Thailand dive trip

[Arizona]

Scuba Guy,

If you live in Bangkok, Pattaya is a good option for a reasonably quick getaway, but I would not recommend it if your traveling from abroad. It would not be the best use of your holiday $ or time in my opinion. The vis is generally not very good and the town is not the best example of what Thailand has to offer. Well, I guess that depends what your looking for. I would stay with the Andaman side. The Bidas are well worth the visit. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort on Phi Phi and had some great dives in Dec two years running. The resort is okay, but the dive shop is right at the resort. You can be at the best dive sites in about 20 minutes. Although a little pricee for the level of hotel service, it is a good option. You can do some great snorkeling during surface intervals or when not diving. Hiring a longtail boat and doing a little island hopping was great. You can take an afternoon and have the hotel pack lunch for the trip. We had the longtail stop midway to mosquito island and snorkeled a pretty good reef. My non diving spouse found it okay as well.

I am going to Pattaya this week as it is so close for me. I generally don't like to go to long without diving, so this is my best option for a day or two of diving. If you want more info send me a PM.

Good luck,

AZ

 

[Bubble Junky]

we are looking at putting a trip together to thailand for next March. was looking at Phi Phi island, but have heard i should go further south. help me out everyone, wheres a good place to go with decent resorts?

If you're interested in Koh Lanta check these sites out - here and here. Two nice resorts on Lanta are Pimalai and Sri Lanta. Lanta is the closest point for Hin Daeng/Hin Muang, and also is very close to Koh Ha, and the dive sites close to Phi Phi are close and often dived too.

 

[martini_effect]

theres going to be a group of us going, maybe 14 or 16 of us. would like to find some place with good accom. and access to some good dive sites, the odd whale shark would be nice to

Phi Phi diving is excellent, however as Bubble Junky pointed out, there are also even better sites at Koh Haa and Hin Daeng / Hin Muang (more chance of whale shark and Mantas here).

Not all Phi Phi operators visit all these sites because of the distance - they tend to stay around the Phi Phi islands. If you do book your dives before you go, check that your operator will go to all these places.

On Koh Lanta, all the dive centres visit all these sites every few days.