Fun Diving Trips for Certified Divers on Koh Tao

Daily Fun Diving Trips to Explore the Dive Sites of Koh Tao

Koh Tao is a great place for certified divers to explore the underwater world and the island boasts over 20 quality scuba diving sites.

This tropical island paradise offers deep granite rock pinnacles, wreck dives, swim through caves and shallow bays with beautiful coral reefs providing great macro opportunities.

Our team of highly trained and knowledgeable dive professionals will guide you around the site, in small and personalized groups, pointing out features and marine life, allowing you to relax and enjoy the scenery.

We operate fun diving trips twice a day, and night dives every second evening.

Our Koh Tao Diving Schedule:

Morning Trips depart: 07.00 return 11.30
Afternoon Trips depart: 12.00 return 17.00
Night Diving departs: 18.30 return 20.00

Prices (per dive)

1 – 5 Dives: 1,000 THB
6 – 9 Dives: 900 THB
10+ Dives: 800 THB

Chumphon Pinnacle Dive Site

A 30-minute boat trip from the island, Chumphon Pinnacle is one of the most spectacular dive sites around Koh Tao.
As you descend down past the group of Batfish that swim around at the bottom of the mooring line you will see the top of the pinnacle.

This is covered in anemones with lots of pink anemone fish poking their heads out inquisitively as you pass by on your downward trajectory to your maximum depth.

Chumphon Pinnacle dive site is an ideal Advanced diving site, offering easy access to 30 metres and if you swim north past the smaller pinnacles you can reach 40 metres if you need to for Deep training dives.

On a good day, the dive site is spectacular with visibility affording the diver a great view of this enormous granite rock pinnacle in all her glory.

Barracuda rock, which is two smaller pinnacles off to the south west of the main dive site, offers huge schools of chevron Barracuda.

The dive site is home to enormous Potato Cod (Giant Grouper) that live in large cracks at the bottom of the pinnacles as you head north.

Look out towards the deep blue and be mesmerized by the large schools of Big Eyed Jacks (also called Giant Trevally), as well as Giant Barracuda and Spanish Mackerel loitering off the dive site waiting for a feed.

And of course let’s not forget the mighty Whaleshark. Chumphon Pinnacle is one of several Koh Tao dive sites we regularly see these majestic creatures and is quite possibly the most common place to see them.

Sail Rock Dive Site

Located approximately 4 nautical miles south west of Koh Tao this dive site is made up of a number of granite pinnacles rising from a depth of around 28 metres up to around 6 metres from the surface.

An hour or so boat ride from Koh Tao, Sail Rock is arguably the gulf of Thailand’s premier dive site and is popular with the dive centres based on neighbouring Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

Rising out of the water to a height of around 8 metres, on a good day this is truly a stunning dive site, suitable for all levels.

The dive site offers depths in excess of 30 metres, is popular as an Advanced dive site and one where a lot of Deep dive training is conducted.

A very special and unique feature is ‘The Chimney’, which gives divers the opportunity to descend (and ascend should you wish) inside the rock!

Beginning at around 5 metres, The Chimney presents a great buoyancy challenge and should only be attempted by divers who are conformable with their skills and have been diving recently and regularly.

You can exit at around 12 metres or continue to the bottom which is around 18 metres.

Another special aspect to Sail Rock is that it attracts Whalesharks at certain times of the year, offering an extra special treat to those lucky enough to be diving the site at that time.

Sail Rock dive site has several shelves, including one aptly named ‘muppets ledge’. The shelves, alongside holes and crevices make ideal habitats for a wide variety of marine life including moral eels, shrimps, octopus, crabs and nudibranch.

Look closely and you will also see Scorpion fish, camouflaged against the colours of the rock.

The main rock drops down to around 20 metres, where the sand then banks down below 30metres.

There are a group of smaller pinnacles off the east side of Sail Rock, and a larger ‘secret’ pinnacle west and beyond both of these the sand levels out below 40 metres.

On a good day Sail rock is absolutely teaming with marine life. Schooling long fin batfish, Trevally, Queenfish and Chevron Barracuda and much more.

South West Pinnacles Dive Site

Located approximately 4 nautical miles south west of Koh Tao this dive site is made up of a number of granite pinnacles rising from a depth of around 28 metres up to around 6 metres from the surface.

The site is unprotected and as such there are often currents and the visibility at times can be as little as 2 metres but on its day, South West Pinnacles offers a magnificent dive and is many locals favourite dive location.

The pinnacles are covered in anemones, bushy black corals, gorgonian sea fans and sea whips.

There is always a lot of marine life around the rock pinnacles going about their daily business.

