Add up the cost of a two-week dive trip to one of the world's headline destinations and you need a strong stomach. International flights. Domestic flights. Excess baggage for the camera. A liveaboard berth or luxury resort. Park fees. Fuel surcharges. Nitrox. Crew tips. Before you've even put your mask on, the bill can easily exceed what many people spend on a family holiday, a used car, or a few months' rent.

Diving has never been a cheap hobby. But something has shifted in the last few years. Prices aren't just creeping up with inflation. Whole new layers of cost have appeared, and many of them land hardest on the trips divers dream about most.

So it's worth asking the uncomfortable question: is diving quietly turning into a sport for people who can afford it, and only them?

Look at what's changed in just the last couple of years.

·       Park fees have jumped. In August 2024, Ecuador doubled the Galápagos National Park entry fee for most foreign visitors from $100 to $200, the first increase since 1998. In January 2026, Raja Ampat raised its tourism fee for international visitors from 300,000 rupiah to 1 million rupiah per visit, on top of the existing marine park permit.

·       Fuel surcharges are back. In 2026, at least one major liveaboard fleet introduced temporary fuel surcharges of roughly $15 to $38 per person, per night, citing a sharp rise in marine fuel prices. On a ten-night trip, that can add several hundred dollars after you've already booked.

·       Getting there costs more. Remote destinations mean multiple flights, and baggage allowances haven't kept pace with what a photographer or tech diver needs to carry. Excess baggage fees on a regional connection can rival the cost of the ticket.

·       Gear keeps climbing. A full mirrorless camera system with housing, ports and strobes can now cost as much as a small car. Even basic recreational kit, like a decent computer or a drysuit, isn't getting cheaper.

None of these costs is outrageous on its own. Together, they change who can realistically make the trip.

Before going further, I should be fair. Some of these increases are not just justified; they're overdue.

Park fees are a good example. Places like the Galápagos and Raja Ampat are under enormous pressure from tourism, and fees fund patrols, reef restoration, waste management and local communities. Raja Ampat's new structure explicitly earmarks revenue for village development and conservation operations. A healthy reef is worth more to divers than a cheap entry ticket to a damaged one.

There's also an argument that diving has been underpriced for a long time. Dive professionals are often poorly paid, boats are expensive to run safely, and operators have absorbed rising costs for years. If higher prices mean better-paid guides, safer boats and fewer people on each site, many divers would accept that trade.

And in a world where we're already worried about crowding at popular sites, a price that limits numbers can protect the very thing we come to see.

But the cost of that protection doesn't fall evenly.

The diver most likely to be priced out isn't the retired professional booking a luxury liveaboard. It's the 25-year-old who just got certified and wants a first proper dive trip. It's the local diver in the destination country who now competes with international prices. It's the young photographer who can't afford the camera system needed to compete in the images everyone sees online.

That matters for the sport's future. The divers who are priced out today are the instructors, scientists, conservationists and photographers we need tomorrow. If the main pathway into serious diving requires a high income, we'll end up with a smaller, older and less diverse community. That community will be less able to speak up for the ocean.

There's also an uncomfortable irony. Many of the communities living closest to the world's best reefs have the least access to diving them. Higher fees can help, if the money reaches them, but the activity itself often remains out of local reach.

The good news is that most of the cost pressure is concentrated at the top. Diving itself, the act of getting in the water and exploring, can still be surprisingly accessible.

·       Dive locally. Cold, green, close-to-home water is where many of the best divers I know built their skills. In Iceland, some of the most rewarding dives I do are a short drive from Reykjavík, not a long-haul flight away.

·       Shore diving is underrated. Plenty of world-class diving needs no boat at all, and that's one of the biggest savings you can make.

·       Join a club. Clubs share boats, compressors, knowledge and sometimes gear, and they bring people into the sport who would never walk into an expensive shop.

·       Buy used and buy slowly. Older camera bodies in good housings still produce excellent images. The best photographers aren't defined by the newest sensor.

·       Travel less often, stay longer. One well-planned trip a year can be better value and better for the planet than three short ones.

Operators and destinations can't control fuel prices, but they can control how costs are shared.

1.     Be transparent. Show all mandatory fees and likely surcharges at booking, not as a surprise in the final invoice.

2.     Offer local rates. Residents of a destination country should be able to dive their own reefs without paying international prices.

3.     Create a pathway. Discounted spaces for young divers, students, scientists and trainee professionals keep the next generation coming in.

4.     Show where the money goes. Divers will pay more for park fees when they can see the results in patrols, moorings and healthy reefs.

I don't think diving has become a rich person's sport yet. But its most famous version (the remote liveaboard, the dream destination, the long-haul flights) is moving in that direction. If that becomes the only version people see, many will decide diving simply isn't for them.

Keeping diving open doesn't mean keeping it cheap. It means making sure there's still a way in for people who don't have a lot of money, and remembering that the water closest to home has always been where divers are made.

What do you think? Has cost changed how and where you dive?