San Salvador

San Salvador is a small island of around a hundred and sixty square kilometres well out in the Atlantic, and it is the most widely accepted candidate for the island where Columbus made landfall on the twelfth of October 1492, though the identification is argued over and several monuments on the island mark competing spots. For divers the attraction is geological: the shelf is narrow and the reef drops away into a wall within a few hundred metres of shore, so deep water, big pelagics and exceptional visibility are all close in. Hammerheads and reef sharks are regular. Inland the island is mostly salt lakes and scrub, with a lighthouse at Dixon Hill still hand-operated.

What you actually see

• The wall diving - reef dropping into deep ocean close to shore.
• The landfall monuments - several, marking competing candidate sites.
• Dixon Hill lighthouse - still hand-cranked and kerosene-lit.
• The inland lakes - salt water lakes covering much of the interior.

When to go

December to May is the dry season with the best visibility. Diving is the main reason to come and operators run year-round. Flights from Nassau are limited; there have historically been seasonal direct services from the United States.

Honest expectations

The Columbus landfall claim is genuinely disputed among historians, and the monuments on the island contradict each other. Infrastructure is minimal and depends heavily on the one resort operating at any given time, which has closed and reopened over the years; check before booking. Non-divers will find very little to do.

Nearby

Rum Cay is a short flight; Nassau is an hour west.