How to Find Cheap Flights for Scuba Diving

Scuba diving isn’t the cheapest sport, by any means – and costly flights surely don’t help your cause. Here’s our best resource on how to find cheap flights for your next dive adventure.

Diving can be expensive. Flying can be even more expensive.

Especially if you don’t know where to look.

In fact, it can be overwhelming sifting through search engine after search engine, airline after airline. So you might be wondering:

How do you find the cheapest flights possible for your next destination?

After bouncing around from continent to continent, we’ve put together a handy resource for you to find the cheapest flights possible for your next dive trip.

How to Find Cheap Flights for Scuba Diving

1. Use the Best Flight Search Engines

First things first: use a good flight search engine. These tools search flights across airlines throughout the world to find you the best deal possible. Along the way, they’ll give you helpful insights like price prediction, price alerts, and price maps based on destination.

It’s important you search all the search engines too. Some may find deals that others simply skimmed over.

Here are our favorite (in order) on how we search for cheap flights when selecting our next dive destination:

Our Favorite Flight Search Engines

• Skyscanner (our #1 choice for cheap flights)
• Kiwi (includes connecting flights)
• CheapoAir (similar to Skyscanner)
• JetRadar (searches many budget airlines)
• Google Flights (has unique map features to find cheap destinations)

Generally, Skyscanner is our first stop. If we think we’ve found a good deal, we’ll head to the other sites and do a quick search to ensure we’re getting the absolute BEST deal.

2. Find the Cheapest Days to Fly

Time of year, time of week and time of day can all heavily influence the price of an airline ticket.

Book a Few Months in Advance

Every so often you can land a deal a short time before departure. But generally speaking, booking a few months in advance is a better idea.

A general rule of thumb, for international flights, booking 2-8 months in advance will score you some killer deals. For domestic flights, booking 1-3 months in advance results in the cheapest flights.

Fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday

One of the easiest ways to save money on flights is to travel when no one else is traveling. This tends to be in the middle of the work week, on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

When we book flights, we always look at flying out on these days first.

Fly early or late in the day

Early mornings and late nights: two times of day no one wants to fly. And as such, these flight times tend to be significantly cheaper than flights in the middle of the day.

Finding these days and times

Again, Skyscanner is the best tool for this. When searching for a flight, select “Show whole month” to see a handy view displaying the cheapest days.

3. Fly During Hurricane Season

Sounds preposterous, right?! I’ve saved hundreds by traveling during hurricane season in North America with round trip flights to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia for less than $200 each!

But honestly, it is a roll of the dice, and one you need to carefully consider.

Hurricanes are no joke, and one of the worst possible things that could happen is a hurricane landing while you’re diving in a foreign country.

However, best case scenario? You enjoy clear blue skies and epic diving (I’ve gotten lucky every time I’ve done it).

When is hurricane season in North America?

Hurricane season is June 1 through November 30 – with peak season August – October.

You’ll find insanely cheap deals to the Caribbean, Central and South America from the United States in the month of September.

Flying During Hurricane Season Tips

• Have a contingency plan. An evacuation route to get back home if need be. Natural disasters are no joke and you don’t want to be stuck in one. And you surely don’t want to be stuck in the aftermath.
• Consider travel insurance. World Nomads provides travel insurance specifically for divers with a plan specifically related to natural disasters.
• Check the hurricane tracker prior to your trip. If storms-are-a-brewing, maybe reschedule. If not, you’re probably in the clear AND scored some cheap flights.

4. Check Alternative Airports

When using a search engine, check nearby airports other than your final destination. It gives you more options and potentially larger airport which usually has cheaper fares.

Add on a cheap bus ticket, connecting flight or car rental, and voila! You just saved yourself hundreds. A few examples:

• If flying to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, fly into nearby Santo Domingo.
• Heading to the Florida Keys? Fly into Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
• Stop in Bogota, Colombia before jetting north to the tropical paradise of Cartagena.

You get the idea.

5. Master the Budget Airline

I will forever and always swear by budget airlines. If you learn how to do it right, that is.

What is a budget airline?

Budget airlines cut off all the fluff that other airlines add on to charge you more. Meaning, you might have to pay extra for a checked bag, a bottle of water, a bag of peanuts, or some extra leg space.

Which, if you’re like me, that’s certainly not the end of the world. I’d rather give up a few “luxuries” to save myself some money.

Basically, what you’re paying for is the absolute bare fare. No extras. No additives. Just a plane ticket. Simplicity that can save you hundreds.

