Ko Samui/Koh Tao Thailand Help Please

[ephman]

hi,

i'll be staying in ko samui at the end of november, i've heard that koh tao has better diving though. could somebody help make a good suggestion for a diveshop that could bring us to koh tao for the day?

thank you for the bandwidth,
ephman

 

[Blox]

Most (if not all) dive shops at Koh Samui will take you to Koh Tao if you book a day's diving. Usually you get the option of going by speedboat or, at a few hundred Baht surcharge, by more comfortable catamaran (if I remember correctly, the surcharge was about Baht 500 = abt USD 12.00).
The choice of dive shops in Samui is vast. I personally have been with Calypso Diving and was very happy with them - not the biggest operation around, but very friendly staff (at least when I was with them). The operation is run by a Thai-German couple. Their boat is in good shape and pretty confortable. If you want to do more dives than just 2, you can even stay onboard overnight, leave the next afternoon instead and do upto 6 or 7 dives. Further information on their website at http:// www.calypso-diving.com

 

[slipslop]

www.lomprayah.com click on tour package

 

[Blox]

www.lomprayah.com click on tour package

That's snorkelling packages, I think

 

[raya]

has anyone ever dived with ploy scuba?

 

[wedivebc]

hi,

i'll be staying in ko samui at the end of november, i've heard that koh tao has better diving though. could somebody help make a good suggestion for a diveshop that could bring us to koh tao for the day?

thank you for the bandwidth,
ephman

Just got back last night. We stayed with Coral Grand diving in Koh Tao. Nice resort, I did 3 boat trips 2 dives each, stayed 3 nights in a reasonably nice bungalow and saw lots of great stuff underwater.
The whole package cost less than $200 CDN for the 3 days! A single boat trip will cost 2000 baht from Koh Tao or about 3500bht from Ko Samui. All diving is done in Koh Toa regardless of where you embark from so less travelling and less cost is the main advantage to staying in Koh Tao. Also I found Ko Samui, at least Chewang area too noisey and congested to really relax there.
The divning was pretty good. Vis is up and down. You can start a dive in clear water then a cloud of silt rolls in for a few minutes then it clears up again. The boat was not packed we were a group of 4 and had a really good couple of DMs for our dives. At one point I had myself and 2 DM for a couple of dives as the boat was nearly empty.

 

[iflexsol]

Dave,
What does the package include and how to book the package.
Thanks
-KK

 

[Louie]

Have a look on:
http://www.kohtaoonline.com/

Has a listing of shops and info on dive packages.

Raya,
Do you mean Planet Scuba? It's a big operation with branches in KT and Samui. Or, you may have meant Ploy Scuba in Koh Samet.

 

[wedivebc]

Dave,
What does the package include and how to book the package.
Thanks
-KK

Coral Grand has cabins and dive packages and will discount room rates if you commit to a certain number of dives. We booked 6 dives (3 boat trips) and 3 nights and the total cost was 5200 baht. We did bring our own gear and got a reduction for that plus PADI instuctors get a discount as well so YMMV but is was a very resonable deal. The operation was well run and I would definately recommend them. I feel if I went back I would not even bother going to Koh Samui. I much preferred the pace of Koh Tao and that is where all diving is done anyway.

 

[scubasassy]

Planet scuba has a shop on Chaweng and a dive operation on Koh Tao. Go with them. I did my rescue with them on Samui and Divemaster on Koh Tao. Steve should be running the shop on Koh Tao.