The Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard was designed from the keel up for diving. At 124 feet / 38 meters, with a heavy keel and Naiad stabilizers, she cuts through the ocean swell efficiently, providing a stable platform whether you are parked on the wall at West Caicos or transiting between islands. Built originally as a corporate charter yacht and later recommissioned specifically for scuba divers, the layout reflects decades of liveaboard experience. 20 guests are accommodated across 10 staterooms, all with private ensuite bathrooms and individually controlled air conditioning. The 2 VIP staterooms and 2 forward main deck cabins include TV and DVD players, but the real focus is on what happens outside: the diving.
Stepping onto the dive deck, you notice the space. Individual gear bins keep kit organised. Tank racks and filling stations for air and nitrox sit within easy reach. A dedicated camera table and separate rinse baths mean your housing gets the attention it needs between dives. When it is time to get in, wide stairways lead down to the platform, and in-water ladders make exits straightforward even after a long drift. Hot freshwater showers are right there when you climb back aboard. The Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard schedules up to 5 dives daily, including night dives, and the deck is set up to handle that pace without ever feeling cramped.
Above deck, the common areas give you room to spread out. The air-conditioned main saloon is where breakfast and dinner are served, and it doubles as a gathering space for reviewing the day’s images or watching a movie from the library. But on a Turks and Caicos Explorer trip, most people end up outside. The boat deck has loungers for sunning. The flybridge, covered against the sun, offers settee seating and a wet bar - a good spot to nurse a drink while the anchor chain comes up. And the covered open-air aft deck, where lunches are often served buffet-style, becomes the evening gathering point for sunset and the post-dive debrief.
Dining onboard is handled with the same attention to detail. The menu mixes local influences with American classics and whatever the chef has in mind. Breakfast runs from 7 to 8 am, with cooked-to-order eggs, bacon, pancakes, and fresh fruit. Late risers can grab cold options. Between morning dives, fresh pastries or cookies appear. Lunch at is a buffet of salads, sandwiches, hot soups, homemade bread. Afternoon snacks keep energy up until dinner, which is plated and served around 6:30 pm, always with a dessert worth saving room for. Soda, juice, tea, and coffee are unlimited. Once the diving day is done, beer, wine, and cocktails are on offer. And after the night dive, hot cocoa under the stars is a small ritual that tends to stick in memory.
What gives the Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard its credibility is the crew. The team is made up of divers who have spent years in the liveaboard industry, and it shows in how they manage the operation. They know the sites - where the sand chutes at Driveway open onto the wall, where to find the black coral at Black Coral Forest, when the current at G Spot might bring eagle rays through. They are also committed to environmental standards; the vessel holds Green Fins certification, meaning they actively work to reduce impact on the reefs they visit. That combination of local knowledge and operational consistency turns a week of diving into something more coherent: a proper expedition along one of the Caribbean’s healthiest barrier reefs.
The Turks & Caicos Explorer liveaboard offers guests 10 staterooms each with a private bathroom and individually controlled air-conditioning. The VIP and Main deck staterooms feature picture windows and the Lower deck staterooms have portholes for natural lighting. The 2 VIP staterooms (sizes: 11x7 and 9x9 ft) have queen beds and are on the upper deck. There are 5 Main deck staterooms (sizes: 8.1x8 to 9x8.7 ft). 2 feature twin beds and 3 have convertible twin / queen beds. Twin upper and lower beds are in the 3 Lower deck staterooms (size: 8.1x7 ft). Adapters are not provided, guests are advised to bring their own.
