Azores Dive Center, Diving AZORES SUB
Marina da Vila AZORES SUB Dive Center, 9680-187 Vila Franca Do Campo, Portugal, Vila Franca Do Campo, Vila Franca do Campo, PRT
About the Center
Azores Dive Center, also known as Diving AZORES SUB, is located in Vila Franca Do Campo, Portugal. This dive center offers a wide range of training courses certified by PADI, SSI, and CMAS/FFESSM, including Advanced Open Water, Enriched Air Nitrox, Instructor Development Course, Technical Diving, Snorkeling, Boat Diving, and Deep Diver. Its facilities include lockers, WiFi, a bar, a swimming pool, equipment rental, a dive shop, air fills (including nitrox), and facilitates boat diving, shore diving, and night diving. Airport transfers are also provided.
The center is strategically situated on the south coast of São Miguel island, in the Marina of Vila Franca do Campo, serving as an ideal starting point to explore the surroundings of the Vila Franca do Campo islet. They specialize in snorkeling and diving experiences, offering boat trips around the islet, supervised snorkeling tours, and the opportunity to dive with groupers. They also organize wreck dives and offshore explorations, as well as private boat rentals.
For those looking to further their education, Azores Dive Center offers specialized courses such as First Aid, Deep Diver (up to 40 meters), Night Dive, and Nitrox specialties. They also provide dive packages for certified divers wishing to explore the best spots on the south coast of São Miguel, as well as introductory dives for beginners, available in both the pool and the sea. The center emphasizes safety, including RC insurance of €1.5 million in many of its activities.
Available Courses
12 cursosCurso Deep Diver
The Deep Diver specialty takes the certified diver to 40 metres and runs 12 to 15 hours. Minimum age is 15. Equipment is included. On the south coast of São Miguel, deep diving has specific meaning. The Baixa das Castanhetas drops vertically from 18 metres to beyond 45 metres on its south wall — manta rays have been spotted cruising the blue there in summer. Amora bottoms out at 28 metres over sand, where large groupers hold station. These are the kinds of sites where an extended bottom time at depth, which the Deep Diver cert enables, makes a real difference to what you see. The course follows SSI or PADI standards, covering the physiological considerations of deeper diving, gas management, and emergency procedures. It's listed as suitable for divers with an adventurous streak — the centre's description is direct about that. If the 18-metre Open Water limit has started to feel like a ceiling, this specialty removes it.
Curso Advanced Open Water
The Advanced Open Water at Azores Sub is structured around 5 knowledge chapters and 5 adventure dives, following SSI or PADI curricula. It runs 12 to 16 hours and requires a minimum age of 10. Equipment and €1.5 million liability insurance are included. Done on the south coast of São Miguel, the adventure dives take on a different weight than in most locations. Deep Diver and Underwater Navigation are logical picks here given the terrain — the Baixa das Castanhetas wall drops past 45 metres, and navigating the lava tunnels and canyon systems requires spatial awareness you don't build in flat-water environments. Finishing this course opens up the centre's full range of guided dives, including the offshore expeditions to Formigas and Dollabarat, where visibility exceeds 40 metres on good days and pelagics like manta rays and sharks are a realistic sighting. The Advanced cert also becomes the prerequisite for several specialty courses the centre runs, including Deep Diver to 40 metres.
Batismo de Mergulho no Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo nos Açores
The introductory dive at Azores Sub is one of the more flexible options you'll find in the Azores: you can do it in the pool, in the sea at the Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo, or both. Pool sessions are open from age 8; sea dives require a minimum age of 10. The total duration runs between 3 and 6 hours depending on which option you choose. The sea component takes place in the protected waters around the Ilhéu — a volcanic islet 500 metres off the coast that sits inside a natural reserve. The sites used for introductory dives here are sheltered enough to be manageable but marine-life-rich enough to make the first encounter count. Chromis, parrotfish, moray eels, and octopus are common in those shallows. All equipment is included in the price, along with €1.5 million liability insurance. The centre works with both SSI and PADI, so the briefing and supervision follow international standards from the start. Instructors are noted by past clients for patience and for creating a calm atmosphere — useful when someone is nervous about breathing underwater for the first time. This is not a conversion funnel into a full course if you don't want it to be. Plenty of visitors do just the Batismo as a standalone activity during their time on São Miguel and leave it at that.
