best month for doing a liveaboard

[lemurs2]

Hello all, We are looking to do a liveaboard for 7+ days but are get away time needs to be between Aug and Oct. Which month would be the best for diving there. Any whale sharks that time of year?
Also any suggestions on good airfare from Los Angeles?

 

[mjh]

You can try contacting this operation. We dove with them last year, great boat, great crew and very helpfull.

http://www.philkade.com

 

[Footslogger]

Well ...the "quick" answer from me, living in Wyoming and all, would be anytime in the Winter.

But seriously, it depends a lot on where you're planning on diving. There really is no BAD time to dive a liveaboard but during hurricane season your chances of getting weathered out are higher.

We have had success in Belize 2 years in a row during the March time frame. Did Bahamas in June and had some higher winds but otherwise it was a good trip. This year we're hitting the Caymans in May.

 

[Mossman]

Hello all, We are looking to do a liveaboard for 7+ days but are get away time needs to be between Aug and Oct. Which month would be the best for diving there. Any whale sharks that time of year?
Also any suggestions on good airfare from Los Angeles?

Diving the Andaman Sea (which I supposed is what you want, given that you've posted in the Thailand forum) is extremely seasonal. Liveaboards only run from November to March or thereabouts (maybe October through April). By consensus, February seems to be the all-time favorite month. I did a Burma Banks liveaboard in December and was sort of disappointed by the conditions, but I saw video from the previous year at the same exact time that was phenomenal. (We saw a total of three sharks at the Banks, which is pretty darn low, and no whale sharks the entire trip).

If you're not set on Thailand, you might want to consider Indonesia where the liveaboards tend to move around to whereever is the best diving at a particular time of year. Or, if you really need a whale shark fix, Galapagos at your preferred date range offers practically guaranteed sightings.

Thai Airways flies direct from LAX-Bangkok and it's an easy connection with multiple flights a day to Phuket. (Though I did the LAX-Bangkok legs on EVA via Taipei so I could get Continental miles.) Singapore Airlines is another popular choice, though you'll need to connect in Singapore. Likewise, Cathay Pacific can get you there through Hong Kong, etc., and I'm sure there's a way to do it with a host of other airlines. Air fares change from day to day so there's no way to know what's cheapest until you have dates in mind and start to look in earnest. I just lost a $440 LAX/GCM round-trip fare by sitting on it for a week, so if you find a real good deal, book first and ask questions later. Still, I wouldn't recommend heading to Thailand in the summer on my worst enemies, no matter how good the deal.

 

[lemurs2]

Thanks Mossman,
Yes, Phuket was the area were are looking to go. We really wanted to dive PNG but that is out of our budget, but we wanted a little more than muck diving (which is great) and seems to be the most common thing is Indonesia. I was checking out Thailand prices for airfare and liveaboard prices and that would be right in our budget. I just don't know if Aug- Oct is a good time to go or not. We flew Singapore air to get to the Maldives in Jan 07 and were very happy with it.

 

[Zippsy]

I'd agree with the others. Late october is the very beginning of the Andaman season. This past year Oct - Dec was very unusually not nice, possibly due to El Nino. Since mid-Jan though, it has been stunning by all reports.

Maybe some other options would be a LOB around north Sulawesi or Flores / Komodo.

 

[stevenl]

Every year there are discussions on the forum about liveaboards between May and October. There are boats going out, and personally I like them. Max. 4 days, Similans only (so no Koh Bon-Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock) but: hardly any other divers, no boat traffic, good vis and good marine life as well.
The wind can be quite strong and comes from the West, so there is a chance a trip is cancelled. This happens one to us last season.

Boats going out:
Really Wicked Witch
Genesis
Colona VI
Nautica

 

[Mossman]

Thanks Mossman,
Yes, Phuket was the area were are looking to go. We really wanted to dive PNG but that is out of our budget, but we wanted a little more than muck diving (which is great) and seems to be the most common thing is Indonesia. I was checking out Thailand prices for airfare and liveaboard prices and that would be right in our budget. I just don't know if Aug- Oct is a good time to go or not. We flew Singapore air to get to the Maldives in Jan 07 and were very happy with it.

Muck diving certainly isn't the only thing going on in Indonesia. We did a Bali-Komodo liveaboard in July and had great conditions. Aside from a handful of muck dives (including one of the most interesting night dives I've ever made), we did drift dives over reefs with mantas and schooling bumphead parrotfish, pinnacle dives with great viz and huge schools of fish, and the eerie South Komodo sites, where the cooler darker water hides incredibly colorful treasures on current-swept pinnacles like Cannibal Rock.

 

[sailmaryann]

August to october is gulf of thailand season, particularly koh tao. October is worth risking similans, although still risky, and this is developping into a nino year (east indonesia very dry, crop failure in australia). Did you look into sipadan? the island itself is sort of controlled (local resorts closed), but you can dive from nearby mabul...
In both locations (gulf of thailand and sipadan), you'll get a wide choice, and prices are not killing.

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

I did the Anggun in late November one year and it was good. Although we didn't see any sharks at the Banks and the seas were so rough at Black Rock that we had to turn around and leave, soon after we got there (People were being thrown from their beds). We did see Mantas at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai. A very enjoyable trip even without the Silvertips. It would really be a toss up to go in October. I'd probably not chance it and go to Komodo...Always nice there!