All the liveaboard staterooms have:
- Individually controlled air conditioning
- Windows (except for Lower deck staterooms which have portholes)
- Private bathroom with toilet and hot water shower
- Hand basin, towels, toiletries
- Cabinet and mirror
- Reading lights
- Storage for luggage
- VIP and the 2 forward Main deck staterooms have TV/DVD
- Mains outlet 110 volts (US standard) - 24 hours per day
No. of bathrooms / showers - 10 / 10 - hot water
Turks & Caicos (8 Days / 7 Nights - 25 Dives)
Trip highlights: shark action, great macro life/ marine diversity
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, wall diving
Dive sites and activities: Shark Hotel, Black Coral Forest, The Crack, Stairway, West Caicos Channel, Driveway, Gullies, The Anchor, G Spot, Double D, and Rock & Roll
Day 1
You board the Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard on Saturday afternoon, though the exact location, whether alongside the dock at Caicos Marina or anchored offshore, depends on the tide. Once aboard, you settle in. Snacks and dinner are served for those arriving on later flights. After the meal, the captain gathers everyone for a briefing: an introduction to the crew, a rundown of the boat’s amenities, and the necessary paperwork. Diving begins in the morning.
Core Days
The Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard spends the first 2 days at Northwest Point, Providenciales, working sites that have earned their reputations over decades. At Black Coral Forest, the wall begins at 45 feet and drops beyond 300. An overhang at 75 feet hosts at least five species of black coral, their branches reaching into the current. Shark Hotel delivers on its name: Caribbean reef sharks cruise the plateau at 90 feet, and a chimney cuts through the reef to the deep wall beyond. The Crack offers a swim-through along a massive fissure, with a barrel sponge and anemone marking the way. Resident turtles often appear, unbothered by bubbles. Stairway descends in natural steps, each ledge covered in plate corals and resting groupers.
Monday brings a 2-hour transit south to West Caicos, where the walls take on a different character. West Caicos Channel funnels water between the island and the deep, and the current here draws pelagics. At Driveway, you descend onto a broad sand chute flanked by coral heads, with black coral and purple tube sponges clinging to the wall. Yellow-headed jawfish hover near their burrows in the sand. Gullies invites you through a penny-slot crevice that opens at 75 feet onto sponge-encrusted ledges. At The Anchor, a 17th-century anchor wedges into the reef, a quiet piece of history surrounded by schools of creole wrasse.
By Wednesday, the boat moves to French Cay, a remote outpost known for its gorgonian forests. G Spot, named for the soft corals that thrive here, is dense with deep-water fans and orange elephant ear sponges at the wall’s edge. Turtles cruise the reef, and eagle rays sometimes pass below. Double D presents 2 massive coral mounds teeming with life - barrel sponges, pillar corals, and the occasional spotted scorpion fish posing for photographers. Rock and Roll starts shallow at 40 feet, a garden of elkhorn and pillar corals where juvenile barracuda linger and lobsters hide in the cracks. The sandy plateau between dives sites holds massive brain corals and sea fans, and if you are lucky, you might spot one of the very large groupers that call this area home.
When conditions allow, there are island shore excursions - a chance to walk a white sand beach or snorkel the shallows.
Friday begins with a dawn dive at French Cay, then one more morning dive before the 2-hour trip back to Providenciales. You arrive at the marina around midday, with the afternoon free to explore or simply rest. Transportation is provided for a casual dinner ashore that evening, and you spend the night back aboard the Turks & Caicos Explorer liveaboard.
Day 8
Saturday morning brings a continental breakfast, then disembarkation. There is time to catch a flight at any hour; if yours is later, you can leave luggage aboard while you wait. The walls and the reefs and the rhythm of the week stay with you a while longer.
[Information is best estimate in ideal circumstances and subject to changes beyond our control. The itinerary is a guide only and may be adapted to best suit the weather, tides, currents, availability and other prevailing events. Price is for the cruise, not for an exact number of dives].
A week on the Turks & Caicos Explorer II liveaboard falls into a rhythm that feels natural by the second morning. You wake to the light coming through your cabin's portlight, dress, and head up to the main saloon. Breakfast runs from 7 until 8, but if you are the sort who rolls out later, cold options are laid out - cereals, fresh fruit, pastries. For those at the earlier end, the cook has eggs going to order, along with bacon, pancakes, or French toast. Coffee is always on. By 8:30, you are kitted up and listening to the dive briefing.