Divemaster
The Divemaster course at Azores Sub is the longest programme they run: 82 to 90 hours. Minimum age is 15. Equipment and €1.5 million liability insurance are included. The course covers leadership skills for guiding certified divers, applied physics for diving, and dive physiology — the same topics a Divemaster needs to brief and manage groups in open water. Training takes place on the south coast of São Miguel, which gives candidates hands-on experience guiding in real Atlantic conditions across a variety of site types: shallow reserve dives around the Ilhéu, deeper wall dives at Baixa das Castanhetas, and wreck navigation at the MV Dori. That range of environments is useful preparation for a professional role. The centre works with both SSI and PADI, so your Divemaster certification will be issued under whichever agency you've been training with through the preceding courses. This is the entry-level professional qualification under both systems and the starting point for instructor training.
Curso de Primeiros Socorros
The First Aid course at Azores Sub runs 7 to 9 hours and is open to participants from age 12 — notably, the centre specifies this is not exclusively for divers. Anyone who might need to assist another person in an emergency situation is a valid candidate. For divers, completing a first aid course is a practical requirement before attempting the Rescue Diver certification and a prerequisite for Divemaster training. Equipment is included in the price. The course is conducted at the centre in Vila Franca do Campo.
Especialidade Night Diver
The Night Diver specialty runs 7 to 10 hours, includes two open water dives conducted after sunset, and is open to divers aged 10 and up. Equipment is included. Azores Sub already runs a commercial night dive product to the Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo area — the Baixa do Pisão and Oeste do Farilhão are specifically noted as suitable for night diving. The specialty course uses the same waters. At night these sites shift character: the nocturnal species that hide in rock crevices during the day — various crustaceans, octopus, certain moray species — become the main event. Two open water dives after sunset in Atlantic waters around a protected islet is a solid setting for the practical component. The theoretical sessions cover the specific hazards and navigation techniques relevant to low-visibility diving.
Equipment Techniques
The Equipment Techniques specialty is the shortest course in the centre's catalogue: 3 to 6 hours, minimum age 10, equipment included. The content focuses on how to maintain and care for dive equipment properly. For divers who travel to dive — which describes most visitors to the Azores — knowing how to service and troubleshoot their own gear has direct practical value. The course covers cleaning, storage, basic maintenance checks, and identifying when something needs professional attention. It follows SSI or PADI standards and is conducted at the centre in Vila Franca do Campo.
Curso de Ecologia Marinha e Coral ID
The Marine Ecology and Coral ID specialty runs 6 to 12 hours and is open to participants from age 6 — the lowest minimum age of any course at the centre. Equipment is included. The course covers ocean composition and marine species identification. On the south coast of São Miguel, the species encountered across their dive sites are varied enough to make species ID genuinely useful: the Ponta da Cozinha site page alone lists Chromis limbata, Thalassoma pavo, Serranus atricauda, Sparisoma cretense, Labrus bergylta, Dasyatis pastinaca, Pseudocaranx dentex, Sphyraena viridensis, Seriola rivoliana, and Pomatomus saltator by scientific name. Knowing what you're looking at changes the dive. This is listed under SSI's curriculum and is separate from the Science of Diving specialty — both are available at Azores Sub.
