Thailand - diving courses?

Scruff

myself and the misus are thinking of heading to thailand at the end of july for 4 weeks (Leaving it a bit late i know, prices are only going one way). While there we're also thinking of doing a diving course.Is thailand a good place to do it? Can anyone recommend a good area to do it and what the price would be?
Also what else do ye recommend doing for the other 3 weeks? Not looking for anything that involves too much travel or strain, would like a relaxing enough holiday but without it being too lazy.
cheers!

foxirl

Koh tao for diving definitely. I did mine in Crystal Dive and it was great. Nice people there. Should be able to google them to get contact details

Also if you have time Chang Mai is very nice but is in the north where as Koh Tao is in teh south so might take a bit of time to get there.

Glowing

Yeah I vote for Koh Tao, although I found the Chalok Ban Kao region in the south to be much nicer than the Sairee beach on the west ... I went with Buddha View - they have a small pool to practice in first which is great if either of you are nervous! Great instructors and a great laugh!

You're looking at about 230 euro for a 4 day padi course, don't for the life of you do an 'Introductory dive' - so many people i've spoken to have had bad experiences as it is a very rushed affair usually!

littlesurfer

I third that,..no better place. Did mine with buddha and heard they were better than crystal,...but if you do go to koh tao,..head down to crystal anyway and ask for Pan,.....best thai massage in the whole of thailand...on the beach where there wont be another soul in sight! absolutely amazing!

Joeyjoejoe43

I went to Ko Tao in January with the sole purpose of doing a dive, and I left after 2 days. There are simply too many dive centres there now, and so when you do your dives its unlikely that it'll be just your group diving in the area. I would recommend crossing the border into Malaysia and make tracks for either of the perhentian islands or Palau Tioman - both unbelievably beautiful and with more charm than Ko Tao. However if you do go to Ko Tao, take the others advice and go to the south of the island, stay away from busy Sairee beach. While in the south be sure to hit Ko Phangan, not just for the full moon party, but also for the gem that is bottle beach in the north of the island - great spot to get a way from it all.

Glowing

Thats true Joey, the whole of the Koh Tao area is over dived and I wouldn't say the coral is the best in the area or anything. It is however great fun, and the standards are very high given the amount of competition.

Malaysia has some amazing dive spots alright if you had the time to head down that way, actually come to think of it, I preferred Malaysia to Thailand for many reasons (oh the food, drewl....) Have you considered going there for the 4 weeks instead or have you decided on Thailand?

It really depends on the vibe you're looking for - for party atmosphere with cheap and cheerful diving, then Koh Tao is the way to go, but if you want to go diving because you're specifically interested in undamaged coral and a huge variety of sealife, then I'd look elsewhere!

shrapnel222

i passed mine with eco divers in koh chang- this is one of the the closest island to the mainland as is mainly frequented by thais. eco divers were brilliant, and we were the only ones there so we got to dive with noone else but the instructors and they were brilliant- we had one day of theory trainning in a little classroom and then 3 days diving- I can't recommend them highly enough. and koh chang is great too- depends what you want out of it- but it's a great place to chill out.

dr strangelove

I used to work on Koh Tao as a dive master, and although it's a beautiful place to learn to dive, whichever dive-site you go to does tend to be full of learners, and it can get on your nerves after a while.
If you really fancy somewhere apart form the crowd, try Sea Dragon in Khao Lak - it's a about two or three hours north of Phuket on a bus.
They do trips up to the Similian and Surin islands and you'll be in a small group and i doubt you'll see any other groups on the dive sites.

I did work for Sea Dragon as well, so i'm not completely unbiased, but i did prefer it over Kho Tao

LegacyUser

I did my open water and advanced on Koh Tao, can't remember the name of the school unfortunately. I thought it was nice but after moving around Thailand a bit I realised I had chosen the wrong place....too many divers, staff who should probably care a bit more. I really enjoyed Ko Phi Phi diving but I'm not sure how much damage was done to the dive sites by the tsunami.

flossie

I learnt to dive in the UK (hardcore, lol! but really enjoyed it ) and Fiji and the Yongala in Oz are the best dives so far! Koh Tao very touristy and seem to like to churn out divers. I went diving with a company that wouldn't let Koh Tao qualified divers out on their own as he'd had lots of bad experiences with them. Also agree that some of the Tao dive sites are over-dived now. I spent one dive picking up litter from the bottom of the sea whilst watching newbies happily dropping it ahead of me with their gauges dangling everywhere, grrrrr!
Heard amazing things about the Perenthians in Malaysia, worth a trip i'd say