You will find Moorish Idols, Parrot fish, sweetlips with large schools of Fusiliers, yellow lined snappers and juvenile yellowtail barracuda in such numbers that they at times block out the sunlight.

If you look out, off the Pinnacles you will spot schools of Trevally and chevron barracuda as well as dog tooth tuna, Mackerel and Giant Barracuda.

Hin Wong Pinnacles Dive Site

Located off the east side of Koh Tao, Hin Wong Pinnacles is less visited than some of the other deeper sites and can sometimes have a current making this a site more suited to Advanced divers.

At certain times of the year, when the monsoon winds hit the east side of the island this dive site can be quite challenging to dive and even more so to actually get to.

More often than not, on a nice day the dive site is beautiful. Starting at around 10 metres from the surface, you can see a collection of pinnacles and boulders at approximately 30 metres deep and lots of fan corals.

A treat at Hin Wong Pinnacles is the resident sea turtles that you often see and black banded sea snakes.

There are also lots of groupers and snapper to see and as you drop down the east side of the dive site you will see beautiful soft purple corals.

Shark Island Dive Site

A small uninhabited rocky outcrop lying off the south west tip of Koh Tao, Shark island gets its name from the resemblance to a shark’s dorsal fin protruding from the ocean.

When the conditions are calm this site is stunning, although there are times when the current gets strong enough to consider an alternative dive site.

Lots of hard and soft corals, batfish, butterfly fish and schools of yellowtail barracuda are present.

The maximum depth is around 25 meters although the average depth for this site is around 16 metres.

There are lots of crevices, cracks and spaces between the rocks where crabs, shrimps and lots of small marine life live, along with an abundance of reef fish including parrot fish and a variety of grouper.

Titan Triggerfish and blue spotted stingrays can be seen at Shark Island and there are regular sightings of sea turtles at this location.

Twins Pinnacles Dive Site

Located on the west side of Koh Nangyuan island, Twins is the dive site with the most on Koh Tao and an ideal site for divers of all levels as well as an excellent training site.

Sheltered by Koh Nangyuan, Twins offers calm and clear conditions almost all year round and ranges from 5m-20metres with lots of marine life to see.

Twins has two main ‘peaks’, both a mixture of boulders and reef, and provides the diver with lots of cracks, ledges and crevices where moray eels, stingrays and yellow box fish hide.

Surrounded by soft sand and with the artificial dive site buoyancy world just off Twins to the north in the middle of the sand, Twins dive site is perfect for new divers.

There is lots of space for novice divers to adjust their buoyancy and become comfortable without damaging any of the underwater environment.

There is a family of saddleback anemone fish aptly called Nemo that live between the two main peaks over towards the south side of the dive site.

There is a swim through at around 12 metres on the north side of the deeper peak and a third smaller outcrop further west that provides divers with a bit more depth.

The deeper pinnacle gives the opportunity to see the odd Spanish Mackerel or Queenfish swimming by off the reef.

Twins dive site offers a great variety of typical reef fish native to these waters, plenty of light and colour and more often good visibility making it Koh Tao’s most popular dive site.

White Rock Dive Site

Located on the west side of the island, a short boat journey from Mae Haad, White rock is another of Koh Tao’s most popular dive sites and features two rock formations, running on a north south axis with a coral garden in between.

The dive site ranges in depth, with the top of white rock only a few metres from the surface, average depth of the site is around 12-14 metres with depth dropping off on the west side below 20 metres.

Home to a huge amount of marine life, you will see a variety of Koh Tao’s most common marine life here and due to the size of the dive site, you could spend a week diving White Rock and not have seen everything this site has to offer.

Koh Tao’s infamous Titan triggerfish are commonly present at this site, banded sea snakes are a common sight and if you look closely you will see white eyed moray eels hiding in holes.

Angelfish, Coralfish and Butterfly fish are all in abundance here, as are schools of yellow tailed barracuda.

Another highlight of diving White Rock is night diving where you can watch the many Great Barracuda prowl around hunting for dinner &amp the Titan triggerfish sleeping.

You will also see shrimps, octopus and squid at night as well as blue spotted rays, pufferfish and sea turtles.

HTMS Sattakut Wreck Dive Site

The Department of marine and coastal resources (DMCR) and the Royal Thai Navy kindly donated this ex-Thai Navy ship and sunk her south of Hin Pee Wee dive site in June 2011.

Lying at a depth of approximately 30 metres, with the captain’s cabin or bridge, the shallowest part of the wreck sitting at around 18 metres.

The HTMS Sattakut is ideal for Advanced divers or those completing their advanced training, divers diving on nitrox, or deep and wreck training.

HTMS Sattakut is 49 metres long and 7 metres wide. She was built in 1942 and has 2 cannon guns, with one located at the bow of the ship just above the penetration point for certified wreck divers to go inside.