Open Water Diver
The Open Water Diver course at Azores Sub certifies you to dive independently to 18 metres anywhere in the world. It runs between 25 and 32 hours in total and is available under either SSI or PADI — you choose the agency. Minimum age is 10. Practical dives take place in the waters around the south coast of São Miguel, where the centre runs its regular boat trips. That means your training dives happen in the same spots as the guided dives for certified divers — volcanic rock formations, mixed sand-and-rock bottoms, and the marine life typical of the Azores. You're not confined to a harbour or a pool lane. All equipment is included in the course price along with €1.5 million liability insurance. The theoretical component follows whichever agency curriculum you've chosen, with both SSI and PADI being well-represented internationally — the SSI certification is valid in over 110 countries, PADI in over 180. Once you finish, you're cleared to join the centre's standard dive departures to spots like Âncoras, Arcos de Caloura, or the west face of the Ilhéu. The same ticket that gets you certified gets you back in the water on your next day on the island.
Scuba Diver
The Scuba Diver course is the shorter path to a certification — 12 to 16 hours, compared to 25–32 for the full Open Water. The trade-off is a 12-metre depth limit and the requirement to dive accompanied by a professional. It's positioned explicitly for people who don't have enough days on São Miguel to complete the full course. Minimum age is 10. All equipment and €1.5 million liability insurance are included. The centre offers both SSI and PADI tracks, so if you have a preference for one agency, you can complete this course under that system. With a Scuba Diver cert you can still join boat departures to the south coast spots — you just go in with a guide rather than as an independent diver. Sites like Âncoras (14–22 m) or Ponta da Cozinha (12–18 m) are accessible at that limit. It's a sensible option if your trip is short but you want something more than a one-off Batismo.
Rescue Diver
The Rescue Diver course runs 10 to 15 hours and has a minimum age of 12. It's available under SSI or PADI. Equipment and €1.5 million liability insurance are included in the price. This is the course that most experienced divers point to as the one that changed how they think underwater — not because of the rescue scenarios specifically, but because it forces you to stay aware of what's happening around you rather than just managing your own dive. At Azores Sub that plays out in open Atlantic waters along the south coast of São Miguel, where conditions can shift. Completing the Rescue Diver is a formal prerequisite for the Divemaster course at the centre. It's also the point where the SSI Science of Diving specialty becomes relevant for anyone tracking towards a professional certification.
Enriched Air Nitrox
The Nitrox specialty runs 6 to 9 hours and is open to divers from age 10. Equipment is included. The centre explicitly positions this course as one sought by divers interested in underwater video and photography — the extended no-decompression limits that Nitrox provides mean more time at depth with a camera. On the south coast of São Miguel, that translates to more time at the MV Dori, which sits at 20 metres and is photographically interesting: intact stern section, calderas, cable drums, and dense fish concentrations. It also means longer bottom time at Âncoras, where the centenarian anchors scattered across the sandy bottom at 22 metres make for unusual subjects. The course follows SSI or PADI curriculum. Once certified, you can use the Nitrox fills that the centre provides for guided boat dives.
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What people ask before booking
At Marina de Vila Franca do Campo, Loja 6, on the south coast of São Miguel island in the Azores, Portugal.
Yes, the standard dive departures require an international dive certification. Minimum age is 10. If you're not certified, the Batismo (introductory dive) is available from age 8 in the pool, or from age 10 in the sea.
Both SSI and PADI. You can complete courses under either agency, from Open Water through to Divemaster level.
From October to June: daily at 09:00 and 14:00. From July to September: double dives at 08:00 and a single dive at 14:30.
Guide, tank, weights, and €1.5 million liability insurance. Briefing, debriefing, rinse and drying station, and equipment storage are also included. Rental gear is available on site.
Yes. The MV Dori sits upright at 20 metres, with the stern at 9 metres — well within recreational limits. It's about 40 minutes from Vila Franca do Campo marina and is open to certified divers.
Yes. A pack of 5 dives costs €229 and a pack of 10 dives costs €355. After booking, the subsequent dives are scheduled directly at the centre.
Yes, there is a dedicated night dive trip to the Ilhéu de Vila Franca do Campo area starting from €68.36. Minimum age is 10 and participants must hold a dive certification.
Marina da Vila AZORES SUB Dive Center, 9680-187 Vila Franca Do Campo, Portugal, Vila Franca Do Campo, Vila Franca do Campo, PRT