More than 2 dives a day in Phuket?

I made my reservations to go to Phuket, Thailand in mid February.

A friend of mine that was there few months ago recomend Sea Bees for diving and their resort Palm Garden Resort for lodging.

The question I have is that the people from Sea Bees tell me they have day trips every day of the week. Leaving in the morning and returning at mid afternoon but doing only 2 dives.

Exceptions are Thursday 3 tanks, Sundays 4 tanks.

Is that the norm in Phuket? Just 2 dives day because how far the sites are?

I'm used to Puerto Galera in the Philippines with a 5 dives a day schedule.

Is there any other dive shop with a different schedule that I should contact?

Thanks

Hugo

Lionfish,

You have made a good choice in going with Seebees diving. They are a very well run outfit and have the best day boat IMHO in Phuket. I have dived with them many times and will go up for another week tomorrow. (If you want more info on them specifically, look-up my reports on the Scubaboard or Damnam.org forums).

As to your specific question re number of dives per day, as far as I am aware, only 2-3 dives per day in the norm in Phuket (usually 2) as most of the divesites are about 1.5-2.0 hours away by boat. So return trip takes 3-4 hours and 1.5 surface interval plus 2 hours (2 dives x 2) takes about 6-7 hours (full-day). As you have been told, Seebees does do 3 and 4 dive days once each per week. The 4 dive Super Sunday leaves extra early and comes back about 9 p.m. As far as I know, they are the only outfit in Phuket that does this.

The diving in Phuket is not like Puerta Gallera...the sites are much further away. Most of the sites in PG are at most 20 minutes away (many right in the bay) so therefore you can do more dives per day there and nite dives in the shallow bay too. Oh, that reminds me, the last dive on Super Sunday with Seebees is a nite dive at Ko Doc Mai

Hugo,

I can agree with Jonnie that most of Phuket's day trip are only 2 dives, due to the distance to the sites. However, both All-4-Diving and Warm Water Divers offer a large selection of trips each day. They have a few 3 dive trips and a couple 4 dive trips. I have heard of Sea Bees, but don't know anything about them.

If you really want to get to the top diving around Phuket, a liveaboard is needed, or at least an overnight trip. When I was there a few weeks ago, all I really wanted to dive was Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, but I couldn't find a trip to fit my schedule until it was too late. On my last day, I found a shop that offered an overnight trip twice a week to the islands mentioned. I can't remember the name of the shop, but its on the road that cuts from around Warm Water Divers' main office to the beach road. That maybe worth a look. I think it was 6 or 7 dives over two days.

Also, Mermaid Liveaboards is now running short trip to the southern islands. Christoff at All-4-Diving has been very helpful in arranging my upcoming trip in April.

PM me if you want to know anything else in general about Phuket, or Patong Beach, and enjoy your trip.

Cheers,

Doug