Advice for a Christmas dive trip to Thailand

[stevenl]

What i would recommend is a liveaboard trip to the Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. That you can do from either Khao Lak or Phuket. Lots of choice in good value for money boats in all price classes.
Also worthwhile is diving in the Shark point area, Bida Islands, Koh Haa and Hin Daeng/Muang. These divesites you can dive by daytrips or liveaboard. That you can do from Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi or Koh Lanta.

That time of year, I would recommend to book ahead of time. That way you can be sure you have spaces on the boat of your choice. The boats offering best value for money are also the ones that fill up first (not always though).

 

[divemaster86]

I got some pretty good ticket priced through Asiana Airlines. We will arrive in Bangkok Dec 17th and leave Jan 8th. Now I need to figure out an itinerary for diving and travel

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

how much did you pay and from what city?

 

[surinboy]

Yes. What's a good price and what are the stopovers?

I am always on the lookout for alternatives for our US clients.

Agree with Stevenl. If you want the best in Thailand diving for the time of year you are coming then a liveaboard Similans to Richelieu is the way to go. I imagine there will be plenty of spaces available on liveaboards this year, but for the better operators over christmas then you should look to book in the next couple of months.

 

[DevonDiver]

I concur with other posters about the need to organise an internal flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Public or backpacker transport is cheap and easy, but will be tiring and time consuming.

At that time of year, the best weather conditions will be on the West Coast. The best diving there is in the Simlians, or futher north into Burmese waters...and liveaboard will offer you the most dives at the best sites.

For liveaboard, you could either fly again from Bangkok to Phuket (but longer sea-trip) or get public transport to Koh Lak or Koh Lipe (shorter liveaboard transit time).

Koh Tao is a nice option if you want to do the East Coast (Gulf of Thailand)...and better than Koh Phangan, as the diving from there is done at Tao anyway (except for Sail Rock). However, the east coast will just be ending monsoon then, and you could get unlucky with the weather.

Travel to Koh Tao from Bangkok is either Plane & Ferry via Samui or Train/Bus and Ferry via Chumporn. Either way, it is an overnight trip.

 

[stevenl]

or get public transport to Koh Lak or Koh Lipe

Where do you want to go from Koh Lipe on a liveaboard?

 

[DevonDiver]

Where do you want to go from Koh Lipe on a liveaboard?

My bad... I kmeant Lanta...but wasn't concentrating lol

 

[stevenl]

Yes, Lanta to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang makes sense. I would recommend daytrips from there though.

 

[katdiver]

Nice one divemaster86! Get yourself down here, there's some great diving in this area that's already been recommended, then we'll get you over to Khao Lak for a Similans/Surin liveaboard.

 

[divemaster86]

My tickets were just around $1,500 a piece leaving from Chicago (ORD) and connecting in Seoul (including the travel insurance). The price seems to double for the holidays, but I booked as soon as I found something reasonable since everyone has been telling me flights fill up quickly. We leave on December 17th and return on Jan 9th.

I think our tentative plan is to stay a night or two in Bangkok when we arrive (we arrive at 10:05 PM). Then, fly to Chang Mai for a couple days (not sure all that there is to see there, but I know I want to ride an elephant!). From Chang Mai, I was thinking we would fly down the Phuket for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and stay in a nicer resort where we will easily be able to contact family in the states. From there, I think we will move on (maybe to Khao Lak?) to do some heavy duty diving. I know I want to do the Similans, but I am not sure how my husband would do on a liveaboard. Can you see just as much on the day trips from Khao Lak?

From here on out is where I need help, because I want to see as much as possible. I guess my main question is where should we stay in order to be able to easily get to our sites? Should we move around or stay put somewhere like Koh Lak? I don't mind moving-- we plan to travel light and we are pretty sure we plan on renting dive gear rather than lugging ours around. We will have a decent amount of time before we head back to Bangkok (our plane leaves on Jan 8th, but we will probably go back to Bankok a few days early to do more sight seeing).

If anyone has an "ideal" schedule of how many days, where to stay, and what sites to visit, it would be really helpful. We haven't really made any concrete plans, except my husband is insisting that we visit where the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed before we leave, and we would also like to see some of the jungle on surface intervals

We are very excited and welcome any advice you may have ranging from dive operations to good restaurants (and even non-diving sites to see)!!