The first dive happens before the day heats up. You step onto the spacious dive deck, grab your gear from the individual bin, and check your tank. The crew have the fills ready. The giant stride entry is straightforward, and the wall is right there. After the dive, you climb back up the in-water ladders, hit the hot freshwater shower, and hang your wetsuit on the rack. A fresh-baked pastry or cookies appear on the deck, and you stand in the sun eating it while the liveaboard repositions to the next site.
By late morning, the second dive is done, and lunch is served at 12:30. Meals are buffet-style on the covered aft deck, which keeps the sun off but lets the breeze through. You might find vegetable soup with homemade bread, a curry almond chicken salad, pasta, or sandwiches. There is always a salad option. People eat in small groups, talking about what they saw - the reef shark at Shark Hotel, the black coral forest, the turtle that hung motionless at the cleaning station. The crew circulate, making sure drinks are topped up. Soda, juice, tea, and coffee are unlimited throughout the day.
Afternoon brings 2 more dives, with another snack in between - maybe brownies or banana bread. By the time the sun starts to angle down, you have done 4 dives, sometimes 5 if a night dive is scheduled. Dinner is at 6:30, and it is plated, served in the air-conditioned saloon or out on the aft deck if the evening is calm. The menus rotate through local and American dishes. One night might bring baked chicken with fettuccine, another night roast turkey with dressing and cranberries, or blackened shrimp over pasta. Dessert is homemade: key lime pie, banana foster, apple cobbler. Beer and wine come out once the diving day is done. The Turks & Caicos Explorer crew join the conversation, and the evening stretches out.
After the night dive, someone usually makes hot cocoa, and people gather on the boat deck or the flybridge to drink it under the stars. The flybridge has settee seating and a wet bar, and it becomes a quiet gathering spot. Some nights, the Turks & Caicos Explorer liveaboard stays at anchor off French Cay; other nights, it motors to the next site while you sleep. The stabilizers keep the motion gentle. You eat well, you rest, you dive again.
MORE TRIP DETAILS
Dive experience: Certified divers with an Open Water license (or equivalent) and with 30 logged dives are welcome on these Turks and Caicos Explorer liveaboard cruises.
Cruise price per person includes: Cabin accommodation with air-conditioning, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, drinking water, soft drinks, hot drinks, local alcoholic drinks, dives (as detailed in the trips above), experienced English-speaking divemaster(s) (max 20 divers per DM), tanks, SMB, weights and weightbelts, sales tax.
Cruise price per person excludes (mandatory, unless customer provides own): Dinner on the final evening, scuba equipment (USD 150 per trip), diving computer (USD 75 per trip), port and bed tax (7 nights USD 95), fuel surcharge (7 nights USD 160). Unless otherwise stated, all the listed items need to be paid on arrival (cash or credit card).
Optional extras: Nitrox fills for enriched air certified divers (USD 150 per person per trip), torch (USD 20 per trip), dive insurance, boat transfers. Unless otherwise stated, all the listed items need to be paid on arrival. Note: prices of items purchased onboard are subject to change.
How to get there: You should aim to arrive at Providenciales on Saturday. For more details on how to get here, including airlines, visit our Turks and Caicos travel information section.
Local transfers are provided, You will be met at the airport by a local driver who will be aware of the liveaboard's location. If you are already staying on the island, please contact the Turks & Caicos Explorer II on Saturday morning for details on where and when to meet the vessel. Guests may board from 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. The liveaboard will depart in the evening, the departure time varies and is dependent on the tide.
During the final night of the trip the liveaboard will be moored at the marina. The Friday evening meal will be at a local restaurant for your account. After a continental breakfast, guests check out by 9 am on Saturday morning. The last dive of the tour will be at around 10 am on the second last day of the trip. Please wait at least 18 hours before flying after diving.
Non-diver rate: 10% off the published price
Single supplement (if you do not want to share accommodation): Single travelers may choose to share a stateroom or pay a supplement of 65% for their own cabin.
Dive clubs and group discounts: Normal season: Pay for 5 guests and 1 extra person can join the cruise in a Lower deck stateroom free of charge (total 6+ guests).
Whole boat charter rate (per night): Pay for 18 guests and 2 extra persons can join the cruise free of charge.
Click to view product. Special discounted trips highlighted in yellow
