Diving in Pattaya 2017

Pattaya offers year-round diving with a diverse selection of sites and excursions at comparatively low prices. A water temperature of around 28ºC all year makes this a popular sport with both experts and beginners.

Many beginners come here especially to learn at one of the several five-star diving centres, at a fraction of the cost of the equivalent training in their home countries. Courses range from one to four days, depending upon the proficiency you wish to reach and the type of diving you wish to learn.

If you already have a proficiency certificate, a day’s diving will normally cost you around 3,000 baht, with equipment supplied. Night diving with three dives will be about 3,500 baht. Various options are also open for experienced divers, including specialist days as a boat diver, drift diver, underwater naturalist, underwater videographer, and also nitrox diving. These will cost about 4,500 baht for two dives and instruction.

Two-day speciality dives available from Pattaya include deep diving, wreck diving, underwater photography and night diving. These are normally priced at around 8,000-9000 baht for the two days.

For the beginner or intermediate diver who wants to learn or improve, PADI courses are readily available. An open water dive course over four days will get you your PADI certificate for around 14,000 baht (US$350 or £200). An advanced open water diver two-day course is about 12,000 baht with five dives. There are also day-long introductory dive classes if you are short on time.

A 21-day dive master course is around 28,000 baht, and some people stay on to teach diving at one of the centres, which are often keen to employ new instructors.