My 23 year old daughter and a small group of friends are going to Thailand from the beginning of July to end of August. They would like to get their OW certification while there. Based on the time of the year, the gulf region seems to offer the best diving conditions and Ko-Tao seems to be the best place for training. Can you recommend a resort you would send your daughter to that offers quality training and accomodations in Ko-Tao or elsewhere on the gulf if better. THX.
Recommended resort for OW cert in Ko-Tao
- Thread starter EHM
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ssparks111
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TheWartHog
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Hi EHM
I can recommended Sairee Cottage Diving on Sairee Beach, Koh Tao. I dived and stayed with them last year and had a great time - very good instructors and dive/office staff and once your daughter and friends have qualified they have great fun dives too. They have different standards/prices of accommodation including bungalows on the beach or in the garden and have a great restaurant also beachside. It is just about 5 minutes walk or so to the centre of Sairee Village for shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. It might suit your daughter and her friends just fine.
Koh Tao is a beautiful island and your daughter and friends will have a great time there.
I can recommended Sairee Cottage Diving on Sairee Beach, Koh Tao. I dived and stayed with them last year and had a great time - very good instructors and dive/office staff and once your daughter and friends have qualified they have great fun dives too. They have different standards/prices of accommodation including bungalows on the beach or in the garden and have a great restaurant also beachside. It is just about 5 minutes walk or so to the centre of Sairee Village for shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. It might suit your daughter and her friends just fine.
Koh Tao is a beautiful island and your daughter and friends will have a great time there.
Griffo
Contributor
It really depends... whether you want quality instruction for your daughter and friends, or they are looking for somewhere to party. Do they want to learn to dive safely and properly, or just get pissed with a bunch of young randoms and do some easy dives while probably hung-over? If it's a party, go for someone like Big Blue or Bans. They'll be in a dorm like environment filled with young something backpackers. I think Big Blue is currently the largest dive resort of that style on the island.
However if they actually want to learn how to dive properly, I'd very highly recommend Master Divers. Much smaller operation than many which means smaller groups and more personalized attention. I believe their maximum group size is 4 divers with 1 instructor and 1 DM, and quite often for me they had 1 instructor, 1 DM and me (doing some advanced courses) and even for one course 1 instructor, 2 DM's and me. Very dedicated instructors too who are passionate about diving, not just taking a couple of years out after doing a zero to hero instructor course.
Their boat only takes 25 or so divers, of which you'd have say 4 instructors and 4 DM's, + 16 divers so they are never going to have massive numbers of students in the water. Some of the other shops are the very definition of cattle stations with 50 students on one boat.
They are not however a dive resort, but can help find good cheap accommodation. Their focus is on quality instruction.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/thailand/425831-review-master-divers-koh-tao.html
However if they actually want to learn how to dive properly, I'd very highly recommend Master Divers. Much smaller operation than many which means smaller groups and more personalized attention. I believe their maximum group size is 4 divers with 1 instructor and 1 DM, and quite often for me they had 1 instructor, 1 DM and me (doing some advanced courses) and even for one course 1 instructor, 2 DM's and me. Very dedicated instructors too who are passionate about diving, not just taking a couple of years out after doing a zero to hero instructor course.
Their boat only takes 25 or so divers, of which you'd have say 4 instructors and 4 DM's, + 16 divers so they are never going to have massive numbers of students in the water. Some of the other shops are the very definition of cattle stations with 50 students on one boat.
They are not however a dive resort, but can help find good cheap accommodation. Their focus is on quality instruction.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/thailand/425831-review-master-divers-koh-tao.html
Last edited:
Griffo
Contributor
They will be going in low season, so there will be HEAPS of accommodation available. Personally I'd only book 1 or 2 nights in whatever you want and spend the first day checking it out and making deals. Being low season I'm sure they could negotiate a better price than you will get on the Internet anyway. I mean I stayed at Aminjirah and basically talked my way into a far better room for the same price as the cheap ones. You can also check out the MD website - they have a bunch of local accom listed.
The girls might prefer to stay in Mae Haad or Sairee (Sairee is more the party town), or maybe want a little bungalow down on the beach. They might want to stay right in the middle of the town or have some peace and quite on the cliffs. It's all available quite cheaply, and there's always new ones being built, and everyone's preferences are different. At that time of the year, pre-booking shouldn't be necessary.
The girls might prefer to stay in Mae Haad or Sairee (Sairee is more the party town), or maybe want a little bungalow down on the beach. They might want to stay right in the middle of the town or have some peace and quite on the cliffs. It's all available quite cheaply, and there's always new ones being built, and everyone's preferences are different. At that time of the year, pre-booking shouldn't be necessary.
All correct except for the low season comment. July and August are busy months on Koh Tao.
If they're really staying for six weeks, they should be able to get a long-stay discount (though I imagine that the Koh Tao part is just a small portion of their trip). As for booking, I would say to book ahead for the first few days, or if they're only staying long enough to get certified and do a few dives, then they will save tramping-around-checking-on-availability-and-rates time by prebooking. If they're staying for longer, they can see if they like the place/area they've selected, change if not, try to negotiate a better rate if they do, etc. If there's nothing they like better available at a better rate, they should be able to extend their stay without much problem if they don't wait for the last minute when it might already be booked out.
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