Diving in Koh Samui or Koh Tao?

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sugarhuny

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Hi!

This is my first dive I will be going on since I got certified (way back in May 2008). And I finally found a friend who is also certified. We decided to go to Koh Samui for vacation in early April (or maybe about 5 or 6 days) & realized why not go diving there too.

I was wondering if I could get some help since I originally got certified b/c another friend convinced me to do so, and I didn't know much about dive sites in general.

As I do some research, it seems most boats from Koh Samui end up in Koh Tao area for diving, right? I thought it would be easier to ask this forum for some help since reading websites/blogs/forums is a bit scattered & might not be clear to me.

So my questions are:
1) Is it worth it just stay in Koh Samui & take 1 or 2 day trips out to Koh Tao for diving (even if it is a longer boat ride from Koh Tao)? How much longer would the boat ride be from K
2) Or should we spend a night or 2 in Koh Tao to do our diving there? (We don't have a tight budget, but we aren't luxury travelers either)
3) Do you guys have any recommendations for dive operators for Koh Samui and Koh Tao?
4) What do you recommend that are must-see things to see for this area?

Sorry, so many questions. I'm excited to finally go diving after being certified 2 years ago (hopefully I remember what I need to do to!).

Thank you for you help!
 
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It is true that a lot of the boats from Samui end up going to Koh Tao to dive. I would say just go to Koh Tao and spend a few nights there and do your diving. It's a great island with lots to do. The best dive sites on the island are Chumpon Pinnacle and South West Pinnacle. Sail Rock is also a great dive but boats only head out that far every once in a while. Chumpon and South West are deeper dives. The top of Chumpon Pinnacle is right around 15 meters, being OW certified means you can only go down to 18 meters. If you are going to dive those sites I would suggest doing a deep adventure dive. That way they would take you down to 30 meters and you could enjoy everything those two sites have to offer, and you will be certified down to 30 meters from then on. But since you haven't been diving in 2 years I would suggest maybe doing a scuba review as well as maybe doing some shallower dives before jumping out to the deeper sites.

There are a lot of great operations on the island. I did my Dive Master with New Way Diving and they are a great dive operation. The great thing about New Way is they are the first boat out in the morning so you have the first dive site all to yourself. They also go to Chumpon or Southwest every morning (they alternate between the two). Having Chumpon all to yourself as well as watching the sun rise over Koh Tao is worth waking up early for. Other good dive shops are Master Divers and Scuba Junction.
 
You could go over to Koh Tao with a morning boat and do two shallow afternoon dives the same day and two deeper dives the next morning and go back to Samui again.

On Samui however, there are daily trips to Sail Rock, arguably the best dive site in the Gulf. All sites around Koh Tao are also visited. Diving from Samui will be more expensive, due to the distance that needs to be traveled.
If you stay on Samui, you can visit the Ang Thong National Marine Park, Koh Tao boats in general don't go there.

You can get all kinds of accommodation nowadays on Koh Tao, even high end luxury resorts. What Koh Tao doesn't have are shopping malls, a movie theater, hospitals etc. Therefor Koh Tao has a laid back atmosphere, pending on where you go though and for two nights or so you most likely will survive and be fine.
 
Thank you for all of your suggestions!

It sounds for Koh Tao 2 shallow afternoon dives & then 2 deeper dives the following morning is a good idea :) I assume Chumpon and Southwest are not near each other to dive in the same day? So if I did a deep adventure dive, it would be one or the other? If so, which do you recommend?

So for Sail Rock, it is better to get there from Samui? It would not be overkill if I do the 4 dives from Koh Tao and then more dives from Samui since you recommend Sail Rock? Do you have any suggestions for dive operators from Samui?

Side questions (if you know):
1) Recommendations for lodging in Koh Tao? Either budget or mid-priced?
2) Besides diving, what else do you recommend to do at Samui since my friend & I would be there for about 5 nights?

Thank you again for your suggestions!
 
Chumpon and South West are not near each other. Chumpon Pinnacle is about 45 mintues north west of Koh Tao, and South West Pinnacle is about 45 minutes south west of Koh Tao. So you won't be able to do both in the same morning. I like Chumpon a bit more, basically because you have the slight chance of seeing bull sharks. You will see a lot of the same things at both dive sites. Schooling barracudas, trevally, giant groupers, etc. and if you're real lucky a whale shark.

