Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands deliver Coral Triangle reefs with a WWII spine and almost no crowds. Guadalcanal's shoreline offers walk-in wreck diving on Japanese transports at Bonegi, while liveaboards work the Russell Islands' cathedral-lit Leru Cut, the fish storms of Mary Island, and reef systems where a second dive boat is a genuine surprise. Above the water sits Iron Bottom Sound, named for the fleet that lies too deep for most divers below it.
Why dive here
Few places combine history and habitat this naturally. The 1942–43 Guadalcanal campaign filled the sound between Honiara and the Florida Islands with warships — most rest beyond recreational depth, but the beached Japanese transports at Bonegi drop from the surf line into diveable water, so a rental truck and a guide turn history into a shore dive. Beyond Guadalcanal the country opens into liveaboard territory: Leru Cut, a slot canyon slicing a hundred meters into a Russell Islands cliff with light beams for a ceiling; Mary Island's current-swept point, where barracuda and trevally wheel in thousands; White Beach, a US base site where the departing military dumped trucks and materiel into the shallows in 1945. Reefs between the set pieces are healthy and varied — walls, tunnels, seagrass turtle flats, and muck corners. Infrastructure is thin and flights internal to the country are few; the reward for that friction is diving that still feels discovered rather than delivered.
The dive sites (4)
| Site | Type | Depth | Level | Access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonegi I (Hirokawa Maru) A shore-entry WWII transport; coral-covered upper hull rich in fish; depth… | Wreck | 3–55 m | Intermediate | Shore | |
| Leru Cut Midday light shafts in the canyon; surfacing inside the island; walls… | Cave | 5–20 m | Intermediate | Liveaboard | |
| Mary Island Barracuda columns in the thousands; trevally storms; steady gray reef shark… | Reef | 5–35 m | Intermediate | Liveaboard | |
| White Beach WWII vehicles fusing into reef; frogfish and octopus in the machinery… | Muck | 3–30 m | Beginner | Liveaboard |
Wrecks here
Hirokawa Maru (Bonegi I)
Getting there & staying
Getting there: Fly to Honiara via Brisbane, Nadi, or Port Moresby. Liveaboards board in Honiara; land-based options mean short truck rides to Bonegi or domestic hops toward Munda and the Western Province.
Where to stay: Honiara hotels serve the Guadalcanal shore diving; dedicated dive resorts in the west (around Munda and Gizo) and liveaboards cover the rest. Book diving first, lodging second.
Liveaboards: A liveaboard is the practical way to reach the Russells, Mary Island, and the Florida Islands in one trip.
Costs: Editorial estimate for guided diving from Honiara or resort bases in 2026; liveaboards price per cabin and cover far more ground. Some sites carry customary-owner fees that operators collect.
Between dives: WWII battlefield sites and memorials on Guadalcanal, the national museum, market mornings in Honiara, village and lagoon tours, and birding — the islands are rich in endemics.
Safety & practicalities
Hazards: Remoteness and thin medical infrastructure; surge on exposed shore entries; silt and sharp steel inside wrecks; crocodiles are present in some mangrove and river areas — heed local advice about where not to swim.
Dive conservatively and insured; help is far away. On the shore wrecks, penetration is for the trained — the steel is decaying.
Nearest recompression: No reliably available recompression chamber operates in the Solomon Islands; serious cases are evacuated to Australia. Availability changes — emergencies run through EMS and DAN from the first phone call.