There are many species of marine life that have made this shipwreck their home including groupers, sweetlips and snapper.

There are often large Jenkins whiprays or blue spotted stingrays resting on the sand under the keel.

Green Rock Dive Site

Located on the north western side of Koh Nangyuan island, Green Rock is a series of huge boulders, lying on top of each other that have created some pretty cool caves and swim throughs.

There are lots of places for marine life to hang out and hide from potential predators, offering nice surprises for the unsuspecting diver who swims through.

With a maximum depth of approximately 20 metres at the base of the main rock, you can make a safety stop at the top.

For deeper training it is very easy to achieve depths below 25 metres by swimming north west, off the main site where you will find a smaller cluster of rocks.

To the north of the dive site you will find the yellow margin trigger pits, which divers need to negotiate carefully as these beautiful creatures can get quite protective at certain times of the year.

Due to regular currents, Green Rock dive site is more suited to Advanced divers.

Mango Bay Dive Site

The famous Mango Bay, situated on the northern tip of Koh Tao is perfect for swimming, snorkeling, diving or just relaxing.

Palm trees line the coastline and the turquoise blue, tropical waters glisten in the hot sun offering stunning views.

Mango Bay really is that postcard perfect picture of what everyone’s tropical holiday dream destination should look like.

Mango bay is a wide, shallow bay, with lovely soft sand in between the two main areas where we go diving.

The west side of the bay is perfect for a nice relaxed long drop off dive. A mixture of boulders and reef, with plenty of hard corals fused together, there are lots of holes and cracks for colorful marine life to hide in.

This location also offers a good opportunity to see blue spotted stingrays and the occasional Jenkins whipray.

The east side of Mango Bay is a hard coral reef with plenty of staghorn, mushroom and table corals.

You can see lots of nudibranch, a variety of wrasse, groupers and Parrotfish as well as Giant clams and schools of yellow tail barracuda.

Popular with the snorkeling tours on Koh Tao and one of the main stops, Mango bay is perfect for Discover Scuba diving as well as Open Water training dives.

Japanese Gardens Dive Site

Japanese Gardens Is another popular snorkeling spot, located on the east side of Koh Nangyuan island, the site offers a stunning backdrop to any in water activities.

With a maximum depth of 15 metres Japanese’s Gardens is an ideal training site for novice scuba divers and due to the fact it is relatively sheltered, it offers ideal conditions with little or no current for most of the year.

It also has a section that is closed off to boat traffic, offering a perfectly safe snorkeling and Discover Scuba Diving area.

The dive site itself consists of a huge amount of hard and soft corals, with lots of colour hence its name.

There is lots to see including Fusiliers, parrot fish and variety of grouper as well as rabbit fish and sergeant majors.

You will also find banded sea snakes, harlequin sweetlips, bannerfish and Juvenile batfish at Japanese gardens with lots of colorful Christmas worms to keep you entertained.

Aow Leuk Dive Site

Situated on the south east side of the island, Aow Leuk is another great all round snorkeling, swimming and diving spot on Koh Tao.

Offering a variety of different marine life, the bay has two great locations to dive, Aow Leuk North and over on the south side of the bay is Hin Ngam with a nice large sandy area in between, ideal for training novice divers or discover scuba diving.

There are lots to see at Aow Leuk, with a range of boulders and hard corals such as brain corals, staghorn and table corals. There are also lots of giant clams and Indian cushion stars and nudibranch.

You will see a variety of juvenile fish including the Harlequin sweetlips and schools of baby barracuda. Look closer around the boulders and you will see Blue spotted stingrays, a variety of groupers including the giant grouper.

On the south side there is a small artificial site where there has been several structures including a very cool mini cooper placed down to offer marine life an alternative site to live.

Scuba Review for Certified Divers | Tune up your diving skills

Are you are certified diver that hasn’t dived in a while? Maybe you want to improve your dive skills and all round confidence before resuming your dives in open water.

If you are a PADI diver or have a certification from another training agency our Scuba Review program is a great way to refresh your diving knowledge.

You have an opportunity to tune up your dive skills before you get back into the water, ensuring confidence and competence.

Our Scuba Review program has two parts:

Knowledge Review

We will refresh your scuba knowledge, review some basic concepts including, scuba safety, dive planning and equipment set up considerations.

Confined Water Review

Your Divemaster with take you through the skills that you would have completed during your entry level training course. You will be given step by step briefings, professional level demonstrations and lots of time for you to practice and become comfortable with each skill.

The review includes:

• PADI Divemaster / Dive Instructor fees
• Insurance
• Equipment rental
• Dive computer