Panama Diving Tours

About us

Panama Diving Tours is a division of the Balboa Explorer Group, operator of the 132 ft. expedition yacht Balboa Explorer.

While the focus of most of its itineraries will be on exploring the deserted coast of Panama, they also plan to operate the Balboa Explorer at least 10 weeks a year as a diving liveaboard vessel.

That’s because Panama is where Isla Coiba is and Coiba Island and its surrounding waters are  unique. This former prisoner island is a national park and Unesco World heritage site. The diving is truly spectacular – on the par with Isla del Coco – and combines both big fish and corals.  It’s also a heaven for technical diving.

Unlike Isla del Coco – off the coast of Costa Rica, it it’s only a few hours cruising from the coast which allows us to avoid a long 1.5 day sea voyage that eats up valuable time when traveling to Isla del Coco and is most uncomfortable during many times of the year on a ship without stabilizers.
Another advantage: if our guests miss their plane, they can join the next day. There’s even a small air strip on Coiba.  Similarly, for those really pressed for time, a 5-day itinerary is an option.

All this means we can offer as much diving in a 7-day trip as what would take a 10-day trip to Isla del Coco.  For time-constrained Americans this is a huge advantag, offering the benefits of a 3-day time savings.

A top diving liveaboard operation requires a professional management.  We’re in the best hands here with British-born Kevan Mantell, Panama’s leading technical, scientific and recreational diving authority and one of the top operational safety and logistics specialists in the world.  Kevan currently serves as a consultant to ANAM (Panamanian Environmental Agency), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution, UNESCO, the Coiba Advisory Board and Conservation International.  He wrote the official guidelines for sustainable scientific and recreational diving at Coiba National Park, considered one of the best diving destinations on earth.  Kevan has coordinated dives for Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, BBC and film production companies worldwide

Add to this that we will offer the most comfortable accommodations of any liveaboard and the best and most reliable hardware to serve both recreational and demanding technical divers, tailor-made dive tenders and we are confident the Balboa Explorer diving program will become very popular, very soon among the true diving enthousiasts once we start operations in early 2011.