Liveaboard Diving in Cocos

What To Expect On a Cocos Island Liveaboard

Cocos Island liveaboards will take you some 550 kilometers from the Costa Rican Pacific coast, where divers will find nutrient-rich waters filled with diverse marine life of all shapes and sizes, guaranteed to wow even the most experienced underwater addicts. Cocos Island of Costa Rica represents some of the best diving opportunities in Central America, and considering this region includes the likes of Belize, Mexico, and Honduras, that is certainly saying something. The combination of remoteness and protection afforded to it by the Costa Rican Government (it's been a marine reserve for nearly 20 years) means that the sites at Cocos Island are largely undisturbed, allowing the ecosystem to thrive. All the usual tropical species are to be found here, along with large pelagics - but the main draw for many visitors is the sheer number of sharks, particularly Hammerheads, that can be seen year-round. The only feasible way to get here is on a liveaboard dive trip, which lasts for at least 10 days, giving ample time to explore the stunning underwater landscape in this unspoiled spot of the Pacific.

Cocos Island Underwater

Having traveled for nearly 2 days aboard, you'll be itching to get in the water to see what all the fuss is about! Thankfully, there's no shortage of life in each site at Cocos Island. The area is deservedly on many diver's bucket dive trip lists due to the large groups of Hammerhead Sharks that are consistently seen in many sites - numbers can regularly top 100! Plenty of other shark species are to be found here, including Silkys, Blacktips, Whitetips, and the infamous Tiger Shark.

Manta and Eagle Rays are always seen gliding effortlessly through the blue, as majestic as they are beautiful, offering some wonderful photo opportunities. Schools of fish, such as Jacks, can be viewed in vast numbers, and because the visibility commonly reaches 30 meters, you can be sure that none of this action will go unnoticed.

Dive Sites of Cocos Island

With over 20 dive sites to explore, it's easy to see why a liveaboard is the best way to dive into Cocos Island. With each dive safari lasting at least 10 days, the crew will ensure you can undertake a few dives daily to include each spot in your itinerary.

Bajo Alcyone is widely recognized as one of the best places on the planet to dive with Hammerhead Sharks. Their unique body shape is this animal's distinguishing feature, and seeing them as part of groups over 100 is a truly staggering sight. Viewing these graceful creatures circling above you makes for one of the most iconic photographs of any Costa Rican dive trip. Other sites with many resident Hammerheads include Dirty Rock and Manuelita Deep.

Manuelita Garden is often the first site that liveaboards stop at, giving easy and gentle conditions to allow divers to get used to their equipment and tune up their skills. The coral garden here is one of the finest in Costa Rica. The giant swim through and huge natural arch at Dos Amigos Grande also provide an interesting and fun element to the diving here.

Top Tips For Divers

Diving at Cocos Island used to be limited to experienced and daring divers due to the depth and strong currents at some of the sites; however, liveaboard dive cruises lasting for many days have allowed exploration of a range of sites that suit many experience levels. Operators often require a minimum of 30 logged dives and an Advanced Open Water qualification. As such, it's important to bring your logbook and certification.

Divers are welcome to bring their equipment, but generally, it's available to rent onboard, although this should be checked first.

ATMs are found fairly easily on the mainland, where most major credit cards are widely accepted. The currency is the Costa Rican Colon. You'll get on fine speaking English as it's commonly spoken, especially within the tourism sector, although Spanish is the national language.

Getting to Cocos Island

As mentioned, Cocos Island is over 500 kilometers from the mainland. You'll need to get on board a liveaboard boat to get there, and the common departure point is the port of Puntarenas, around a 90-minute drive from the capital San Jose. Commonly liveaboard operators will include a hotel night in San Jose and then transfer to the vessel as part of the tour. Others can arrange this for you as an extra. Either way, please check with your operator.

San Jose International Airport has regular flights to and from North America; if you come from outside the Americas, you'll likely transfer through the U.S.


