered and a safe haven. The whole island is a marine park, boats are not allowed to drop anchor, they must use one of the fixed mooring buoys and only one boat is allowed on each buoy. But it is the shore diving that earns it the title of shore diving capital of the world.

The photo of this small jetty is at Captain Dons Habitat, step off the jetty and you are just a few kicks from the coral reef. Diving could not be easier. There is a separate jetty for boats to dock, so diving couldn't be safer.

Swim away from the jetty and there is a small wreck of a fishing boat on top of the reef. This makes a great night dive. It is also a good sign post that you are on the way back to the jetty. All around the island there are shore dives marked by yellow boulders placed by the side of the road. So hire a truck, drive round the island, stop by a yellow boulder and go diving.

The picture of this coral was taken on a night dive and was growing on the small wreck in the previous picture.

This small island is in the south pacific, a once in a life time holiday, far from civilisation, yet had almost every comfort you could ask for, but couldn't get their heads around vegetarian food. It is a resort island, with no local people except the staff.

This was as good as it looks. The over water bunglows have a glass window in the floor so you could sit in your room and watch the fish. At dusk the sharks would come in and swim around under the bungalows.

We did a boat dive on Shark City. It was one of my first dives with a new camera and I still needed practice getting the white balance right, but that went out of my head when I saw "wall to wall" sharks.

This was also on our south pacific trip. A larger island with local people, small villages, great atmosphere and one circular road with two buses one driving clockwise and one anticlockwise.

The twin peaks of Raratonga dominate the skyline, even when out on the dive boat they can be seen from a far distance. We had a few storms while there but the diving was great. There was more to do and things to see. The islanders are very proud of their local botanic gardens, which are superb.

The marine life around Raratonga was fantastic. There were sharks, mantas and corals, but it was also the profusion of small life, like this banded shrimp that lives in the coral, that made it a great dive site.

The Turks & Caicos are in the Caribbean and are surrounded by the bluest water we had ever seen. The marine life was spectacular, but our favourite had to be the turtles. In Grace Bay there is a huge bed of turtle grass and on every dive there were turtles feeding.

Green turtles are hunted for their meat but there are also some protected areas where they are not allowed to be taken and divers may swim with them.

Grace Bay beach is the longest beach of the islands and is quiet at the start of the year, despite the fact it is the most built up part to TCI. It is similar to Seven Mile beach in Grand Cayman but does not have the hotels of Cayman. I suppose it will not be long before someone develops it.

Reefs are in good condition with plenty of fish. Great place for taking photos. Digital photography now means you can take hundreds of pictures on one dive, then spend your evening looking at them all.

Roatan is one of the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras. Clear water awaits the diver who ventures to this part of the Caribbean.

This is the beach at the Fantasy Island resort, a well run operation. Unfortunately we didn't stay there. We stayed at Reef House Resort where the local staff were lovely, the diving was great, but the owners needed to do a lot of work and sort out the food. Reef House is based on an atoll in a very rundown area of the island and we wouldn't recommend it.

Fantasy Island had a good dive set up and was a well run centre. This was the same for their whole resort, except the entrance. This was a dirt track and made the place look closed. Had we found it earlier in our trip we would have moved out of Reef House and in with them.

Shirley worked in the kitchen at Reef House resort, she was also a diver who didn't get much chance to dive, but was a great buddy in the water and also tried to make our stay at Reef House, a bit more comfortable by lending us her DVD player.

The one thing that really worried me was Reef House resort had a sea pen full of hawksbill turtles. The owner said he bought them off fishermen to save them, but guests were allowed to snorkel in the pen with them. There was not much food for them to eat and they were usually given kitchen scraps. The resort said they were trying to start a tagging programme, but I have yet to find out if this was true.