Tips to Flying on a Budget Airline

• Pack your own reusable water bottle to fill in the airport before you get on the plane.
• Pack a snack for the ride in an eco-friendly reusable bag.
• Take time to stretch your legs.
• Some budget airlines don’t show up in the big search engines we listed above, so you might have to go to their website directly.

Top Budget Airlines

Our Favorite Budget Airline

I’m a big fan of Spirit as they travel to every major destination in the Caribbean, Central America, and most of South America.

In other words, Spirit will give you the cheapest flights for some epic diving destinations!

6. Select the Cheapest Dive Destination

We all want to go diving in Raja Ampat, amongst other fantastic dive destinations. But it can be pricey to get there.

A better option, if you’re looking to dive on a budget, is to select your next dive destination based on price of travel. Meaning, some destinations are cheaper than others.

Google Flights and Skyscanner are two great tools to figure out where the cheapest air fares will bring you. Specifically, for Google Flights, simply enter your departure city and search. A handy map with fare pricing will pop up showing you where the cheapest spot is!

Flexibility can pay…

7. Book Flight Legs Separately

Instead of heading directly to your final destination, break it up into legs.

I found flying to Hong Kong from Cairns, Australia before heading to Bangkok, Thailand was actually cheaper than buying direct from Cairns to Bangkok.

It’s a numbers game. So spend some time on the search engines and different airline websites playing around. You never know what deals, and fun places, you might find.

8. Don’t Wait for Last Minute

Raise your hand if you procrastinate *raises hand*.

It’s a terrible habit, and one that’s cost me plenty of cash when booking flights over the years.

Although, every so often you hear of that one story where someone landed a cheap flight the day before travel. However, that’s a rarity.

Typically, it’s the opposite. As people scramble to get from point A to point B at the last minute, they’re willing to pay whatever it takes. The airlines know this.

So, revert to our advice earlier, buy your flight ticket well in advance (International, 2 – 8 months. Domestic, 1 – 3 months).

9. Use a Quality VPN

Location matters when booking flights. Meaning, not necessarily where you’re going, but literally where you’re booking from.

If you’re in Australia and want to hop up to Bali for some diving, booking a flight on your phone while in Australia might be more costly than from the United States.

Why? Airlines can track where you’re booking from via your phone data (I mean, what can’t they track these days?)

A quality VPN protects your privacy AND your location. Simply, by turning on a VPN, you can hide your data and make it look like you’re booking from the United States, which may find you some better deals. Give it a shot:

OUR RECOMMENDATION: Express VPN is the best VPN we’ve ever used.

10. Book a Diving Package

If you’re more of a resort-style type of diver, we get it. The budget tips may not be of much concern to you.

However, that’s not to say you’re still not looking for a quality deal. Many all-inclusive dive resorts include airfare in their overall pricing.

Diving? Check. Stay? Check. Flights? Check.

All made easy for you. PADI has a solid list of resorts that offer these types of services, which may save you a few bucks on your next dive resort vacation.

Safely Flying After Diving

Diving and flying. A (possibly) deadly combo. Make sure you’re giving yourself enough time at the surface before you fly after your dive.

Divers Alert Network (DAN) recommends you don’t fly until 18 hours after your last dive. Obviously, this number might increase the deeper you go and the more you dive.

Our recommendation? Play it safe and wait at least 24 hours. It never hurts to sit out longer to be cautious.

Knowing how to book cheap flights for diving does not take precedent to flying and diving safely.

How to Find Cheap Flights: Dive and Fly Affordably!

Well, there you have it! Our best tips on how to buy cheap flights for scuba diving. We hope you’ll find the whole process a lot easier after reading this than you previously thought.

A couple key takeaways to bring with you before you go and book your next epic adventure:

• Scour through every search engine, starting with Skyscanner.
• Book months in advance, fly on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, take red-eye flights for cheap fares.
• Fly in the off-season (hurricane season for many dive destinations).
• Just don’t forget to insure your trip.
• Check alternative airports near your final destination.
• Utilize budget airlines like Spirit to travel to epic dive destinations in the Caribbean and beyond.
• Find the cheapest destinations with Google Flights and Skyscanner.
• Consider making pit stops along the way, you might just find it to be cheaper than a direct flight.
• Don’t procrastinate and wait until last minute.
• Use a quality VPN like Express VPN.
• Book an all-inclusive package that includes flights AND diving!

Good luck and happy diving!