Diving in Phuket Season is possible 365 days a year. Although some people are talking about high and low season, the boats here always go out unless the waves are 3 meters high which might be 6 days through out the whole year.
The coolest is December-February period ,where you can even reach outside temperatures of 21 Celsius in the night time. The hottest months are definitely March, April and May with temps reaching 40 C., during the day. This is also why Thai New Year, called Son Kran, is a water festival through the whole country. Some places it takes 3 days some a week. Phuket only 1 day.
The “official” low and high season are mid Nov – mid May = high and mid May – Mid nov Low season.
The dive sites in Phuket are around Racha Yai, Racha Noi, Phi Phi, Koh Doc Mai, Shark Point, Anemone Reef and King Cruiser wreck. Depth vary from 12 meters in the shallows to 45-50 meters of Racha Noi. In the high season some dive operators can take you to dive sites around Krabi as well.
A Lot of people mistake “the Similan Islands” with diving in Phuket. The Similan Island’s actually do have seasons, as they are located away from the main land. The high season for this Marine Park is November – May. When diving the Similans you have to make your way to Khao Lak about 2.5 hours drive from Phuket.
Here you will leave from the pier at TaplaMo to reach the Islands, which are 8 hours boat drive away. Most operators there use Liveaboards. These are dive boats on which you sleep, eat and dive. If you wish you do 1 dive day in the Similans only you will travel via Speedboat.
A day of diving in Phuket looks as follow. You will be picked up from your hotel by the dive shop and brought to Chalong Pier down south of Phuket. This is normally between 7 and 8 am. At the pier all divers get together and from here you will leave on your chosen dive boat to your chosen Dive Site of the day. The boat operators in Phuket try not to all go to the same dive site. So if you have a particular dive site in mind you might have to choose a different dive operator. Most dive boats do 3 dives a day. They serve Breakfast, lunch and a snack on board and you arrive back at Chalong pier around 6pm
Most travel agents, hotels and dive shops in Phuket can help with organising trips, courses and snorkelling or even your own private speed boat.
The dive boats are perfect for snorkelling as well, especially handy for kids or spouses that do not dive.
The water temperature is between 26-30 Celsius, 26 from December-March and the higher temperatures during the rest of the year.
The Dive Boat operators in Phuket are all run by Thai Captains and their crew members. The Dive Centers have several foreign dive instructors with different languages available. The most popular dive courses are Discover Scuba, Open Water and Advanced Open Water with PADI or SSI.
Phuket is perfect for Technical and Rebreather diving. Several shops cater for Rebreather divers, Scrubber, CCR tanks and Oxygen. Technical Diving equipment such as Twinsets, Sidemount, gasses such as Helium and other tech equipment is available in 3-4 shops on the island. Cave diving, deep diving and advanced wreck diving are the most popular amongst the tech divers coming to Phuket. There is a wide range of tech courses available with PADI, SSI, TDI and IART for example.
Besides the regular diving sites you can also choose to dive the lake of Khao Sok National Park. Khao Sok national Park is one of the newer attractions for tourists in Thailand. It used to be a well-hidden place and only the Thai tourist would come here on their holidays. Slowly but gradually the foreign tourist gets the word and is now exploring this magnificent piece of nature. The area was flooded around 30 years ago. The King of Thailand gave the instruction to build a Dam for energy in the South of Thailand. The area was know for its Stalactites and Stalagmites caves high up in the mountains. But now the area is under water the caves are reachable for divers. Diving here means wall diving with a cavern here and there. Only If you are cave diver qualified you can go inside 4 caves which reach in about 30 meters to 50 meters.
