Best value location for PADI Certification

[zich6]

Not sure where you are from, but I feel it is best to get certified in your home waters or at least in waters similar to where you will do most of your diving. For example, too often we see divers certified in the tropics struggle to complete a dive here in colder waters where a thick wetsuit and weights are almost mandatory.

Thanks, but since Idaho is land locked and I'm retired, I'll be diving all over the world, so I don't have a region. I'm a former Airborne Ranger, so temperature and equipment variations won't bother me. Good advice for someone that will always go to the same place though.

 

[zich6]

I hope you’re aware Vancouver diving is going to be nothing like the tropics...

Yes Mam.

 

[Blasto]

I looked at Koa Tao and I'm planning to do the PADI elearning then the dive training elsewhere. What I'm looking for is the best value for the dive training. Anyone have experience with Koh Tao?

Koh Tao is definitely among the top few places if you want to go all or much of the way on the "zero to hero" road. Utila is another good option, but I've got less experience with it.

It's great if you plan on staying long, doing OW, AOW, a few specialties, EFR+Rescue, maybe even more. The rent's cheap, the food's cheap, it's great weather year round, and since it's an instructor factory, there's so many around that you can get a student-to-teacher ratio of just 2:1 or even 1:1, except in peak season. Safety standards are among the strictest, and the shops are well-equipped, with training pools and a lot of kit.

Instruction quality is generally good, since the instructors still remember their IDC, and most major agencies are represented on Koh Tao, including RAID. If you want the best training, I'd strongly recommend going with RAID - you'll spend a little more, but the classes take longer, cover very important buoyancy and trim skills, and many instructors will teach you till you actually feel at home in the water. You can get great instructors with any agency, but tech-rooted agencies are much more reliable at that.

Diving on KT isn't the best, though, due to the flow of tourists murking up the water. All of the dive sites are quite safe - shallow bottom, slow currents, and lots of boats around. But it's enough for a beginner, and there's enough sites not to get bored for the first couple months. At some point you'll definitely want to try out other styles of diving that you can't get there, though. Cozumel and the Philippines have considerably more options.


edit: Given your background and plans to dive all over the world, definitely go with a tech-rooted agency over PADI, or otherwise choose your instructors thoroughly. You'll want to get a tec instructor that will teach with wings and make sure you can get your trim and buoyancy right every time. That will matter a lot when diving in different waters. And with your background you'll probably learn more efficiently from technical divers as instructors anyway; I've experienced how it can be a barrier to learning when the teacher is younger and less capable of taking things seriously than the student.

 

[Marie13]

Yes Mam.

. Just wanted to make sure! I’m a Great Lakes wreck diver. I run away from warm water the way most people run from the cold. No salt and/or warm water dives yet.

 

[divinh]

September 2018 prices in Koh Tao...

OW Course 8900-9900 THB (~$296-$330 USD, divide by 30)
Fun Dives 800-1000 THB
Accommodations 300+ THB for aircon hostel, 800+ THB for aircon private room
Food
- Breakfast 100-250 THB
- Lunch 100-300 THB
- Dinner 150+ THB
- Typically, Thai dishes (rice, curries) are cheap, Western dishes (burgers, pizza, pasta, etc.) are more expensive
- Alcohol extra

San Francisco to/from Bangkok via Taipei on China Airlines $586 USD, 19 hrs
- (This can be as cheap as $450 USD, but there's a crazy long 15+ layover in some city in China.)

Bangkok to/from Koh Tao, inclusive air, bus, ferry ticket, on Nok Air/Lomprayah ~$280 USD, 6 hrs

 

[Blasto]

OW Course 8900-9900 THB (~$296-$330 USD, divide by 30)
Fun Dives 800-1000 THB

Are 700 THB fun dives gone? They should be there if you buy a package and not just one.
You'd normally do OW+AOW on KT.

Food
Accommodations 300+ THB for aircon hostel, 800+ THB for aircon private room

For food, my usual routine is: get a Pad Thai with pot-brewed coffee (I'd prefer machine espresso, but it beats instant) in Coffee Boat on Sairee Beach (100 THB), lunch on the boat, dinner in Sairee Village (100-500 THB/person depending on how fancy I want to go).

Most people don't need aircon most of the year, though individual sensitivity varies. Diving without a wetsuit (which I strongly recommend there) cools down your core, you don't feel the heat as much, and it's not that hot.

No need to bother with hostels, it ain't Singapore. Just find someone who does monthly rental for bungalows etc and negotiate a sub-month price down from the monthly rate. E.g. 6,000 THB/mo can be turned into 4,000 THB/2 weeks. And with the kind of place this is, you want to stay at least 2 weeks.

Bangkok to/from Koh Tao, inclusive air, bus, ferry ticket, on Nok Air/Lomprayah ~$280 USD, 6 hrs

Or much less (~2,500 THB or $80) if you accept the time expense and go by bus to-from BKK.

 

[divinh]

Are 700 THB fun dives gone? They should be there if you buy a package and not just one.
You'd normally do OW+AOW on KT.

800-1000 THB fun dives were what was posted, without any package pricing.

You can also pay for a one week, two week, etc. pass and dive as much as the boat goes out. When I was there, I didn't take any courses, just paid for a 10 day unlimited and did 31 dives.

Or much less (~2,500 THB or $80) if you accept the time expense and go by bus to-from BKK.

How much time is that, from BKK to Koh Tao via bus/ferry?

 

[Blasto]

800-1000 THB fun dives were what was posted, without any package pricing.
You can also pay for a one week, two week, etc. pass and dive as much as the boat goes out. When I was there, I didn't take any courses, just paid for a 10 day unlimited and did 31 dives.

700 baht is almost proverbial for the going price for a dive. Some pay less, others more. 800-1000 is either pricier shops or single/dual dives rather than packages.

All in all, KT is volume discount land: the longer you stay, the less you pay per dive, in all of travel, housing, and diving costs.

How much time is that, from BKK to Koh Tao via bus/ferry?

One time, we left at 8 pm and arrived at 8 am. Another, left at 10 pm (so I fit in a night dive), went on night ferry, and arrived at 3 pm or so. All in all 12-15 hours. But at least you don't have to suffer the BKK to DMK ride, and it's much cheaper.

The night ferry is quite comfortable, like a very spacious railcar with A/C and lots of room upstairs. Normal ferries are OK and much faster.
For the bus, take a big one over a minibus unless your schedule is pressing. Thai minibuses are nowhere as terrible as their Philippines cousins, but it's still too packed for comfort. With big buses, the experience is quite reasonable, even though they have mostly refitted the recreation areas downstairs, with nice sofas and tables, into more seats now.

 

[gr8jab]

I wish I had done my OW and AOW with The Chairman (Pete Murray), regardless of price/location.

He did my son's OW, and my Self Sufficient.

 

[zich6]

September 2018 prices in Koh Tao...

OW Course 8900-9900 THB (~$296-$330 USD, divide by 30)
Fun Dives 800-1000 THB
Accommodations 300+ THB for aircon hostel, 800+ THB for aircon private room
Food
- Breakfast 100-250 THB
- Lunch 100-300 THB
- Dinner 150+ THB
- Typically, Thai dishes (rice, curries) are cheap, Western dishes (burgers, pizza, pasta, etc.) are more expensive
- Alcohol extra

San Francisco to/from Bangkok via Taipei on China Airlines $586 USD, 19 hrs
- (This can be as cheap as $450 USD, but there's a crazy long 15+ layover in some city in China.)

Bangkok to/from Koh Tao, inclusive air, bus, ferry ticket, on Nok Air/Lomprayah ~$280 USD, 6 hrs

Nice info, thanks.