Diving in Chanthaburi Thailand

[MurrayTheI]

I'm going on a family trip to Chanthaburi ( or is it Chantha Buri) Thailand in August. My brothers wife is Thai and we're all going as a family to see the place she was born and we will all be staying with her family.

My question is: should I bring my dive gear? Are there any dive operators in that area and will they accept a walk-in diver that is not staying in a resort?

 

[JonnieB]

I think you may mean "Chantaburi," which is on the south-eastern coastline of Thailand. If her hometown is near the coastline, you will be somewhere not too far from the Trad/Laem Mae Pim/Rayong areas The island of Ko Chang is also off the coast of Trad province (adjoining Chantaburi province) These places are anyhere from 2-3 hours drive. There is diving in all these coastal areas but it is not great (though our dive club did see a whale shark off Rayong a couple years ago). If you are coming all the way from the east coast of USA and not going elsewhere inThailand, I would say leave the gear at home. I live in Pattyat, not too far north of Chantaburi and I almost never dive this coastline because I feel it is not worth the effort. However, if you will spend any time in the PAttaya area, there are several good wreck dives there and if you like wreck diving, you might want to check them out.

A decent place to start for info in Mermaids Diving in PAttaya. Google them for info on the wrecks and reefs in the area. South-East Asia Diving is also decent. Google Ko Chang also for more info on diving in that area.

 

[ssra30]

There are some diving around Rayong/Koh Smet and Koh Chang in Trad (east and west of Chantaburi) but I am not aware of any dive operator in Chantaburi itself. If you plan to stay only in Chantaburi itself, I probably would not bring any divegear but if you plan to spend sometimes around Koh Chang or Koh Smet, diving is possible although viz tend not to be all that great in August around there due to runoff from the monsoon.

 

[buksida]

There are listings of Koh Chang dive sites here:

http://www.asiadivesite.com/thailand-dive-sites/koh-chang/

As said above, the island itself is stunning but viz can often be poor underwater.

 

[ssra30]

In my experience, Koh Chang viz is generally quite poor but if you can arrange to get to the outer islands closer to Cambodia border, viz can be quite good, up to 10-15m. However the best time to dive around there is around Nov-Jan.