Scuba Diving in Phuket - Day Trip Dive Sites

Phuket has an impressive variety of day trip diving available, and the marine life is truly outstanding. There are dive sites for all levels of diver and to suit all tastes from beach dives to wreck and wall dives. Racha Yai is perfect for training or gentle drift dives. Shark Point & Anemone Reef offer colourful soft corals and leopard sharks. The King Cruiser Wreck adds spice to our menu, while Phi Phi is within reach of a day trip, but is best dived on our popular Phi Phi overnight special.

Koh Racha Yai

Racha Yai, about 1½ hours South of Phuket is a beautiful tropical island with plenty of good hard coral reefs, colourful shallow water coral gardens, and a great opportunity for some enjoyable drift diving. There are several excellent dive sites suitable for the beginner and for snorkeling, with depths from 2 - 20m, making this island a favourite destination for everyone.

Shark Point

Shark Point (Hin Musang), a small rock outcropping about 1½ hours East of Phuket, is a famous marine sanctuary due to its tremendous variety of marine life. Particular attractions you should look out for are the colourful soft corals, gorgonians and sea fans decorating the limestone pinnacle, the great range of tropical fish and the famous leopard sharks, often to be found resting on the sandy bottom. This site and the neighbouring Anemone Reef are also good for macro life. Many people's favourite site for scuba diving in Phuket.

Anemone Reef

This submerged reef, located not far from Shark Point is similar in character and you will be amazed at the extensive fields of sea anemones covering the shallower areas of the reef. Harmless leopard sharks are also to be found together with some massive schools of smaller fish and some larger pelagics such as tuna, jacks and barracudas.

King Cruiser Wreck

On May 4th 1997 King Cruiser, an 87m catamaran ferry, strayed off course and hit Anemone Reef ripping one of her twin hulls open. King Cruiser (aka the Thaitanic) sunk within an hour, thankfully with no loss of life. Schools of snappers and yellowtail barracuda swarm over the wreck, sheltering from the (sometimes quite strong) currents. Lionfish, scorpionfish and porcupinefish are other notable residents. With it's multiple decks, great open passages and depths between 15 and 30 meters (50 to 100 feet) the King Cruiser used to be a fairly easy dive. In the last 3 years however the condition of the wreck has deteriorated and it has collapsed in places. There is now very little shelter from the currents in shallow parts and we recommend this site only for Advanced certified divers with recent diving experience.

Kata and Karon Beaches

Just a few minutes from our office are the reefs on the Northern end of Kata Beach, and the South of Karon Beach. With depths only reaching 9m, this is a suitable place for training dives. Kata and Karon beaches are used during PADI dive courses and for an quick "Discover Scuba Diving" experience, but are also good for Advanced training, in particular navigation dives. Schools of snapper are always present, while lionfish, scorpionfish and puffers hide in the reef. We have even found such oddities as seahorses, ghost pipefish and ribbon eels. Visibility can be low, so we only use the beach when conditions are ideal.

Koh Doc Mai

This small, jungle topped island lies halfway between Shark Point and Phuket. It provides some of the best wall diving in the area with sea fans, soft corals and colourful sea life decorating its underwater cliffs. Look out for white eyed morays, nudibranchs and

rarities such as seahorses and ghost pipefish. Depths from 5-25m make this a perfect multilevel dive. There are also several caverns on the East side - don't go too far in without special training.

Koh Racha Noi

Racha Noi, another 45 minutes South of Koh Racha Yai, offers some truly spectacular dive sites with giant underwater boulders, great visibility and scenery almost like the Similan Islands. Currents here can be strong, and the dives are recommended for advanced divers only. There is deep water around the island, so you often see large pelagic visitors such as barracudas, eagle rays, marbled stingrays and there is a chance of encounters with manta rays.