Top 11 Travel-Friendly Scuba Diving Equipment Packages

When you’re packing for your scuba diving holiday, do you ever find that when you're packing your suitcase, you find your luggage is 80% taken up by scuba equipment? Leaving barely any room for other essentials such as clothes and other holiday basics? Every space and weight allowance counts when packing for your holiday. So you want equipment that is going to weigh less and take up much minimal room so you have room for other important items. 

We understand the struggle and that’s why we're here to help. Within this blog, we'll be sharing with you some of the most lightweight, portable and travel-friendly scuba diving equipment that is perfect for transporting on many travel holidays, whether it’s resorts, island hopping or liveaboard adventures. 

Should I Buy Or Rent Scuba Diving Equipment?

But first off, is bringing your own scuba diving gear really worth it? Here are a few reasons why we highly recommend bringing your own equipment, rather than renting:

• Comfort and fit: When you bring your own gear, you know that you have the right equipment that fits you well and is comfortable to use.
• Safety through familiarity: When you have your own gear you become familiar with it, you know exactly where everything is which increases safety.
• Long-term saving: Depending on how often you’ll be travelling and where you are diving, equipment rental prices can vary considerably. If you’re travelling and diving a lot, it may be better to buy your equipment because, in the long run, it may pay for itself. 

Travel-Friendly Diving Equipment Essentials (The Bare Minimum)

When you’re planning for your diving holiday, you may not want to take all your scuba diving equipment. If that’s the case but you still want to take some equipment on your holiday, you’re probably only going to want to take the essentials with you. 

The most important items that you should consider taking with you on your scuba diving trip are a mask, fins and regulator. 

• Mask: Finding a mask that fits your face shape is essential to ensuring an enjoyable diving experience. If you’re using a mask from the diving operator, it might not fit and you could run into the difficulty of mask fog. Mask fog can completely ruin your experience, so it’s best to take your own that you can trust. 
• Fins: If you’re planning on diving in warmer waters, it might be beneficial to take open-heel scuba diving fins as there’s no need to bring booties as well. Therefore, freeing up more space in your suitcase!
• Regulator: You want equipment that you can trust, so you may feel more at ease by bringing your own regulator. If you’re choosing a reputable operator, then a rental regulator will be fine but other factors to consider when choosing a rental are whether it’ll sit easily inside your mouth or whether you’ll feel comfortable using it. 

Travel-Friendly BCDs

Looking to take more than the bare minimum essentials on your scuba diving trip? The next step is to think about investing in a lightweight travel BCD. There is a wide variety of travel-friendly BDC options on the market, which you can find on our website. 

Scubapro Litehawk

The Scubapro Litehawk BCD has rapidly become our bestselling travel BCD. This BCD is perfect for any tropical warm water diving.

The Litehawk weighs in at only 2.36kg and is designed to make the cut when packing for your dive holiday and weight is an issue! With a full soft backplate, the comfort of the Litehawk is amazing. This BCD is low profile, streamlined design makes it feel like it's barely there underwater.

Scubapro Hydros Pro BCD Men/Women

Another top-quality, highly portable and travel-friendly BDC is the Scubapro Hydros Pro BCD for both Men and Women. Its folding shoulder and waist straps pack into the wing, creating an unbelievably compact package for easy transport and storage. It makes it super ideal for travel due to less water retention and lower post-dive weight. The Scubapro Hydros Pro is a unique wing style BCD that features a modular harness made from the same tough Monprene material as the Scubapro Seawing Nova fins, making it incredibly strong, durable and weight conscious.

Travel-Friendly Regulators 

As I’ve briefly mentioned before, regulators are one of the most essential items to consider bringing when packing for your scuba diving holiday. Again, there are many different, high-quality regulators on the market that are designed for travel but here are some of our top choices based on weight and size.

Aqualung Mikron Regulator and Octopus

The Aqualung Mikron Regulator with Octopus and DIN valve is a great stage 3 set. It’s primarily designed for young adults and those who love to travel divers due to its reduced size and lightweight design.

Scubapro Mk11 S270 Regulator

The Scubapro Mk11 S270 Regulator has been designed for divers who enjoy warmer and temperate waters but are not afraid to venture into cooler climates. It's great for those who like to travel and dive into the best of both worlds! It has a lightweight casing, made of a fibreglass-reinforced nylon core and a special PU outer layer and it is more compact, lighter weight, and has better breathing performance than its S560 predecessor.

This regulator offers solid performance while being lightweight, reliable and compact, making it perfect for those who love scuba diving holidays and travelling!

Other Travel-Friendly Scuba Diving Equipment

Other travel-friendly scuba diving equipment you may want to consider taking are equipment such as bags and fins. Here are some of our top choices for each: 

Lightweight, travel-friendly suitcases: Tusa Roller Duffle Dive Bag and Stahlsac Steel 34" Rollerbag. You can find the rest of our roller bags here. 

Lightweight fins: Scubapro Go Travel Fin and Tusa Solla Full Foot Fins. You can find the rest of our travel-friendly fins here. 

We’re Here to Help

There are many different travel-friendly equipment options out there on the market, it may become overwhelming on which equipment will suit your scuba diving needs. 

If you have any questions about travel-friendly scuba diving gear, tips and advice, please email us at support@mikesdivestore.com where we have a team of scuba diving professionals here to assist you in making the right decision on scuba diving equipment options. Or if you live locally or in the surrounding areas of London, pop in and come visit us in-store where you can try on a wide range of scuba diving accessories for yourself and get a feel of which styles you like best.