Expat + diving on a regular basis --> prices ?

[Anahech]

Hi divers,

We are planing to got to Samui for a year and live there. We love diving and would like to dive quite often - at least every week :-)

Of course the prices are quite high, as usually for diving + in Samui !!

I am wondering if schools have special rates for regular divers, of any arrangement possible

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience !

[Deli]

Samui is a beautiful island but not good at all for diving. Next decent spot is sail rock, already pretty far away... therefor your diving always will be a kind of expensive, starting from Samui.

[Tom89]

I don't know what it's like now, but Koh Tao used to be a good place to dive. I haven't been there in about 15 years. It's probably changed quite a bit.

[Caca4u]

If you are moving to SE asia just for diving I would suggest Philipines. Places like Anilao where you can just dive off the beach. Thailand is not the best for diving. Indonesia and Philipines are much better.

I used to live close to a place you could dive off the beach, I used to dive 3 times a week, day and night.

[sometimewoodworker]

Virtual all the dive sites are around Kho Tao so from Samui you are looking at quite long boat trips each time.

From Kho Tao the shortest trip is about 10 minutes, the longest about 30. It is easy to do 5 dives a day if you want, going back to the island for meals.

From Samui the short trips are, I think about, 1 1/2 hours & I think you will be in a small speed boat.

I only have about 400 dives from Koh Tao and none from Samui. The Koh Tao dive operators do package deals for frequent divers. There are more than 20 on Koh Tao.

[Anahech]

Thanks for the feedback.

I know that one has to take a speed boat from Samui to dive on remote spots. Which make this more expensive. That's why I am looking for places that propose packages for regular divers. I guess I will go and ask once in samui !

We want to dive but this is not our objective number 1, as such we still plan to go to samui, don't feel like living in Philippines or indonesia, even if we loved diving there.

Thank you for having taken some time to reply

[tomyumchai]

I don't know what it's like now, but Koh Tao used to be a good place to dive. I haven't been there in about 15 years. It's probably changed quite a bit.

yup. these years you need to delete the 'V' and its a great place to die....

[RandG]

Can't talk specifically about Koh Samui, but certainly here in Phuket, the dive shops have discounts for ex-pat residents.