Cocos Diving Reviews

  • 8.7 Fabulous
  • 77 Verified Reviews
  • 8.4 Very good
  • Glenn F
  • United States United States

Abundance of fish. Great experience. Action and plenty of sharks

Diving Cocos in November on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 6.0 Review score
  • Kristi S
  • United States United States

The diving was nice, but there wasn't a lot of diversity. Lots of hammerheads, one tiger shark, one manta.

Diving Cocos in December on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 8.0 Very good
  • Michelle W
  • United States United States

Exceptional. Loads of sharks

Diving Cocos in December on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • David D
  • United States United States

Wonderfull diving in a beautiful unspoiled environment. If you want to see sharks this is the place for you.

Diving Cocos in April on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 6.4 Review score
  • Stephanie Y
  • United States United States

Good but only some kind of sharks, not a lot of variety of fish.

Diving Cocos in November on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Peter Anthony Z
  • United States United States

Outstanding with some current and reduced visibility at times but great due to amazing wildlife

Diving Cocos in October on the Sea Hunter

  • 3.6 Review score
  • Anthony D
  • United States United States

Bad vis, bad current every dive.

Diving Cocos in September on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 8.4 Very good
  • Brian B
  • United States United States

The best, though very technical (all deep dives and strong currents)

Diving Cocos in October on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Corinne K
  • France France

The visibility was sometimes quite poor (but I expected that anyways), sometimes much better, but whatever the conditions, most dives were fabulous, diversified and very fun !

Diving Cocos in August on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Lisa M
  • Sweden Sweden

Amazing, eventful, hard-core

Diving Cocos in November on the Sea Hunter

  • 8.0 Very good
  • pavel P
  • Switzerland Switzerland

Excellent trip overall. Too much rain for my taste.

Diving Cocos in April on the Sea Hunter

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Annamaria B
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

Diving in Cocos is "it". The best diving i ever experienced

Diving Cocos in May on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Jesus S
  • Spain Spain

Absolutely met my expectations. Lots of "big stuff", meaning most kind of sharks, huge hammerhead schools, big tiger sharks, galapagos shark, white and black tips, etc. Not too cold water temperature, except from some funny-cold-as-hell thermoclines :) Strong current at some dive sites, so

Diving Cocos in August on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Natsumi U
  • Japan Japan

Not the high season and El Nino this year, so less to see than other time, but with warm water and manageable current, I enjoyed a lot.

Diving Cocos in February on the Sea Hunter

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Frédéric B
  • France France

great, lots of hammer sharks at each dive

Diving Cocos in April on the Sea Hunter

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Yannick P
  • Belgium Belgium

Great. Loads of hammerheads and other species : silky, galapagos, whitetips sharks Quite a few rays as well : eagle and marbled

Diving Cocos in May on the Sea Hunter

  • 8.0 Very good
  • Sebastien F
  • France France

Wonderful diving destination

Diving Cocos in November on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Fiona C
  • Canada Canada

There's no better place to go than Cocos to see sharks. Schools of hundreds, and close swim-bys at the cleaning stations. Sharks may be the main event, but you also can't discount the marble rays, octopus, schools of jacks, eels, the ever elusive frogfish, and the list goes on! The current is a bit high at times, but very manageable.

Diving Cocos in December on the Sea Hunter

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Denis E
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

I was surprised that we repeated many dive sites when others were available.

Diving Cocos in February on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 6.8 Review score
  • Bernhard K
  • Germany Germany

Diving was very good, even so no close encounters with Hammerhead at the cleaning stations - may be wrong season.

Diving Cocos in March on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • Efrain I
  • Panama Panama

Pretty good. Water temperature was way higher than expected, which meant that dives had to be deeper to look for big marine life in cooler temperatures. Visibility was good but not great.

Diving Cocos in March on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Jörg W
  • Switzerland Switzerland

Great and very diverse dive sites, many hammerheads all over; except dos amigos with only an impressive number of Galapagos sharks.

Diving Cocos in April on the Okeanos Aggressor II

  • 9.2 Superb
  • kristoffer G
  • Denmark Denmark

the diving was great, poor visibility

Diving Cocos in October on the Sea Hunter