Has anyone dived with H2O / Phuket?

[FairyBasset]

Hi,

will be in Phuket for 2 weeks over Xmas and New Year, staying in a villa in Cherngtalay, Bang Tao.

Have had some great help finding dive shops from scubaboard. The only shops which seem to be based in that are (necessary for gear rental) seem to be H20 and Euro Divers.

Has anyone dived with H20? They seem to offer day trips to Similan - and I was wondering if we would still have to trek down to Ao Chalong for that trip.

Equally does anyone have any experience with Euro Divers?

My alternative is to dive with some of the great DCs which have been recommended, but which involves quite a long taxi ride - this is fine on some days, juts not every day.

Would appreciate your help!
Thanks in advance.
:wave:

 

[Quero]

Euro Divers will drive you in a van down to the pier at the southern end of Phuket for most of their dive trips. Their boat is based out of Chalong, so you won't avoid any long rides that way. The dives from up at their Laguna branch are near shore and are done with little boats.

H2O does have speedboats so it could be quite convenient for doing daytrips to the Similans. And no, you would not have to go down to Chalong for daytrips to the Similans (it's the opposite direction). You would be more likely to get a boat from Khao Lak as there are a number of ops up there doing speedboat daytrips.

Don't worry about gear rental. It's easy to arrange. All the ops will take down sizes and load the gear onto the boat for you so it will be waiting for you when you arrive.

 

[otterdive]

Has anyone dived with H20? They seem to offer day trips to Similan - and I was wondering if we would still have to trek down to Ao Chalong for that trip.

Casually ask they if they are the same H2O that operated on Koh Phangan, Thailand. I don't think they are, and the one on Phuket is a completely separate entity that just happens to share the same name. If it IS the same crew from Koh Phangan, I would stay well clear of that bunch.

 

[stevenl]

Don't know the ones on Koh Phangan, but here they have a good reputation.