Diving Koh Samui in December?

[Pearlman]

I contacted some two or three dive shops in Koh Samui to plan my diving vacation around Xmas. So far not a single shop has responded after a week.

Are the dive shops shutdown at this time of the year due to bad weather or what?

P

Sent from Tablet, please excuse brevity and typos...

 

[stevenl]

Some may be closed at the moment, but I would at least expect an answer.

Samui is a nice island end for sure worth a visit, but not the best place for a diving vacation around Xmas.

 

[Bred22]

Most diving from koh samui are day trips to around koh tao it may be worth if you want to do a little diving booking a room for a night or two there the ferry is 850 baht and runs twice a day and only takes around 2 and a half hours

you our can find rooms on koh tao to fit any budget and the diving is really cheep there and you can dive there all year

I have recently been living on koh tao for a couple of months I also stayed on koh samui for ten days but didn't dive there because as said above there isn't much diving done on the island

If you want any info on diving on koh tao e.g. Sites, dive shops or even food or where to stay just ask I don't work there or anything so all info is my opinion and honest

 

[Pearlman]

OK, the idea was to stay three or four nights in Samui and do the day trips around Koh Tao on the slightly larger diving yatchs to be back by 6pm.

If they aren't responding the shops must be closed. How bad can the weather be? Heavy rains many hours a day or light showers ?

I'll check the idea of staying at Koh Tao itself and update in a few days.

Thanks!
P

Sent from Tablet, please excuse brevity and typos...

 

[stevenl]

If they aren't responding the shops must be closed. How bad can the weather be? Heavy rains many hours a day or light showers ?

1. the weather is not too bad at all, in Andaman area really nice, Gulf of Thailand really not too bad;
2. I'm not in that part of the country, but very much doubt the shops are completely closed and unable to answer emails.

 

[MichaelWallentin]

According to another BM who are based in Koh Tao (GoodtimesAdventure), the weather can be sketchy in the Golf of Thailand from October to December. I recommend you send them a PM or email.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Hi there,

Thanks Michael. Yes, typically the worst of our monsoon season in the Gulf is late Oct to December. Normally its pretty nice again by xmas/new year time though. We've already had a few storms in the last week, but now its fine and sunny again for the moment. Unfortunately every year, the wet season is getting more difficult to predict - last year it was late and the wind and waves lasted through into Jan/early Feb. And the year before there virtually was no monsoon at all. Whatever the condition though, it's nowhere near bad enough to stop diving - and lets face it, many other SB members in less tropical locations dive in way worse conditions on a regular basis and consider it 'normal', so we're pretty spoiled really! On a bad monsoonal day here, viz can get as low as 5-10m, however for the majority of the year, 12-20m is more like the average, with some days or weeks in excess of 25-30m.

As far as shops being closed on Samui, I'm not sure. On Koh Tao some centres close for the month of November for boat and equipment servicing etc, but many remain open. For example we close from the 1st-7th, but after that its business as usual again. To be honest I dont know the operations side of any of the Samui centres well enough to know what they do. Purely from a professional POV, I would like to think you'd at least get an out of office reply if they were completely closed for the season though. You would think, no?

The others are right in what they say though, most Samui based centres just charge you a heap more money and speedboat you to the Koh Tao dive sites anyway, so it may be more viable just to base yourself here for a few days while you get your dive fix. If it helps I'll attach a link to the weather forecasting system we use, which gives regularly updating forecasts a week in advance. Bear in mind its not fool proof though - the 2 nearest weather stations are on Samui and the mainland respectively (a distance of roughly 80km away), so there is definitely some margin for error!
WindGURU: Thailand - Koh Tao, Mae Haad Bay

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you need more up to date info nearer the time

 

[Pearlman]

Wonderful of you to make such a long post detailing the situation.
I'll contact you around the weekend or Monday next when I sit down to finalize my itinerary.

Much appreciated.

Thanks
P

Sent from Tablet, please excuse brevity and typos...

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

No worries, happy travel planning

 

[limbo]

Pearlman, don't know who you approached on Samui, but in general most dc's are open, so it's a bit strange that you didn't get a response. That's most certainly not how I conduct my business.
Having said that, have a look here for daily, first hand weather updates and predictions. Whatever you end up doing, hope you enjoy it!