Padi Open Water diver

The PADI Open Water Diver at Mondiving certifies you to dive independently to 18 metres — or to 12 metres if you're between 10 and 12 years old under the Junior certification. The theory phase happens entirely online via the PADI platform, and the centre recommends completing it at least a week before your arrival in Dénia so the practical days aren't interrupted by review sessions.

Once you're on site, the structure is one day of confined water or pool practice at the centre, followed by two days of open water dives in the sea. Practice days are blocked in two patterns: Monday–Tuesday–Wednesday or Friday–Saturday–Sunday. The centre tries to accommodate timing requests within those constraints.

All three package tiers — Bronce, Plata and Oro — include full equipment and the online theory. Plata adds a Cressi mask-and-snorkel set valued at €40 and photos taken during the course. Oro upgrades to a high-end Cressi mask-and-snorkel (valued at €60), adds a logbook, includes photos and a t-shirt, and gives you the option to do the course entirely privately with no other students present.

The open water dives take place in the Reserva Marina del Cabo de San Antonio, the protected marine area shared between Dénia and Jávea. Posidonia meadows, rocky walls and a well-established fish population — grouper, sea bream, moray eels, cuttlefish — give the certification dives more substance than a generic sandy bottom. Completing the Open Water here also sets you up naturally for the Advanced course, which the centre also runs.