Quick Facts

Route:Lundy Island Seal Swim & Ilfracombe Celebration
Date: 4th July 2026
Type of trip: Girls that Scuba 10th Birthday Celebration
Duration: Day trip + evening event
Location: Lundy Island & Ilfracombe
Experience level: No scuba diving experience required, confident swimming ability recommended

Meeting point: Ilfracombe Harbour

We’re marking this huge milestone with a magical day swimming with wild seals around Lundy Island, one of the UK’s most iconic marine life experiences. Expect face-to-face, playful encounters , and unforgettable moments shared with an amazing community of women.

After our ocean adventure, we’ll head back to Ilfracombe to continue the celebrations with a birthday dinner and cocktails in a local restaurant looking over the harbour, raising a glass to a decade of connection, empowerment, and underwater exploration. 🍸✨

This is more than just a meet-up it’s a celebration of the friendships, adventures, and stories that have shaped Girls that Scuba over the past 10 years, and the many more still to come.

With only 11 spaces available, this intimate celebration is the perfect chance to connect with like minded women and be part of a truly memorable milestone. 🎉

Set in the Bristol Channel, Lundy Island is a wild, rugged island known for its dramatic cliffs, sweeping sea views, and incredible wildlife both above and below the surface. The island is one of the best places in England to spot puffins, especially in late spring and summer, when these charismatic seabirds return to nest. With their colourful beaks and comical personalities, they’re often seen bobbing on the water or darting between cliffside burrows, a real highlight if we’re lucky enough to spot them.

Reaching Lundy is all part of the adventure, the boat journey from Ilfracombe Harbour takes approximately 1.5 hours, depending on sea conditions, offering beautiful coastal views along the way and the chance to spot dolphins or seabirds en route.

After our time in the water, we’ll step ashore to explore on foot, wandering along coastal paths surrounded by wildlife, grazing ponies, and panoramic ocean views in every direction. We’ll make our way up to one of the island’s stunning viewpoints, where we’ll pause to enjoy a relaxed packed lunch and birthday cake, taking in the fresh sea air and celebrating this milestone together in one of the UK’s most unique and beautiful settings.

We’re heading to the wild and beautiful waters of Lundy Island, (Devon, UK) a protected marine conservation zone and one of the best places in the UK to encounter wild grey seals.

This isn’t just a “spot them from a distance” experience… these seals are famously curious, playful, and interactive, often swimming right up to you, spinning, twisting and even mimicking your movements in the water.

Whether you choose to swim, snorkel, or freedive, you’ll have the chance to:
✨ Move freely alongside seals as they glide, roll and loop around you
✨ Experience close, eye-to-eye encounters in their natural habitat
✨ Potentially spot other marine life on the journey, from dolphins to seabirds

The sites around Lundy are shallow and sheltered, making them accessible and perfect for extended, snorkle time in the water with these incredible animals, as well as kelp, jellies and more.

Swimming with seals at Lundy Island is a truly unique wildlife experience. These animals are curious and interactive, but they are still wild, meaning every encounter is on their terms. Some days they may be incredibly playful and close, other times more relaxed and distant part of the magic is embracing the unpredictability.

This is not a scuba diving trip, but you should be a confident swimmer and feel comfortable spending time in open water.

You’ll need to be familiar with the equipment required for extended time in cooler UK waters, including wetsuits, hoods, gloves, and snorkelling or freediving gear. Staying warm and comfortable is a key part of enjoying the experience.

No formal dive certification is required, but a reasonable level of fitness and confidence in the sea is important, as you’ll be getting in and out of the boat and swimming in natural conditions.

Your host for this special celebration is Girls that Scuba founder, Sarah Richard.

What Sarah started 10 years ago with just a couple of female dive buddies has grown into a global community of hundreds of thousands of women around the world.

Hosting this trip in her home country makes the celebration even more meaningful. It’s also a rare opportunity for her to take a well-earned break from life with her new baby and three-year-old, and be right there on the boat celebrating alongside you all.

Sarah has led multiple trips to Lundy Island and knows these waters, and their residents, well. She’s had countless encounters with the island’s famously playful seals, including plenty of curious fin nibbles, so you’ll be in very experienced hands.

She’ll be bringing the cake, the stories, and the good times, and making sure this is a birthday celebration to remember. 🎂✨

She’ll also be joined by Trips Manager, Amy who’s making a quick pit-stop in the UK before heading off to our Egypt trip the following week so you’ll have two familiar faces from the Girls that Scuba team there to celebrate with you.

This is a day trip on a 10-meter catamaran with open sides, so you should be comfortable spending time on a small boat in UK sea conditions. There is a toilet onboard and a small sheltered area in the captain’s cabin, but overall this is an outdoor, exposed experience expect wind, sea spray, and a real sense of adventure.

Expect cooler water temperatures (14-17c), and the need for a wetsuit, hood, and gloves (optional). You’ll be getting in and out of a small boat and spending time in cold water, so you should feel comfortable in the sea and confident swimming in these conditions.

This is a day trip rather than a full expedition, but it still requires a sense of adventure and flexibility. Sea conditions and weather can vary, and plans may adapt to ensure the best and safest experience possible.

After our time in the water, we’ll shift gears and head to Ilfracombe for a celebratory evening of dinner and cocktails. This part of the experience is all about connection, sharing stories, making new friends, and celebrating a decade of community together.

If you’re looking for tropical temperatures, guaranteed wildlife interactions, or a purely luxury experience, this might not be the right fit. But if you love the ocean, enjoy a bit of British adventure, and want to celebrate alongside like-minded women in a meaningful and memorable way…this trip is exactly that.

If you are new to our group trips, read our reviews here to get more of an idea of what to expect.

Find out more about our trips and the respect and openness we ask for on these experiences as well as any requirements.

Due to the nature of this trip, sailing out to Lundy Island is highly dependent on safe sea and wind conditions. This means there is a possibility the trip may be cancelled due to weather.

The boat operator will always aim to give as much notice as possible, however this is often within 48 hours of departure, as forecasts can change quickly.

For this reason, we strongly recommend booking flexible or refundable accommodation and travel where possible.

If the trip is cancelled due to weather, we will be able to refund a portion of the ticket price. As this is a packaged experience, the exact refund amount cannot be confirmed until we receive final costs from the boat operator.

Alternatively, the boat company may offer you a space on a future trip with them. Please note that this would not be a Girls that Scuba trip, but simply a place on one of their standard departures.

If you decide to cancel for any reason, we will attempt to re-sell your ticket up to 30 days before the trip. If we are able to resell your space, you will receive a refund minus a £20 admin fee.