Thailand's Ultimate Scuba Diving Guide
Scuba diving destinations in Thailand can be grouped into two main categories; the Andaman sea side and the gulf of Thailand side.
Andaman Sea
Phuket (year round)
Phuket is one of Thailand's most popular and convenient bases for scuba diving day trips, offering a variety of dive sites that cater to divers of all experience levels.
Here are some of the popular dive sites dive boats from Phuket will take you to:
Not to mention Anemone reef, King Cruiser wreck, and shark point. Diving day trip in Phuket are very much a must do whenever you find yourself in Phuket. Crystal clear blue water and loads of marine life not to mention relatively easy sites with little to no current, Phuket diving is a great way to explore the underwater world of Thailand.
Phuket also offers one of the nicest areas for shore diving if you are into macro photography;
Phang-Nga (October-May)
Phang-Nga province is a fantastic base for liveaboard diving trips, which allow divers to spend multiple days exploring the various dive sites. Most of the liveaboards will leave from the pier in Thap Lamu in Khaolak.
In Thailand, liveaboards that take you diving in the Andaman sea offer 2 different route; North Andaman and South Andaman route.
North Andaman route takes you to Similan National Park, Mu Koh Surin National Park, Richelieu Rock, and Koh Bon.
While the South Andaman route covers Koh Haa, Hin Muang, Hin Daeng, Koh Lipe, and Koh Phi Phi area.
Both route is available during October-May. The rest of the months the national parks in the area are closed.
Other than taking a diving trip on a liveaboards, Phang-nga has many dive sites that you can access via long-tail boats.
There are 2 prominent wreck diving spots near Khaolak which are Boonsung Wreck and Seachart Wreck.
Krabi (October-May)
Krabi offers diving day trips to a few places like the ones you can go from Phuket such as phi phi islands, shark point, king cruiser wreck etc. But it also offers a shorter way to go to Hin Muang and Hin Daeng. These 2 dive sites are probably ones of the best dive sites in Thailand.
Krabi's local islands around Ao Nang (year round)
You can access these local islands via long-tailed boats.
Trang (October - May)
Scuba Diving scene is Trang is relatively small. There are only a few dive operators in the area but as more divers are gradually exploring more of this area, it will get much bigger soon. The dive sites are accessible by semi slow diving boat.
Here are some of the dive sites you can visit:
Satun (best in October-May)
In the deep South of the country, Divers go down to Koh Lipe and the surrounding islands. This area is known for the colorful coral reef and the abundance of marine life and one of the richest marine ecosystem.
Gulf of Thailand
Chonburi (Year round)
Chonburi scuba diving destinations are frequented by new divers mostly from Bangkok who do their open water session here.
Pattaya/Bangsare
There are many dive sites around this area. Most are quite shallow with sand bed and some rock formations although there is a wreck for advanced diver.
Sattahip
This is a military area so don't be surprise if you see soldiers walking on certain beaches. It is also another area for new scuba divers, mostly from Bangkok, who come to do their open water and advanced open water certification. There are a few spots where technical divers can go to if they look for a depth up to 60 meters.
For experience divers, Chonburi might not be a good choice as it tends to be shallow and the visibility is not so great.
Rayong (Year round)
A few hours from Bangkok, Rayong is another great spot for scuba diving. 2 hours from the shore lies the famous Alhambra Rock. There are actually 2 different dive sites here; the East and the West Alhambra rock. You can access the dive sites via a daytrip boat from Rayong. Usually they will do 2 dives at the Alhambra rock and last dive of the day will be at either Koh Mun Nok or HTMS Phetra wreck.
Koh Chang, Trat (Year round)
The most famous spot for diving in Koh Chang is the HTMS Chang wreck! But there are several other dive sites around the island that are also worthy.
You can stay on Koh Chang and do day trips around the island or you can opt for a mini liveaboard that combines Koh Chang and Rayong diving in 1 weekend. You can get on the boat in Rayong on Friday night. Saturday do 4 dives around Koh Chang and 3 dives in Rayong on Sunday.
Prachuap Khiri Khan (May-October)
Divers usually do a few dives here as a part of a bigger dive trip where they would stop here for a day and get a few dives in then continue down to Chumphon. It is known for muck diving with several species of nudibranch. The visibility is never great but not so bad. Overall it is a good fun shore dive.
Chumphon (May-October)
This coastal province holds a special place in many divers' hearts. Chumphon is a gateway to several islands in the gulf of Thailand whether it's Koh Tao, Koh Samui, or Koh Phangan. But it cannot be looked over as it offers magnificent diving as well.
There is a new ship wreck, Santat Samut 4, which sunk back in November 2022 and now has become a very cool dive site due to the abundance of different species including nudibranch, lionfish, and schools of different fish surrounding the whole wreck.
The captain room was a spot to do some penetration before but earlier this year (2024) the roof collapsed blocking the entrance. So for wreck divers, maybe try penetrating the sunken containers at around 34 meters instead.
There a several dive operators in the area that offer trip to the blue. Most would offer the weekend schedule to accommodate divers coming from Bangkok. The boat either leaves from Tung Wua Laen beach of Pak Nam Chumphon pier.
Koh Tao (best in May-October)
The best way to go to Koh Tao is from Chumphon via Lomphraya company. You can also combine flying to Chumphon then use the service of Lomphraya ferry.
Songkhla (May-October)
The only place to for scuba diving in this area is only accessible by a liveaboard. The usual trip is HatYai-Losin (3 diving days, 11 dives) Or you can find some liveaboard that offer a special trip that combines Losin-Koh Khra-Koh Tao (4 diving days, 15 dives). The later choice is my personal recommendation.
Cave Diving (year round)
There are actually several places in Thailand that cave diving can be done. But as of now, those places are not opened to the public. There are several ongoing cave dive expeditions with many experts all around the country. Hopefully in a few years those places will be establish as dive spots for us divers as well.
At the moment Song Hong Lake in Nakhon Srithammarat province and Sra Kaew in Krabi province are the most 2 well known spots for cave diving.
If you are interested in diving trips or diving courses please contact :)
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