Thailand often conjures up images of paradise islands, lush tropical rainforest’s with golden chedi temples and a chaotic city in Bangkok, but there is a lot more to the land of smiles than just it’s scenery. The world class diving found in the unbelievably blue seas surrounding Thailand are home to an array of coral, colourful fish and large pelagic marine life as well as some fine wreck dives.

Scuba diving plays an important part in the tourist industry in Thailand and this importance only increased after the Tsunami in 2004. There are dive centres all over the southern regions and in fact you will may even find one on the platform of a Skytrain station in Bangkok. Of course you will not be diving in Bangkok its just a booking office!!

It has been said that Thailand has Asia’s busiest dive centres, I’m not sure about this but I do know, combined, the dive centres here certify more divers per year than any other country in S.E. Asia. As well as diver training, the coral reefs are visited by thousands of divers on day trips or longer liveaboard tours every day. With so many divers coming to Thailand you may wonder if this has caused much damage to the coral, but the divers have a vast number of dive locations to choose from.

Diving off the east coast of the kingdom, in the Gulf of Thailand, you will find many dive sites around Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. Further north in the gulf, Pattaya and Koh Chang both serve as land based centres for dives close to there. With the increase in dive tourists however a string of small villages and towns along the coast south of Hua Hin are developing small dive communities. Ban Krut being one such place.

On the west coast of the Kra Isthmus dive operators in Phuket, Kao Lak, Krabi, Ko Phi Phi and Koh Lanta serve the numerous dive sites in the Andaman Sea, home to the the National Marine Parks of the Similan Islands. Offering both coastal and remote diving, the west coast dive resorts have become popular with both the day divers and liveaboard crowds.

The west coast of Thailand has a major advantage over its east coast rival for best holiday destination. The southern monsoon’s whipping winds bring heavy rains to the Gulf of Thailand from September/October until January/Feburary and it is at this time of year many people from the UK, looking for some winter sun, will ventur to Thailand. This makes it better to visit the west coast for your holiday and for your diving trip, although this popularity does have a negative point.

Between November and March much of Thailand is in high season and hotel prices will reflect this, however from mid December until Mid January many hotels increase their prices to ‘Peak Season‘, which can be almost double or in some cases trebbile the normal price. This does not stop many hotels filling up though, and if you do plan to visit Thailand during this peak period you would be wise to book well in advance.

The good news is that day diving prices don’t increase, so it will be the same price to dive on Christamas day as it would on the 1st November, but an extra tip for your dive guide would be a nice touch. Liveaboards can be a different story though and trips that include diving Christams and/or New Year sometimes have a supplement added to the price, so just check this before booking.