Seaisee Liveaboard image courtesy of Liveaboard.com – Dive Liveaboards Suitable For Kids and Families
If you have a family and what to book a dive liveaboard suitable for kids and families, you will possible want a family cabin. This may or may not be that you as well as your kids all dive. Not all diving safaris are suitable for children due to various factors such as diver certification level requirements, number of logged dives and so on.
There are 91 dive liveaboards with family cabins worldwide for a liveaboard trip for you and your kids. Before you book your family liveaboard trip, make sure the whole family is suitably certified to dive the diving itinerary and you all have the requisite number of logged dives too.
The best way to dive anywhere in the world is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
If you link to Liveaboard.com from the above image, make sure you look for the liveaboards with family cabins. However, to make your liveaboard search easier, I have created the following table of worldwide dive liveaboards with family cabins onboard.
Table of dive liveaboards with family cabins onboard
The following table of dive liveaboards with family cabins is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.
Liveaboard diving is one of the best ways to see more and dive more. You often go to better dive sites on a liveaboard, and more remote dive sites that are out of reach of the day boats. But remote diving has another side. If you have kids, you may be more cautious about diving remotely, like Wolf and Darwin Islands in the Galapagos, see below for more on this subject.
Some argue that Liveaboards are for dive hard divers, but this isn’t the case at all. Yes it’s true liveaboard safaris are all about “eating-sleeping-diving“, but they are a great way to enjoy a great hobby together as a family. It’s also the best way to build on experience and number of logged dives. Plus you can visit some very cool places on a dive liveaboard too.
I’ve never been on a liveaboard with my daughter, but I was with her when she was certified as a scuba diver.
I went on her first few dives with her, and then when we visited Australia, I dived with her there too. I have to say that diving with my daughter was magical, and in hindsight I wish I had taken her on a dive liveaboard. But now she has flown the nest, is married and goes on her own dive trips.
Having said that, what are the considerations for kids on a liveaboard dive boat?
What diver certification your kids have
All dive liveaboards have different diver certification level requirements, which can be different depending on the diving itinerary.
Some liveaboards have no certification requirement, but offer courses to learn whilst on board. Whereas other dive liveaboards require all divers, which will include your children, to have an “Advanced Diver” certification with PADI or equivalent with say BSAC.
When you choose your preferred liveaboard, make sure to check the certification level for the trip itinerary. But even if you don’t have the right certification level, you can either get dive certified to that level before you go, or take a course whilst on the dive boat. But make sure the liveaboard you choose offers dive courses.
How many logged dives your children have
Each liveaboard have their own requirements for the number of logged dives for each dive trip. This may also vary depending on the dive itinerary on the trip. So make sure each of you, including your kids who intend to dive whilst on the trip, have the right number of logged dives. This information can be found by clicking on the trip itinerary for your chosen dates.
Having said that, it might be that your kids can dove on some dives, but don’t dive on the more challenging dives. Some liveaboards offer a private dive guide at an extra cost, so you could use this option to dive with a private dive guide rather than with the main group.
However, this may not be an option for you and your kids if the dive sight has currents in all areas of the dive location, which is why a higher certification and a higher number of logged dives is the requirement for this dive sight.
But I’d say to either choose the right itinerary to suit your family’s minimum certification level and number of logged dives so no one has to sit on the boat whilst everyone else dives. That’s no fun. Or get certified to the required level beforehand and/or increase the number of logged dives.
Remote diving with kids
There are many remote diving locations to enjoy on dive liveaboards, but when there’s a child on a boat that at times can be many miles or days to the nearest hospital or doctor this is a parent consideration.
On some of the very remote liveaboard dive trips, like trips to the Cocos Islands, the Galapagos Islands, the Rowley Shoals, Australia or the Forgotten Islands, you may not see the mainland for several days. How will you feel as a parent, and how will your children feel about this. I’d like to think they’d be excited at the opportunity, but sit down with your children and explain remote diving to them.
Seasickness for your children
You also need to considered seasickness whilst on a liveaboard too. Imagine what it would be like to have a child seasick for days on a liveaboard trip, not good. For this reason make sure that you and your kids are okay on a boat and don’t get seasick, but also make sure to book on a liveaboard that is longer in length.
Liveaboard diving isn’t cheap, and if you go as a family this could be an expensive trip. But always bear in mind that the liveaboard trip cost normally includes your diving package (which includes your dive tanks and air fills), your meals and essential drinks like water, tea and coffee and accommodation.
On top of the liveaboard trip cost, you will need to get flights to the destination and in some cases pay for the transfer from the airport to the harbour where the liveaboard departs.
Some liveaboards include hotel and airport transfers. But also, and depending on departure times of the liveaboard, you may need to book into a hotel the night you arrive at your destination, or the day before your trip if the times don’t work between your arrival at the airport and when the liveaboard departs for the trip.
