Ko Samui is known as a backpacker paradise where many tourists undergo their first steps into the world of diving.

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Ko Samui is the fallout base for many travellers, short holiday tourists, wedding trips and nowadays even family tours visit this island. Since the 1970s this island has become one of the most favourite tourist destinations with such an array of resorts and hotels that everything you want can be booked. Nightlife, bars, Ang Thong National marine Park, diving, water sports, nice beaches, Thai cooking and some excellent weather have been the reasons. Heavy showers during the monsoon season hit this part of the gulf from November to February. During these months it is better to visit the Andaman Sea in the west as the season for diving is on its top then. Diving is not completely absent between November and February but boat rides can be bumby, surface currents can be strong and swells can be huge, making it a great combination for motion sickness.

The Gulf offers some excellent coral formations, healthy reefs where even whale sharks come to feed on the abundant plankton. Fish life is divers with several pelagic species and many of the common reef fish. Even fishing tours can be booked as there is some excellent game fish to be caught in the waters offshore. Water temperatures are between 25 degrees in winter and up to thirty in summer making shorts a very pleasant way of diving.

Ko Samui offers some diving around its shores but for the more interesting dive sites you will have to book a tour to Ko Tao or one of the pinnacles in the middle of the Gulf. It is a very good and cheap place to learn diving. Many of its shore dives are used for training dives such as navigation dives, fish identification and showing the instructor your skills underwater. Some of the best sites near Ko Samui are Five Islands on the southwest reachable after a short boat ride and Ao Chaweng on the east.

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