Six months' passport validity beyond your return date and two blank pages is the safe standard. Check visa, onward-ticket and any health-entry rules for your specific destination.
The six-month rule is the one that catches divers out
Most liveaboard destinations — Indonesia, the Maldives, Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico — require your passport to be valid for at least six months beyond your date of entry, and airlines enforce it at check-in. A passport with five months left will end your trip at the departure gate.
Also standard: at least two blank pages for stamps and visas, and often proof of onward or return travel. Some countries require a printed itinerary rather than an electronic one.
Visa arrangements vary widely and change
Indonesia and Egypt offer visa on arrival or an e-visa for most nationalities; the Maldives grants a free 30-day visa on arrival; Galápagos requires an Ecuadorian transit control card plus the national park fee; Costa Rica for Cocos trips has its own requirements. Always check your own nationality against the official source rather than a forum post, and do it at booking, not the week before.
Bring paper and digital copies of everything: passport photo page, visa, insurance certificate, certification cards, medical form and flight tickets. Keep the digital set in cloud storage and offline on your phone, because you will not have reliable internet at the marina.
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