Facts about diving in Phuket
Phuket is one of the best places in the world for diving. The water is warm so you don't need a wetsuit. Very good underwater visibility. There are big variety of corals, species of reef fish, not to mention tens of thousands of species of other reef creatures. There are dozens of scenic island destinations within range of daytrips and live-aboard cruises from Phuket.

Snorkeling
First, you don't need to have or take PADI (diving) license or take expensive diving trips to discover the beautiful underwater of Andaman sea. Snorkeling is a great experiece too and is recommended for beginners and normal tourists. If you like this, you can continue with scuba diving.

Great places for snorkeling (close to Phuket) is Freedom beach, the north and south end of Kata beach, Phi Phi and Racha Island. You can reach Freedom beach by longtail boat, approx. 200 baht/person (roundtrip). Racha Island is a diving site for divers but snorkelers are welcome too, approx. 1050 baht/person with a daytrip boat with breakfast/lunch included. Racha is also accessible by speedboats from Patong or Rawai beach.

Diving - Daytrips
There are many diving sites around Phuket and it takes between 60 to 90 minutes to get to most of these sites. Phi Phi island is a 2 hour boat ride, tought. However, many people take a ferry to Phi Phi and stay overnight. You can then dive from boats out of Phi Phi's harbor for one or more days.

Generally, one day boat dive tours from Phuket pick you up between 7:00 and 7:30 am and return late afternoon with at least two or three dives. The boats departure from Chalong Bay harbor, located on the east side of Phuket island, around 30 minutes from Patong beach.


Phuket Diving destinations include:
The Shark Point (Hin Mu Sang): This is a beautiful and colorful place and you have the possibility to spot sharks, mainly leopards.
King Cruiser Wreck: The King Cruiser was a catamaran-hull type passenger ferry 85 meters in length and 25 meters in width. She sank few hundred meters off shark point.
Anemone Reef: This dive site is found less than a mile north of Sharkpoint and it's a single large submerged rock covered in sea anemones.
Racha Island: This island offers easy diving with clear water and a good variety of tropical marine life, suitable for beginners and snorkelers.
Phi Phi Islands (Hin Bida): A big variety of tropical fish and Leopard sharks and turtles are spotted easily.

Live aboards
The diving sites west of Phuket are only accessible by live abords and are one of the world's best diving sites. These sites includes Similan Islands, Richelieu Rock, Koh Surin, Burma Banks and Mergui Archipelago.

Protect the environment!
Please, do not plan to collect souvenirs while snorkeling or diving or disturb the undersea environment in any manner. Take care and try not to brush your fins, tanks etc against coral.

Diving companies in Phuket

• Merlin Divers: A nice and friendly diving company in Patong and Kamala beach.
• Sunrise Divers: Friendly dive shop in Karon beach, Phuket
• Dive The World Thailand: Dive Center in Patong Beach
• Oceanic Divecenter - Diving, liveaboard and PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) in Phuket