Guide · Diving

Blue Cave Okinawa diving: from a first breath to a freedive

Blue Cave Okinawa diving ranges from a guided try dive for complete beginners to fun dives for certified divers and freediving on one breath. Here is how each works at Cape Maeda, and what the training rules allow.

Check availabilityfrom $44 · cancel for free

Editorial team, bluecaveokinawasnorkeling.comUpdated October 25, 2026about 6 min to read23 sources

Bookable here: the tour Okinawa: Blue Cave Scuba Diving Tour with GoPro Photos 4.9 (54 reviews) 2.5 hours from$85per person Check availabilityFree cancellation up to 24 hrs before

Quick answer

01The site: Cape Maeda is listed for divers at beginner level, with beach and boat entry and a depth of 40 m.¹
02No licence: A PADI try dive needs no certification and starts at age 10.² ³
03How deep: A try dive goes no deeper than 12 meters in open water.⁴
04Scuba trip: One Blue Cave scuba listing takes ages 10 to 55 for 2.5 hours.
05Flying after: DAN advises at least 12 hours after a single dive.⁵

Why divers come to Cape Maeda

The Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau says Cape Maeda has some of the best snorkeling and diving in Okinawa, as well as the famous luminous water of the Blue Cave.⁶ It rates the site for beginners, with beach and boat entry, a moderate current and a depth of 40 m, and says Napoleon fish and sea turtles are occasionally seen.¹

Divers see the cave differently from snorkelers. From the surface you look down into the blue; from below you look up at the light coming through the water, with the shapes of the snorkelers above you. Inside, the bureau names bigscale soldierfish and Ryukyu sweepers among the fish that shelter in the shade of the rock.⁷

The cape is set up for it. The covered multipurpose space at the facility can be used for diving lessons, and one of the tenants fills and rents diving tanks.⁸ ⁹ Showers and changing rooms wait at the top of the stairs for when you come out salty and cold.¹⁰

A try dive

How a first dive at the cape goes

Before booking

Health check

Read the listing's medical list; some conditions rule you out.
At the shop

Gear fitted

The shop prepares gear from your height, weight and shoe size.
Briefing

Basics first

An introduction to scuba, not a certification.²
Up to 12 m

The dive

The open water limit of a PADI try dive.⁴
Afterwards

No flying yet

At least 12 hours after a single dive.⁵

Okinawa diving for beginners: the try dive

Okinawa diving for beginners usually means a try dive. PADI's version, Discover Scuba Diving, is a first taste of scuba, and it does not make you a certified diver.² You need to be at least 10 years old, and the maximum depth is 6 meters in the pool session and 12 meters on the optional open water dive.³ ⁴

A guide stays with you the whole time. You learn to breathe from the regulator, clear water from your mask and equalize your ears before you go under, and then you sink slowly along the slope with the instructor's hand within reach. The depth is the least important number of the day; the calm in your breathing is the one that counts.

The try dive is not for everyone. Divers Alert Network's advice is plain: skip the dive if a cold or anything else may block your sinus passages.¹¹ The scuba listing compared on this page refuses guests with heart, lung or ear problems, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy or pregnancy, among others. If any of that applies to you, talk to the shop before you book.

Depth limits

How deep each level may go

PADI's limits for each level and the site depth the tourism bureau lists for Cape Maeda.⁴ ¹² ¹³ ¹⁴ ¹

Your options

Ways to go under at the Blue Cave

Option	Ages	Length	Licence
Scuba from Maeda	10 to 55	2.5 hrs	Not stated
Freediving from Maeda	10 to 55	2.5 hrs	None
Guided dive by boat	See listing	2 hrs	Not needed
Snorkel or dive, Yamada	See listing	2 hrs	Trial or fun dive

From each GetYourGuide listing's own record.

Dive trips compared

Scuba, freediving or a mix

Ages 10 to 55

Blue Cave scuba

From a shop in Maeda

Length: 2.5 hours
Guided dive: 2 hours
Price: from $85

See this dive

Groups of 8

Blue Cave freediving

On one breath

Length: 2.5 hours
Masks: Prescription available
Price: from $59

See this dive

Trial or fun dive

Snorkel or dive

From Yamada

Length: 2 hours
To the site: 1 minute by car
Price: from $36

See this dive

Decision helper

Which way under?

Start from your experience

I have never used scuba I have an Open Water card I want to hold my breath, not a tank I am traveling with a younger child I fly home tomorrow

A try dive

No certification needed, from age 10.² ³

A fun dive

Trained to 18 meters.¹⁴

Freediving

A guided session from Maeda.

Snorkeling

Try dives start at 10.³

Snorkel instead

DAN advises at least 12 hours before flying.⁵

The maximum depth for a Discover Scuba Diving experience is 6 meters (20 feet) for the initial pool session and 12 meters (40 feet) if you do the optional open water dive, but that does not mean you have to go that deep.

