How do you choose a dive school on Koh Tao when there are over 80 and 30 of those have been awarded TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence?

Lets start with price – all the best shops with the best customer service, most experienced and dedicated dive professionals and who take you to varied dive sites all charge at least 11,000 for an Open Water course and your best experience will come with one of these shops.

Secondly, you need to ask if your shop has their own boat or boats? This is important as this allows the dive shop to cater to their customers needs in a much better way than sharing boat space. You will always get a better experience with any shop that maintains its own boats. Not to say that sharing a boat with another dive shop isn’t a bad thing, especially for the environment as less boats equals less pollution, but it will be crowded.

When the boats leave is a huge factor often overlooked, if your shop is leaving between 0630-0800 you will be in for very crowded dive sites. Shops leaving before or after this time will ensure far less people in the water with you when diving.

Another factor is where your shop is located and how you actually get onto the dive boat? Shops in Sairee and Chalok tend to use a small boat off the beach to a bigger boat. This is efficient, flexible and relatively easy – while most of the shops in Mae Had use the extremely crowded main pier. Sometimes you may have to boat hop across up to 15 boats to get to yours, carrying SCUBA equipment no less – something that is not a great experience, especially when its very hot.

Which SCUBA agency should you chose? PADI, SSI or RAID? The answer, it really doesn’t matter! PADI and SSI are the two biggest diving agencies in the world and RAID is up and coming. They are all approved by the international diving regulators and adhere to the highest training standards. The certifications that you gain from these agencies are considered the same, meaning no matter what agency you choose, at the end of your open water course you will be an internationally certified Open Water Diver. Also, different diving agencies will accept certifications from other agencies. For example, if you do your open water course with PADI you can continue your education with SSI or vice versa. In practise there are very little differences.

Next thing for you to consider is the atmosphere and size of the school you would like to learn with. Dive schools on Koh Tao range from very big to very small. With the bigger schools, there are many people to learn with and share your experience but you may be taught in bigger groups (up to 8 people), which extends the course to 4 days. Smaller schools offer a more personal experience and smaller groups (1-4 people) so that you may get more personal attention from your instructor and can complete the course in 3 days. It is natural for all people to feel a bit nervous about learning to dive for the first time so if you are feeling a little anxious, a more personal touch might be right for you.

How about language? If English is not your strong point, don’t worry. Instructors on Koh Tao come from all over the world so most languages can be catered for, all you have to do is ask! Lastly, instructors working on Koh Tao are trained to the very highest level and the safety standards on the island are some of the best in the world.

So rest assured, no matter who you choose to dive with, we will show you a great time and keep you safe!

Goodtime Koh Tao runs small groups, later starts, maintains high customer service, has two boats that load up from the beach and employs very experienced dive professionals with multiple languages