The Best Time to Dive Similan Islands
When choosing the best time to dive Similan Islands in Thailand you need to consider the weather & sea conditions, how busy each dive site & boat might be, and if you can get a great deal. Each person has their own priorities about which is most important, and this page focusses on the sea & weather conditions during the Similan Islands diving season. But we also discuss when boats or dive sites are quiet or busy, and which trips have the best deals & discounts.
Our team joined our 11 lucky and lovely guests for a long-weekend trip on The Junk in July 2020. This was during low-season and Covid-19, but that didn’t stop us having a great time, and didn’t affect our enjoyment at all. In fact, the situation probably made the trip even more enjoyable. We got two extra nights on board, awesome diving, fantastic service, and met some wonderful new friends.
The Refresher Dive (also known as a Scuba Review) is a dive in a pool or at a local reef with a dive professional to renew any skills and/or knowledge that you may have forgotten, or you’re a bit rusty. If done in the pool, the dive will focus solely on your skills, including good buoyancy control. But if done in the sea, you get to spend some time swimming around the reef looking at any marine life. It’s normally necessary to do a Refresher Dive if you haven’t dived in more than one year and plan to go out into the open ocean on a ‘Fun Diving’ trip with others. Some dive centres allow your no-dive period to be up to two years with no need for a refresher.
Anyone who does a bit of online research soon realises that Thailand’s best dive site is Richelieu Rock. Then of course they want to go there to experience it for themselves. It really is an awesome dive site, and regarded by many as one of the Top 10 in the world. It’s just over an hour from the mainland by speedboat, although many liveaboards also visit it. But if you’re a newly-certified, inexperienced or novice diver, this is not ideal for you. Why not? Read this page to understand the reasons.
The 2019-2020 scuba diving season at Thailand’s Similan Islands is officially half way through. We have had 3.5 months of awesome diving and wonderful guests, and we look forward to 3.5 more months of the same. So far the big news this season is the huge amount of cartilaginous species, including Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, Guitar Sharks and more! The cold water temperature has also raised a few eyebrows, but we feel that is what’s bringing so much interesting marine life nearer to the surface. And finally, the Chinese coronavirus has caused some people to worry unnecessarily. There are no problems with any guests or staff so far, and we don’t expect any to arise. It’s been a great season so far, and long may it continue.
In September our team flew down to Khao Lak to visit as many dive centres and liveaboard diving boats as possible. There are several reasons that we like to do this, including meeting the teams ahead of the new season, and checking the progress of the boats’ renovations & preparations. We are proud to be the only agent who makes the effort to visit the teams who work so hard for us throughout the busy diving season. We feel that our visits go a long way to helping us become and remain the best Similan Islands scuba diving agent not just in Thailand, but in the world.
Do you wear a wetsuit when scuba diving in warm water? If you do, what style and thickness is it, and do you rent or bring your own? Many divers don’t wear a wetsuit when diving in the tropics, and there are many reasons why divers may choose not to wear one. But the majority of scuba divers in Thailand wear some kind of exposure suit. Standard rental wetsuits in Thailand tend to be a set style & thickness, mainly due to cost & convenience.
Because the Andaman Sea is part of the Indian Ocean, between May and October the National Marine Parks on Thailand’s west coast are closed for the monsoon season. Most of our Similan Island liveaboard boats stop operating for five months, and spend time moored in a harbour waiting for the new season to begin. But some boats choose to continue running trips from May through to the end of August, then they go into dry dock in September. Even though the National Marine Parks are closed, The Junk and Giamani offer weekend trips to the best dive sites around Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, and are also available during the week. We also have Gentle Giant available for long-weekend full charters.
The 2018-2019 Similan Islands scuba diving season has come to an end, and it was quite eventful! A lot happened in the last 12 months. Some of it was challenging, but most of it involved lots of very happy divers! The season began with the introduction of two new sets of regulations. One was to protect the personal data of our European website visitors, and the other to help protect the fragile eco-system of the Similan Islands’ National Marine Park. And the season ended with Thailand’s dive exhibition (TDEX), But there was lots to report in between.
