Pack the hiking boots and the swim fins, because it would be a shame to miss the adventures that await both on land and sea. With most of its landscape covered in forest and fields of emerald green, Dominica lives up to its nickname of “the Nature Island.” Hikers, paddlers, birders and eco-tourists will feel right at home on here, but so too will divers. Just beyond the shore, the island's soaring peaks and deep valleys are mirrored in dramatic underwater drop-offs, sheer walls and submarine canyons. Volcanic origins are evident in a seascape riddled with pinnacles, swim-throughs and bubbling fumaroles, while the nation's commitment to conservation is evident in the wealth of marine life and healthy hard and soft corals that thrive within a trio of marine reserves.

Snorkeling on Champagne Reef in Dominica

The underwater landscape of Dominica is the most dramatic and varied in the Caribbean. It is also among the healthiest. The island is ringed by a narrow coastal shelf of volcanic rock draped with a high density of hard and soft corals. Most dive sites are within 300 yards of shore, with the exception of the underwater pinnacles that rise from middle depths slightly farther from land. Other unique features of the seascape include fields of massive boulders, craters, canyons and active volcanic fumaroles.

All diving takes place on the calmer Caribbean side of the island within one of three marine reserves. The south offers the most dramatic profiles, and is the most popular, though diver traffic is light in all areas as compared to many other Caribbean destinations. Some sites receive sediment from river runoff, particularly during the rainy season, but because deep ocean water runs close to shore, disruptions invisibility are usually short lived, and waters clear quickly. The upside of the rain is a rich flow of nutrients that supports a thriving population of sponge and soft corals along with a host of invertebrates. Dominica is one of the few places in the Caribbean where you are likely to see crinoids.

Reefs also hold a range of small tropicals, from a myriad of small gobies and basslets to the eye-popping bright red hues of long spine squirrelfish and black bar soldierfish, which gather in large schools. Thanks to the reefs' protected status, there are numerous parrotfish and a population of mature grouper.

One of the Dominica's best-known sites is the Scotts Head Pinnacle, where dives begin with a swim through a rock formation that looks like Swiss cheese. At another swim-through called Soldierfish Cave, the site is packed with a living curtain of black bar soldier fish and grunts. The actual pinnacle offers an even more dramatic swim-through that leads to the steep flank of a volcanic crater. The nearby Scott’s Head Drop Off presents an intensely colorful landscape of pink and azure vase sponges, orange icing sponges, yellow tube sponges, and green rope sponges, with many small nooks and crannies that hide lobster, crabs, and many different kinds of cleaner shrimp.

Another famous dive site off the southern coast is Champagne Reef, so named for the gas bubbles that rise from underwater hot springs that sit below the corals. With minimal currents and shallow depths, this is an ideal site for divers of all experience levels. It is also one of the best places on the island to find frogfish, seahorses and flying gunards, and an excellent night dive that yields squid, octopus, large crabs and lobster

Mid-island sites are gaining increasing recognition for healthy reefs and some of the Caribbean's best muck diving. The Canfield Tug Wreck adds variety to a seascape and Rena's Reef offers an explosion of hard and soft corals in lavender, violet, orange and yellow. Sites such as Castaway Reef and Rodney's Rock provide hours of exploration for small treasures and elusive finds such as leaf fish, bumblebee shrimp, shortnose batfish with their unicorn-like projections and speckled band tail puffers. Another unique feature found at some dives sites are fumaroles—submerged volcanic vents that heat the sea floor. At Hot Sophia and Point Ronde, divers will find sand bottoms that are hot to the touch.

Dive sites along Dominica's northwest coast are known for prolific growths of feather stars and sponges. The site known as Shark's Mouth didn't actually earn its name for these apex predators, but instead for the thick growths of basket sponges that are said to give the slope the appearance of a toothy shark jaw. At the island's far northern point, sites such as Point Break are more exposed to blue water and currents and hold larger fish in greater numbers.

Dominica is special both for what is there and for what isn't. There are no high rise hotels, no casinos or duty-free zones, and—save for the day-trippers who come by cruise ship—probably 2,000 or fewer visitors on the entire island at any given time.

Hikes and eco-adventures take center stage and can range from hardcore to easy going. The Waitukubuli National Trail is the Caribbean's first long-distance hiking route, winding more than 115 miles along the island's mountainous spine. Another favorite trekker's challenge is the ascent to Boiling Lake, which wanders through rainforests before climbing to a spectacular mountaintop viewpoint that takes in a crater containing a lake so hot that it is literally bubbling and steaming. Numerous easier walks wind through river valleys and follow streams. With 350-plus rivers plunging toward the coast, the landscape offers a wealth of photo-worthy cascades and jungle-fringed swimming holes.

The island's best thrill rides take place at the Gorge Zipline Challenge, where riders clip into the Caribbean's highest lines to make soaring flights over the 350-foot drop of the Breakfast River Gorge. As an alternative, riders can ascend and descend the slopes aboard a unique aerial tramway that glides through and above the treetops and across wooded valleys. Back on the ground, adventures continue with kayak or tube rides through rippling river rapids, jeep safaris on back roads and forest trails, and cycling tours into the heart of the rainforest.

The island of Dominica is home to the last members of the indigenous Kalinago people, a pre-Columbian culture that continues a way of life dating back more than a thousand years. Located in a remote valley on the island's eastern shore, the Carib Territory is a 3,700-acre special district set aside for the Kalinago. The land is communally owned by the group, who continue a traditional way of life-based on artisanal farming, fishing and the manufacture of traditional handicrafts. Visitors are welcomed and can immerse in the group's daily life.

Visitors who are more interested in relaxation than adventure can plan spa visits, town tours, sunset sails, whale watching excursions and quiet times on secluded beaches. Social scientists have declared the people of Dominica to be among the happiest and longest-lived in the world. Spent some time on this rich and scenic island and you will understand why.

Learn more about Dominica by contacting us at 800-328-2288 or send us an email at sales@caradonna.com.