First trip to Phuket... HELP!

[WarmWaterPursuit]

Hi All!

I would love your help... I'm headed to Phuket the first week of April. It's a first for me. I'm going with a non-diver and will be there for 8 full days. I expect to dive at least 3, possibly 4 days. I'll be staying at the Hilton near Karon Beach.

Two things I'd love your help with:

1. Who do I dive with? While I'm concerned about price, good service and dive sites is more important. I only want to dive with one outfit so I'd like to get someone that I can do everything with. I've read reviews on Sea Bees, Phuket Scuba Club and Thailand Divers. From what I can tell, Thailand Divers has some pretty poor reviews.

2. If you were me knowing that my time is somewhat limited and have to dive/depart out of Phuket, where are the must go to dive sites for me? I've heard of Whale Sharks in the area but don't know if that's possible from Phuket or if it's the right time of year. Anyways, where must I go?

Thank you very much for your time!

Glenn

 

[diversteve]

Marcia - [user]Quero[/user] - can probably be of some help.

I've moved this thread to the Thailand forum.

 

[stevenl]

The diving trips here are full daytrips.

What I would recommend you to do is a daytrip to Racha Noi and Racha Yai, one to Shark Point area and one to Phi Phi area, all with 3 dives. If you'd like to do one more day of diving there will be 1-2 sites in the Shark Point area you have not seen yet, so you can combine that/those with a site already visited.

 

[Zippsy]

...and, really, do not expect to see a whale shark.

 

[Quero]

If you want to dive with just one operator for all your dives, there are several options of safe and reliable operators. Sea Bees is certainly one of these, but there are others. Each operator runs trips according to a weekly schedule with destinations changed only for exceptional reasons, so if we have the date range you'll be visiting, we can see how to line up your daytrips with a few different operators so that you don't get much repetition, can approve the costs, are able to use the same operator for all daytrips, and maybe not dive consecutive days so that you don't abandon your travel companion for long stretches of days.

 

[whooyeah]

All operators seemed to be about the same price

dived on all4diving.com boat the other day and it was an excellent operation and lunch was the best thai buffet I've had in my 4 months traveling thailand.

Took a South Siam Divers boat on a day trip to King cruiser wreck/Shark point/Ko doc mai it was a great day and quite cheap at 3200 baht.


Racha noi/racha yai is rubbish. Your better off going to shark point a second time.

Try to get in anenome reef / shark point / ko doc mai

 

[Oldbear]

I have dived Phuket twice. The first time was on a liveaboard called the Junk...very fun. The second time my time was split between training with Scuba Cat and a daily fun trip with All4Diving. On the daily fun dive trip it was interesting that the dive operator picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off at the pier. At the pier we were met by our personal guide. The guide took us to a very large dive boat which several dive shops used. The large dive boat took the different dive shop' daily excursions to three different dive sites. On the large dive boat there was little small groups of guides-divers discussing the upcoming dives. From a logistical stand-point it was impressive to see a more efficient means of pooling resources together instead of many smaller half-filled boats with just a few divers on them. From a diver's stand point the sites were just a bit crowded...but not over crowded (except the King Crusier Wreck - a whole lot of fins in a small area) and the diving was still good.

On our second trip we went in September which is the low season from what I have been told. Maybe April might justify the Dive Operators to take their own boats out. Just something to consider...

Enjoy Thailand...truly an amazing land.

Happy Bubbles,

~Oldbear~

 

[Divealpha]

For dives on Karon beach, Phuket Scuba Club is the only one I know who offers dives directly off the beach,or from longtail to Koh Puh(nearest island).
Right know, I've spotted honeycomb moray, cuttlefish, pipefish and lots of nudies there.

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk 2

 

[whooyeah]

I would not recommend diving off the beach at karon or off a longtail boat.

Most tour operators will pick you up from your hotel at about 7:30-8 am and drive you 15 mins to Chalong pier at no extra cost.

There is a number of dive shops in Karon that dont have their own boats but will book the big operators for you.

Have a go at google

 

[stevenl]

For dives on Karon beach, Phuket Scuba Club is the only one I know who offers dives directly off the beach,or from longtail to Koh Puh(nearest island).
Right know, I've spotted honeycomb moray, cuttlefish, pipefish and lots of nudies there.

Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk 2

We also offer dives at Koh Puu plus at Kata Beach.

Personally though I would at the moment recommend a full daytrip over these shorter trips, more to see, more relaxing, more fun, all in all more value for money.