However, for safety reasons, you will need to book into a hotel on the night you arrive back from the dive trip. You probably already know the rules around diving and flying, so you cannot fly on the last day of your liveaboard trip, unless you don’t dive on this day.
You will also need to have your own dive kit for the trip, but if you don’t this can often be rented. If you rent your dive equipment, this will add more to the cost of the trip with your kids.
Are kids welcome onboard the liveaboard
Not all liveaboards are kid-friendly, so make sure you check the liveaboard will allow children onboard before you book. Also, and just because a dive liveaboard doesn’t have family cabins, this doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t allow children onboard. They will need to know the ages of your kids, and their certification level and number of logged dives too.
Onboard safety for your kids
Make sure to check the safety credentials of the liveaboard before you book, and make sure they are up to date with all safety requirements and mandates. Make sure the organization you book with is experienced with children and is kid-friendly.
Kids tend to require more attentive guides, although you will probably be more attentive on the dive with your own children in any event. Make sure to dive within one a breath away from your own children.
Charter the whole liveaboard boat
Most liveaboards can be privately chartered, which means there will be no other guests onboard other than who you invite. This will ensure there are no dive hard guests onboard who might prefer not to have kids on their trip. Which means you can relax and enjoy the trip.
This will ease your worries about noise and disturbing other guests. It will also smooth the way for you to choose the dive sites to suite you and your kids certification level and number of logged dives.
By chartering the entire liveaboard, you will have the whole boat to yourselves. You could even invite other family and friends with kids, so all the kids can dive, play and laugh together.
The kids can have sleepovers in each others cabins or even camp out on deck under the stars. The added benefit of having more kids onboard is if there are dives that are not suitable for kids or their certification level, they will at least have other children to play with. But this will probably mean at least one adult will need to remain onboard to supervise the children.
As I’ve already mentioned, I regret not taking my daughter on a liveaboard (although she does suffer from seasickness), but I would imagine it would be a very rewarding trip for you and your children to go on a dive liveaboard holiday.
What is SDE Lux Rating %
The column headed “SDE Lux Rating %” is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating which I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. To discover how the rating is calculated for your chosen liveaboard dive boat, click the liveaboard name link in the “Discover Liveaboard” column above (also this is explained in more detail below).
To help you to choose the right diving liveaboard for you, the “Scuba Diving Earth Liveaboard Luxury Rating” (SDE Lux Rating) means you can compare each liveaboard with other liveaboards on a like-for-like basis. This makes choosing the right liveaboard much easier.
The maximum rating for any liveaboard is 100%, and this rating is split between the 6 features listed below:
Diver benefits: A higher ‘diver benefits‘ score means there are more features specifically for scuba divers. These include onboard nitrox, dive courses, gear rental etc.
Liveaboard design features: The higher the ‘liveaboard design features‘ score, the more the dive boat has been designed with scuba divers in mind. This includes whether the dive boat was custom built for divers, if it has charging stations, outside showers etc.
Cabin luxury: A high score in ‘cabin luxury‘ means the cabins on the liveaboard offer better features. These might include ensuite cabins, air-conditioning, daily housekeeping, seaviews, TVs etc.
Onboard comfort: A high score in ‘onboard comfort‘ means there are more onboard features to make your dive trip feel more luxurious. These include what towels are provided on the liveaboard (always important for travelling light), complimentary toiletries, crew ratios etc.
Food luxury: If you are a foodie then ‘food luxury‘ will be important to you, as a high score on this rating will mean there’s more on offer. These might include the type of food served onboard, the dietary requirements catered for, vegan food, vegetarian food, buffet style, fine dining etc.
Drink luxury: If you like a drink in the evenings you may look for a higher score in ‘drink luxury‘ score, but this score also includes drinking water and soft drinks too.
The “SDE Luxury Rating Total” is calculated by adding the totals from each of the above features and benefits. The higher the SDE Luxury Rating, the more features and benefits the liveaboard has, which leads on nicely to how to use the SDE Luxury Rating.
How to use the SDE Luxury Rating score
When choosing the liveaboard dive boat for you, your decision is helped by customer scores, which is how the liveaboards in the above table are sorted in descending order.
If you are stuck choosing between two or three of these liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10 and that have itineraries you like, use the SDE Luxury Rating score to help narrow down your choice.
Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel to stay at. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10.
But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 9 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is secondary to the score out of 10.
In the case of liveaboards, the SDE Lux Rating system can also be used as a secondary tool in the same way to help you determine which liveaboard offers the best features to suit you.
Each of the liveaboards linked-to from the above table will be individually scored. Which means that if cabin luxury is important to you, focus on this score to help you choose your liveaboard. But if diver benefits are your top priority, use this score first, and so on.
I hope you enjoyed this article about dive liveaboards suitable for kids and families
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about dive liveaboards suitable for kids and families), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
