Scuba Diving in Thailand

Geographically Thailand sits 14 degrees North of the equator, bordering Burma, Laos and Cambodia to the West, North, East and tapers into the Malay Peninsula to the South. It has over 2,000 kilometers of coastline, brushed by hundreds of offshore islands. It enjoys a tropical climate and its waters are warm and clear and home to an immense variety of marine life and coral reefs making it heaven for scuba divers. Diving in Thailand is concentrated mainly around the tourist centers of Phuket and Koh Samui, although there are notable sites elsewhere.

Our boats cruise all the best sites and over the years have encountered a dazzling array of fish and marine life, which we will be delighted to introduce you to. The East coast of Thailand offers some great diving. The best sites are all close to the islands of Koh Samui, and Koh Tao, with the latter providing some great diving very close to shore.

Other great dive sites are across the Isthmus of Kra, located some way off the West Coast, in the Andaman Sea and can be reached only by Liveaboard dive boats. Diving in the Andaman sea stretches along the 750 kilometers coastline from the southern border with Malaysia up into the Mergui Archipelago in Burmese waters. This is a vast area, much of which is still being explored although there are already over eighty recognized dive sites providing truly world class diving.

Dive Seasons

Diving in Thailand is possible all year. The water is always warm and visibility generally good, although some sites are subject to seasonal variations according the conditions above the surface. The reason some of the diving in Thailand is seasonal is that Asian weather patterns, especially the monsoons affect the sailing conditions making it impossible or at least treacherous for boats to venture into deep waters during certain monsoon seasons.

Although you can find the occasional operator diving the Similan Islands during the wet season time we recommend that divers stick to the seasons for each coast. Roughly these are as follows:

The West Coast (including the Similans, Surin, Hin Daeng, Burma Banks and Mergui) should normally be dived from October until May with the first part better for clear waters (i.e. visibility) and the second half better for spotting large Pelagic. From June through September the monsoon blows in from the Indian subcontinent in the west.

The East Coast (Gulf Of Thailand) can be dived all year, as the waters are not as deep and the sites much closer to shore. However November through December, the South East Monsoon can cause rough seas and make visibility unpredictable on occasion. The best months are from February through October as the water is clearest.

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