Sail rock is a great site. If you dive this before diving Koh Tao you can do your deep adventure dive here as well. Sail rock has the chimney, a couple resident giant morays, schooling barracudas, lots of fish life, and also the chance of seeing a whale shark.
 
1) Is it worth it just stay in Koh Samui & take 1 or 2 day trips out to Koh Tao for diving (even if it is a longer boat ride from Koh Tao)? How much longer would the boat ride be from K

Most Samui dive operators run full-day trips. Apart from Sail Rock and Anthong, all of their boats go to Koh Tao for the dives anyway. The Samui boats leave early in the morning (6-8am) complete 3 dives and then return late in the afternoon (speedboats) or early evening (big wooden boats).

In contrast, the Koh Tao boats have a very short transit time to the local dive sites. They normally depart twice per day, for morning and afternoon 2-tank dive trips.

2) Or should we spend a night or 2 in Koh Tao to do our diving there? (We don't have a tight budget, but we aren't luxury travelers either)

There is plenty of budget accomodation available on Koh Tao. The Mae Haad area (nearest the arrival piers) tends to be the cheapest. The more expensive area is Sairee Beach - but even there you can get a fan room for 800 baht per night.

3) Do you guys have any recommendations for dive operators for Koh Samui and Koh Tao?


Koh Tao: Master Divers (Mae Haad)

4) What do you recommend that are must-see things to see for this area?

Koh Tao: The dive sites! Lotus Bar, in Sairee, in the eveningSamui: The Big Buddha statue. The snake farm.

Dive Sites (in order of 'spectacularness'):

Chumporn Pinnacle
Sail Rock, Southwest Pinnacle
Shark Island, Green Rock, White Rock
Twins, Japanese Gardens
Tanote Bay, Sairee Reef
 
Thank you for all of your suggestions!

It sounds for Koh Tao 2 shallow afternoon dives & then 2 deeper dives the following morning is a good idea :) I assume Chumpon and Southwest are not near each other to dive in the same day? So if I did a deep adventure dive, it would be one or the other? If so, which do you recommend?

So for Sail Rock, it is better to get there from Samui? It would not be overkill if I do the 4 dives from Koh Tao and then more dives from Samui since you recommend Sail Rock? Do you have any suggestions for dive operators from Samui?

Sail Rock is indeed better from Samui, speedboats leave at 8am and return around 2 pm and include hotel transfers. Feel free to pm for recommendations.

Side questions (if you know):
1) Recommendations for lodging in Koh Tao? Either budget or mid-priced?

Try Ananda, near the Safety Stop in Mae Haad, rooms with a/c, tv and wifi for around 1.500,-THB.


2) Besides diving, what else do you recommend to do at Samui since my friend & I would be there for about 5 nights?

Maybe check out my Koh Samui info blog, see link below in my signature for things to do on Samui.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Let me know if may have any questions.
 
I just completed a few dives in Koh Tao with Big Blue diving which I recommend, they have some good stay and dive packages....50% discounted a/c rooms or FREE dorm rooms if you also dive with them which is why I chose them over New Way. Sail Rock is hard to dive, since they go out there only once every so often as others said..I couldn't dive it for this reason. I did dive Chumpon Pinnacle, viz has been crap for all the dives I did (15-20ft..practically ZERO viz once when descending!) but the marine life was not so bad.

I have also been on Koh Samui and it mostly has a party atmosphere (Kao San Road of the islands!) whereas Koh Tao has a laid back small town village kinda feel...a lot nicer and there are a LOT more dive ops here. I recommend staying in Koh Tao.
 
Thank you for your suggestions! Sorry, I didn't realize I got more responses.

I hear that Koh Samui & Koh Tao are flooding now :depressed: So my friend & I are thinking, maybe we should go somewhere else just to be safe since our trip to Thailand is this weekend. In my quick research, I learned that Koh Chang as a potential place in Thailand for a relaxing/beach vacation with some diving.

Do you guys know anything about Koh Chang? Is it reasonably worth it to go diving there (I assume Koh Tao is still better, but given this as an alternative, what do you know)?

Thanks for your help!
 
I dived off Koh Tao with a company called Davy jones locker and it was amazing! I did 4 different dive sites and saw bull sharks, a whale shark and a turtle. I can highly recommend the diving around koh Tao (and the dive school for that matter)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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