Best Cave Dives in Europe?

[Kraken]

I am curious to know where are the best cave dives in Europe? Thanks.

[Chrisch]

What sort of caves do you like? For Floridian style diving the caves in the Lot (France) are very popular and would be my choice. It is a good venue if you want to do a week's diving and visit several caves. But there are many other places worth a visit. You can even dive in the city of Budapest (https://mjcave.hu/en/diving/) and combine a city break with some cave diving.

[notdeadyet]

Europe has a huge expanse of limestone across most of the continent (the word "karst" comes from an area of European limestone in the Balkans) so there are caves in most areas. Maybe not every country but most general regions have a decent amount of diveable caves.

France is definitely the country with the most infrastructure around cave diving though. Everywhere else you need a varying level of self-sufficiency.

I think the Ressel is up there with "best". It's maybe not the prettiest cave but it is probably the perfect cave. It has a long, shallow entrance area so makes a wonderful novice dive. Then it drops into a long, deep section which is perfect for more advanced divers. At the top end of the scale is diving to the end of the sump, a very technical challenge that very few have ever done but is, in theory, achievable for anyone willing to put in the work.

There are caves everywhere in France. Going clockwise from the north-east, my favourites are:

- Douix de Chatillon
- Source de la Beze
- Source du Doubs
- Le Bestouan
- La Marnade
- Source du Durzon
- Ressel
- Trou Madam
- Doux de Coly

Source de l'Orbe across the border in Switzerland is fantastic.

"Best" doesn't exist, these are just the ones I like most.

There are a few caves that I would love to dive just for historic value. Fontaine de Vaucluse (a lot of caves in France are vauclusien springs because they all have the same structure as Vaucluse) but is extremely hard to get permission to dive. Cousteau and de Lavaur did some of the first cave dives in the country there. I have an interest in archaeology so Grotte Cosquer is a place I'd love to dive but I doubt that will ever happen.

The UK has some great dives but these are proper sidemount (not the shite promoted by the scuba industry) and generally take a lot of effort and a particular mindset. There are a lot of mines that have good conditions and more Florida-style passage but I'm not particularly interested in mine diving. Keld Head is one of my faves, partly because of its place in cave diving history and partly because it was the first cave I dived in England. Joint Hole and Hurtle Pot are favourites too, although access at Joint is difficult now. I'd love to dive at Wookey but still never managed it.

If you are interested in cave diving outside the US then get hold of The Darkness Beckons by Martyn Farr.

[Chrisch]

Ressel is my favourite as well - huge amount of stuff online about it.

https://issuu.com/perfectdiver/docs/...suu/s/22269170

[Kraken]

Thanks for all this information fellows. With my typical US centric view, I did not know that Europe will have so many cave diving opportunities. If you had the chance to do a cave course in Florida, Mexico or France, which would you choose and why?

[Chrisch]

Thanks for all this information fellows. With my typical US centric view, I did not know that Europe will have so many cave diving opportunities. If you had the chance to do a cave course in Florida, Mexico or France, which would you choose and why?

France. The food is better, the wine is better and I can drive there with the kit in my car. If I lived in the US and wanted to do my course in Europe and combine it with a bit of a holiday and some general diving and good eating and nice beaches and so on I would look at Sardinia. (That is a long drive and a ferry ride for me - I can be down to the French dive area in about 7 hours by car) If you are thinking of visiting that would be one of my top recommendations. https://protecsardinia.com/?lang=en

https://www.charmingsardinia.com/sar...nian-food.html

[notdeadyet]

Thanks for all this information fellows. With my typical US centric view, I did not know that Europe will have so many cave diving opportunities. If you had the chance to do a cave course in Florida, Mexico or France, which would you choose and why?

I wouldn't train in France. It's a place to go after training. The cave diving is fantastic but very different to Florida or Mexico. Most caves tend to be long, single passages with one entry/exit point. There are very few places with side passages and when there are they usually are either dead ends or loop back on to the main line fairly quick. I can only think of a couple of caves that have multiple entries/exits. You just don't get the opportunity to deal with complex navigation, junctions, circuits, traverses, etc. that you would in Florida or Mexico. I've dived both and Mexican caves can be so complex that if you learn to navigate there then you can handle pretty much any navigation challenge. The other thing is that French caves rarely have any noticeable flow and when they do it's usually after heavy rain or spring thaws when conditions wouldn't be suitable for training anyway (and maybe even not diveable).

That doesn't mean French cave diving is easy, it's just different with its own set of challenges. But you'd get more out of it after training as a place to explore once certified. And I hate to say this, but I've seen a lot of people teaching in France that really did not know what they were doing. Some of them big names in the world of technical diving. Instructors in Florida and Mexico are diving damn near every day, there are very few teaching in France who can say that (certainly those in the English-speaking world). There are a couple of CDG divers who now teach under TDI who are very active cave divers but other than that you really do need to choose wisely.