Advice for diving Thailand in August?

[anastasiasofia]

Hi all,

I have a spare week in Thailand coming up at the end of August and am looking to do a bit of diving. I already have my Open Water and about 15 dives under my belt and am looking to do my Advanced Open Water while I am there too.

Have browsed the forums and the advice on diving in August is a bit sketchy. I'm just looking for any recommendations as to where would be best at that time of year? I'm hoping to maybe see an island or two so. Have heard Ko Tao is one of the cheapest but was thinking about going to Ko Phi Phi as I read it had some decent dive sites?

Any recommendations of good places to dive and any company recommendations would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Anastasia

 

[limbo]

Weather wise the Gulf side will be best during August, although the Gulf islands may be rather busy. Visibility is usually at it's prime as well, with Sail Rock having 30-or plus viz during August.

This doesn't mean you should write off the Andaman side, they can have stretches of good weather although in general the sea's a bit more choppy than outside of their monsoon season but than again, you can be lucky and have fairly flat seas.

My advice is to just get into Thailand and decide on the spot where to go based on current weather conditions.

Hope you enjoy your diving, wherever you may end up.

 

[Quero]

There are definitely some lovely dive sites accessible from Phi Phi that are great for expanding your experience as a diver. August is a monsoon-season month, meaning that wind is blowing from a westerly direction, which creates somewhat choppy sea conditions at times, but we still dive just about every day, with rare exceptions.

On Phi Phi, in the summer, things are fairly quiet, so you can easily just show up and shop around to see which dive center you "click" with for your course and diving. Try to talk to the person who will be assigned as your instructor to make sure you get a good feeling from her or him and that all your questions are answered to your satisfaction before you sign up for the course.

As Limbo said above, the Gulf side islands will be in the midst of their high season, so it will be busier over there, but the sea conditions are likely to be calmer, if that's a concern.

 

[stevenl]

Weather wise, mainly because of the sea conditions, the Gulf Islands would be your best choice. But having said that, the diving in the Andaman Sea is year round better IMO. So considering your choices, I would recommend Phi Phi.

 

[anastasiasofia]

Thanks for your advice. I was quite keen to do my diving course on the gulf side- potentially Koh Samui, as I can work a trip in to Sail Rock in to the course and have heard it's quite special. Like you say, I may visit some dive places and see what the deal is when I get there!

 

[ayeshacantrell]

Most Samui dive centres visit the sites on Koh Tao - Sail Rock being the exception and closer to KPN. So you could dive Sail Rock from either Samui or KPN but centres on Koh Tao do visit too.