PADISource 4

The scuba listings at the Blue Cave

One Blue Cave scuba trip starts from a dive shop at 1536-2 Maeda in Onna, across from the Shioya bus stop, and spends 2 hours on a guided dive. The whole trip lasts 2.5 hours and takes ages 10 to 55, with ID required. It is rated 4.86 from 54 reviews and costs from $85.

If the Blue Cave is closed, that shop dives an alternative site, and you get a full refund if you decline it; it also refunds you fully if it cancels for weather, a decision made on the morning of the dive. The shop asks you to message it your height, weight and shoe size, as the gear is prepared in advance.

Two other listings dive the cave from Onna. One offers a snorkel, a trial dive or a fun dive from 501-3 Yamada, 1 minute by car from the dive point, for private or small groups. Another runs a guided dive with no licence needed by speedboat, with groups of up to 3.

Checklist

Before a dive at the cape

When you book

Read the medical list in the listing
Check the age range for everyone
Bring ID if the listing asks for it

On the day

Skip the dive if you have a cold
Keep 12 hours or more before a flight
Message your sizes for the gear

Price check

Diving the cave for your group

Choose a dive and the number of people

Blue Cave scuba2.5 hoursfrom $85 Freediving2.5 hoursfrom $59 Snorkel or diveFrom Yamadafrom $36 Guided dive by boatNo licence neededfrom $86

People 2

Total from$169

per guest from $85

Check availabilityfree cancellation

The sum multiplies a listing's starting GetYourGuide price by the number you pick and converts it at today's European Central Bank rate; the exact total shows when you book.

Video

Diving the Blue Cave in Okinawa

The video only loads from YouTube once you press play.

Certified divers: depth and what you may do

Certification changes what you may do below. A newly certified PADI Open Water Diver is trained for a maximum of 18 meters, unless the training dives stayed shallower, in which case that shallower depth is the limit.¹⁴ To enrol in the course you must be at least 10, able to swim and in good health.¹⁵

Between the try dive and the full course sits the PADI Scuba Diver level. A PADI Scuba Diver must stay with a PADI Professional who supervises directly, and no deeper than 12 metres.¹² At Cape Maeda that covers the cave and the reef around it; leave the deeper drop-offs to divers whose training covers them.

Whatever your card says, dive the site with someone who knows it. Under Okinawa's water safety ordinance, diving businesses must notify the prefecture's Public Safety Commission, and the police ask visitors to check that the operator they use has done so.¹⁶ A good shop will tell you the plan, the depth and the turn point before you get wet.

Freediving in Okinawa

Freediving in Okinawa means diving on one breath, without a tank. One Blue Cave listing offers a guided freediving session from the dive shop at 1536-2 Maeda, with 2 hours on the guided tour, 2.5 hours in all, groups of up to 8 and ages 10 to 55. Prescription masks are available, and it starts from $59.

If you want to learn properly, a course is the next step. To enrol in a PADI Freediver course you must be at least 12, with adequate swimming skills and good health.¹⁷ On the course you practise breath-holds at rest and while swimming, then pull yourself down a line and finally dive on fins alone, between 10 and 16 metres.¹³

Freediving rewards patience. You relax on the surface, breathe slowly, fold at the hips and glide down with as little effort as you can. Never freedive alone: the prefectural police warn that marine leisure alone carries the risk of a serious accident and ask everyone to go with others and keep sight of each other.¹⁸

Closures, cancellations and the morning call

Divers face the same sea as everyone else. The facility bans swimming in bad weather and during high-wave or tsunami warnings, and it closes the stairs when the sea is too rough.¹⁹ ²⁰ Its flags include a level at which only groups with diving companies or instructors may enter.²¹

That middle level is one reason to dive with a shop rather than alone. The freediving trip says that if waves close the Blue Cave it uses an alternative site and gives no refund for the change. The scuba trip refunds you if you decline the alternative. Read which rule your listing follows before you pay.

Put the dives near the start of your trip and leave a free day after them. If the sea closes the cave on your first morning, you can try again later in the week, and you avoid the rush of diving on your last day before a flight.

After the dive: flying and resting

Leave time before your flight. DAN's minimum wait before a flight is 12 hours for a single no-decompression dive, and 18 hours when you have made repeated dives in a day or dived on consecutive days.⁵ The tourism bureau puts it more simply: do not fly on the same day you have been diving.²²

One Kerama intro-dive trip from Naha gives the same warning, telling guests not to board a plane within 18 hours of the dive. If you fly home from Naha, dive at the start of your trip and keep the last day for the beach or the aquarium.

Freshen up at the cape before you drive back. The facility's shower rooms open at 7:00 all year and close at 18:30 from April to November and at 18:00 from December to March.²³ A warm shower, a dry layer and a drink of water make the drive back to your hotel a lot more pleasant.

Plan your snorkel