Good diving courses in thailand (cheap ones preferred)

[Jet1]

Yikes… sorry this is a repeat thread. Posted in the newbie session fore realising that there is an "asia" one… very newbie here… sorry sorry.

Hi people,

I know this question had probably been asked 100000000 times before

I am a newbie who is thinking of venturing into diving and underwater photography BUT there is one teeny weeny problem… I dun have a scuba license yet. Am thinking of organising a diving expedition course to thailand this june/july but do not know of any good locations or even diving operators.

Would anyone be so kind as to give me some suggestions as to which part of thailand I should go? And of course recommendations for good/cheap diving operators would be greatly appreciated. A "guess-timate" of the price of a 4-5 day liveaboard diving course would be great too. Hee, sorry for this long post.

Thanks so much people.

Is june/july even a good time to go scuba ah? No choice.…. Sch holidays ma

 

[stevenl]

In June/July the weather is best at the Gulf side. However, I personally think the diving is better at the Andaman Sea. I would not do a course on a liveaboard, a normal course is much better. If you want to go to the Gulf, be very vareful of you you're going to do your course with, unfirtunately there are plenty of operators where you get a diving certificate, but you won't learn how to dive. Normally (not always): very cheap is not very good.

 

[jagfish]

Just a guess...Do you live in Japan?

If so, have you considered Okinawa?

JAG

 

[japan-diver]

Just a guess...Do you live in Japan?

If so, have you considered Okinawa?

JAG

Have to agree that in this industry you get what you pay for and the cheapest course isn't generally the best.

 

[Jet1]

Wow. Thanks for all the responses! Anyway, I'm from singapore. Considering perhantium in maylaysia or tionman as alternatives to thailand now. What do you guys think?

Oh yea. Do u guys know of any good and cheap operators? In singapore or overseas also can. Would really appreciate it if you can provide me with some contacts. Thanks so much people! Greatly appreciated

 

[ragdoll]

heya jet1.

I agree with japan-diver, courses here are either cheap or good.. very rarely do they coincide.

However, you mentioned school holidays, are you a student?

If you are a student, there are trips regularly organised by different tiertiary institutes and they are usually VERY competitatively priced. These courses are usually run at Tioman or Pulau Aur.

If you went abroad to thailand or malaysia just to do a basic OW course, youd be paying between 3 -4 times what you'd pay on one of these trips.

Even if you arent a student, there are other alternatives.

iIf you are interested, PM me and I should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[h90]

Would say: either go to Phuket or even better Koh Tao, where zillions of dive centers are and where they fight for every customer. Or you check complete empty places where some small dive centers are.
I had with ultra cheap good experiences as I had the luck that I found not Instructors who really love their job.
Would say with a medium/high priced course you may get a medium to high quality course.
With a very low price course, you may get with luck a very very good service (either new company, or a 1 person DC and the owner is teaching you himself) or with bad luck a very lousy service (half dead company, with instruction does not get salary anymore, owner who teach himself because noone wants to work with him).
I saw all of that.

 

[stevenl]

This thread was started 3 years ago, I would presume that the OP has either done a course already or is not interested anymore.