I'm just curious about where you divers would go for a dive weekend? It would help if you can be specific. We've made it to the Red Sea from here, and that was nice (although it was crowded). We were there in early June, so I think we just missed the best diving.

We're open-minded about diving in Turkey or anywhere close enough to fly to for a long weekend.

Also, has anyone been diving in Yemen?

From experience the diving that I've undertaken in Turkey has been poor to average, if you want to get wet and have a look underwater but not too bothered about what you see then it's OK.

Diving in Kas and Kalkan was better than other places I've dived; Fetiye, Marmaris and Bodrum. The diving oufits also vary in terms of standards, for instance a dive centre operating out of Fetiye is lucky that they haven't had a fatality based upon what I observed. i.e. letting people into the water without any means of time or depth measurement, all relying upon being above the dive master. All well and good in theory but then in the afternoon they then changed divemasters on this particular group!

I fully concur, poorl;y run operations, poor visibility, limited underwater fauna, supposedly there are some good underwater archeological sites bt one needs special permission to dive them. A lot of locals do Saros, etc on the weekends. Did that once, it was enough.

We also heard that it's "possible" to do underwater archaeological sites with permits, but I have yet to actually speak to anyone who has or knows how to organize them. Any thoughts?

So clearly you're not that fond of Turkey for diving. Where do you go then?

Visibility's not bad, certainly by comparison to some of the places I've dived around the UK, there viz can range from 15m to 2cms. Here the average I've found goes from 15m to 5m.

The last dive in Turkey I did was 2 or 3 weeks ago in Sarigernme (spelling) and it was OK, has the advantage of only being 12km from Dalaman airport. The dive equipment was good, with O2 available on board and if I'd been on my own they'd have taken me to some alleged good sites. Unfortunately I no longer have the time nor inclination to go on extended diving holidays, so diving kind of takes a back seat and is only undertaken when opportunity presents itself.

I'd love to dive some of the archeological sites but getting permission, would I imagine be very hard, with strict undertakings not to take any treasure away..... kind of spoils it!

It's not from experience, but from people around me... they say Antalya is the best. Also, you can see ancient city under the water (in Kekova) if you dive there.

Kekova? A couple of building stones in 10 feet of water? No. There are some archeological sites, but unless you have special permission you go to jail if you dive on them.

That and Kekova is best accessed from Kas not Antalya, but as TP states it is not a diving site and even a boat ride to see the underwater city will leave you feeling as though you have been ripped off; however the boat ride is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.