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How Do You Choose A Liveaboard?

Emperor Explorer liveaboard - Maldives Emperor Explorer vs Emperor Leo vs Amba Liveaboards
Emperor Explorer liveaboard – Maldives Emperor Explorer vs Emperor Leo vs Amba Liveaboards

If you are asking about how you choose a liveaboard, either because you are thinking about booking your next scuba diving safari, or if you’ve never been on a liveaboard before and need to know more about the booking process, this article will help you to choose the perfect liveaboard dive boat for your trip.

When choosing a liveaboard, you first need to decide on a destination, and then check customer reviews for liveaboards with itineraries to this place. Once your search has been reduced to liveaboards with acceptable reviews, narrow your search further to include liveaboards within your price range.

When I choose a liveaboard I select those with customer reviews ideally above 8 out of 10 with itineraries to my destination. Saving money is important to me, so I look for the best priced liveaboard with the best customer reviews for the money that have onboard facilities that are important to me.

12 Things To Consider When Choosing a Liveaboard Dive Boat

  1. Destination and the best time to dive.
  2. Customer reviews.
  3. Price.
  4. Flexible booking.
  5. Dive courses.
  6. Gear rental.
  7. Nitrox.
  8. WIFI internet.
  9. Food and beverage onboard.
  10. Cabin comfort.
  11. Diving facilities.
  12. Itinerary.

If you are looking to book a liveaboard trip, either for a first time liveaboard, or your next dive safari, please use the following table to help you choose your liveaboard. This table includes links to a review for each liveaboard, plus a link to a booking page for each liveaboard, where you can selected the right itinerary for your trip.

Table of Worldwide Liveaboards

This list of worldwide liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating will be at the top of the list. To filter this table for the features that are important for your liveaboard trip, select from the list of filters below.

Popular filters
Meal Filters
Cabin Filters
Advanced Dive Filters
Other Filters
Country
Total Records Found: 332, showing 7 per page
CountryDiscover LiveaboardCustomer ReviewsPrice Per Day
Indonesia Review: Jakaré; Book: Jakaré 10 Exceptional from £255; $311; €291
Indonesia Review: Leyla; Book: Leyla 10 Exceptional from £267; $326; €304
Indonesia Review: Cahaya Bersama; Book: Cahaya Bersama 10 Exceptional from £197; $240; €225
Indonesia Review: MV Tarata; Book: MV Tarata 10 Exceptional from £166; $203; €189
Cuba Review: Jardines Avalon Fleet - Charter Only; Book: Jardines Avalon Fleet - Charter Only 10 Exceptional from £0; $0; €0
Cuba Review: Jardines Avalon Fleet; Book: Jardines Avalon Fleet 10 Exceptional from £314; $383; €358
Virgin Islands Review: BVI Aggressor; Book: BVI Aggressor 10 Exceptional from £241; $294; €275

Note: The above “Price Per Day” was correct at the time of producing this article, as was the exchange rate used to convert the GBP cost to US Dollars and Euros. For an up-to-date cost for your chosen liveaboard, please visit the “Book” link above.


The best way choose a liveaboard to dive anywhere in the world is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can also check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:

I hope you enjoyed this article about how do you choose a liveaboard?

I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof Gopro’s!

If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about how do you choose a liveaboard), please comment below with your questions.

There will also be many more articles about scuba diving (and snorkeling) for you to read and learn about these fabulous sports.

Have fun and be safe!

How Do You Choose A Liveaboard?

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.

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