First Class Service. Five Star Experience.

The Avadon Divers Dive Center is the premier dive center in beautiful Belize. Whether you are swimming with whale sharks or are snorkeling with parrotfish, set your expectations high. The Avadon Divers will reward you with a vacation sure to exceed your dreams.

Avadon Divers Diver Center is in the heart of the thriving village of Placencia, a slice of paradise on the southern coast of Belize. Where else can you be scuba diving with the massive whale sharks one day and exploring Mayan ruins the next.

Avadon specializes in providing unique adventures to individuals and families who want to escape the ordinary. Our passion is attention to detail to ensure the comfort, convenience and safety of your stay with us.

We are simply the best in Belize.

It starts with the rigorous qualifications our divemasters and instructors meet. Our dive equipment and services are top of the line. Our experience and knowledge of the southern waters of Belize are perfect for escorting adventurers who want to swim with exotic marine life in one of the world's great barrier reefs.

Come for the adventure; stay for the peace. For those who want nothing more than to escape to a hammock on a pristine, sandy beach under the shade of a coconut tree, Avadon Divers can book you a spot for the tropical getaway you've always dreamed of.

By land or by sea. Dive into Belize.

Come follow in the footsteps of Blackbeard the Pirate and explore the wonders of Belize. Once a hideaway for pirates of the Caribbean, Belize is now one of the world’s premiere destinations for scuba diving. But it also offers archeological and wildlife adventures for explorers of all ages. Avadon Divers Dive Shop is located in the thriving village of Placencia on the southern coast of Belize, the only place on earth where you can be scuba diving with the massive whale sharks one day and exploring Mayan ruins the next.

At Avadon Divers Dive Shop we are dedicated to providing a five-star experience for individuals, and especially families, who want to escape the ordinary. Our passion is the attention to detail that will ensure the comfort, convenience and safety of your stay with us. We are, simply, the best in Belize. From the rigorous qualifications our dive masters meet and the quality of our dive equipment and services, to escorting adventurers who want to swim with the exotic marine life around one of the world’s great barrier reefs, Avadon Divers is the standard of excellence in Belize. We will also meet the needs of those who want nothing more than the escape of a hammock amid the coconut trees on a pristine sandy beach. Dive into Belize.

About Placencia

Placencia has a rich history as a pirate’s hideaway and, in the more recent past, as a sleepy fishing village. While many new resorts and hotels are springing up along the peninsula, Placencia remains a laid-back beach community with many newcomers mixing in with the descendants of the old pirates and fishermen. Capture the rhythm of Belize with its beautiful white sand beaches dotted with coconut trees and colorful cabañas along the eastern coast of the 20-mile long Placencia peninsula. On the western side of the peninsula there is a large lagoon that hosts forests of mangroves providing a sanctuary for manatees, crocodiles, and hundreds of water birds, and thousands of juvenile fish.

With the most beautiful beach in all of Belize, Placencia is a well-kept secret no longer. More and more people are discovering the “barefoot perfect”, unspoiled sands of this tranquil Caribbean destination. Placencia Village has one of the longest sidewalks in the world, where you can stroll along and drop in at beachside cafes and restaurants to enjoy local Belizean cuisine and perhaps, the fresh catch of the day. Restaurants offer sumptuous meals to tempt and satisfy a wide range of tastes. Wandering down the sidewalk, you come to the waterfront or dock area where you find sailboats moored off shore, and where fishermen bring in their catch that they sometimes have for sale at the end of the day, before heading off to the local “watering hole”. Nightlife here is always casual, like everything else on the peninsula. You can enjoy karaoke, kick off your shoes and dance to sensuous Caribbean rhythms, or enjoy creative tropical cocktails and watch the stars from any of the many beach bars.

Placencia Land & Sea Adventures

Avadon Divers can design a perfect vacation package with a wide range of adventures for individuals and families that can be as exotic or relaxing as you desire. Placencia is perfectly set in a location to provide the best land and sea adventures Belize has to offer. 

Dive Belize

Placencia is a major dive destination, and one that had some of the best diving and possibilities for observing a wide variety of marine life all along the southern barrier reef and caye systems. Those include The Laughing Bird Caye National Park, the Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, Glover’s Reef and the world famous Gladden Spit where whale sharks gather in the springtime to feed on the spawn of massive schools of fish. It’s a sight that will leave you breathless. Snorkelers can enjoy the same thrill of whale shark encounters. 

Fish Belize

Many other water sports activities are available to satisfy anyone’s craving for sailing, kayaking, swimming and fishing. The Lagoon’s mangrove forests make a great kayaking adventure. With some of the best fly fishing guides available in Belize, whose families have fished these waters for generations, you can go in search of the challenge of the grand slam, catching and releasing a permit, tarpon and bonefish all in the same day. Bottom fishing and trolling for other game fish is also available.

Explore Belize

Avadon Divers can arrange a variety of daylong sightseeing excursions on land. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is the only jaguar reserve in the world, where the elusive jaguar roams free in the rainforest. You can visit ancient Mayan ruins and archeological sites. Boat trips up the Monkey River can take you to observe howler monkeys, iguanas, manatees and rare tropical birds. Each year the scarlet macaws gather at Red Bank in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. For more excitement while cooling off, caving and river tubing are a must do activity as well.

Beach Belize 

But as we said, Placencia is barefoot perfect for those who want a completely stress-free experience. Grab a cool drink, hit the beach and soak up the warm Caribbean sun while watching the boats go by from the comfortable vantage point of a hammock under the shade of a coconut tree.

Our Story

Phillip and Anne-Marie McNeil, a brother and sister team, created Avadon Divers because of their abiding love for the ocean. They grew up with the ocean in their front yard in Jamaica. They are committed to providing this service as much for the love of this lifestyle, as they are to offering a first class quality service. They look forward to sharing this same excitement and passion with everyone. We believe you’ll be as enchanted with Belize as they were on dive trips they made over the years, and decided to make Belize their home. They chose Placencia because of its gentle Caribbean rhythm, miles of white sand beaches, crystal blue waters with myriad caye systems, and chances to observe the majestic whale shark. This made an excellent playground for diving, fishing and water sports lovers, and was in easy reach of land and jungle adventures, and Mayan Ruins.

Anne-Marie is a PADI Master Instructor who started out as a dive master working at large all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica over 15 years ago. Before opening Avadon Divers Dive Shop she moved up the ladder quickly and became a Scuba Instructor and operations manager for all water sports and scuba diving there. In an attempt to seek new horizons, she moved to the Turks and Caicos and was part of the management team for the largest land based dive operators, Sandals’ Beaches. Before opening Avadon Divers, she moved to Belize where she held the prestigious position as part of the crew and management team for Peter Hughes Diving’s Sundancer II, a live-aboard dive yacht. There she was able to explore the barrier reef and atolls of Belize for two and a half years. Anne-Marie has taught and certified numerous divers, sharing her passion for the ocean. She has developed and trained dive masters and Instructors who have gone on to hold leadership positions in the dive operations industry.  

Phillip has worked in a variety of positions in the marine field. He started out as a PADI dive master in a famous resort along the Jamaican North Coast. He also worked in the merchant marine, and as a commercial diver in Louisiana. He has spent the last 20 years running a successful upscale construction services company in the demanding and high pressure New York metropolitan area.

He has returned to his first love, the sea, here in Placencia, Belize, to share his passion and fascination with children of all ages, including the young at heart.