Definitely allow for a longer stay on Koh Tao than you originally planned for. Many people travelling around Asia will add Thailand to their itinerary, and more often than not, this will lead to them venturing down to Koh Tao. The problem is, they leave Koh Tao until the very end of their visit and have limited time to spend on the island.
Stay on Koh Tao For At Least a Week
People often learn how to dive and only allow themselves just enough time to get the Open Water Diver Course finished. Well, isn’t that what they came to do? Yes indeed, but the vast majority of people who do learn to dive just want more and more of it and if they’d allowed themselves 2 extra days they would be able to take the Advanced Diving Course.
If you thought you’d had a good time on the Open Water Course, the Advanced Open Water Course will probably blow your mind. It’s 5 dives with a different theme for each dive. Each dive focuses on a different area of diving to make you a more rounded diver with way more confidence in your ability than when you finished the Open Water Course. You will learn the basics of underwater navigation and be given lots of tips on how to improve your buoyancy. You’ll also go on a deep dive to 30 meters and learn the correct procedures for ascending safely. The navigation dive and deep dive you have to do, but you can then choose to do a night dive (the closest feeling you’ll ever get to being in space), a fish identification dive, a computer dive, or a wreck dive on our training wreck – the HTMS Sattakut. It was a US Navy landing craft infantry ship and was involved in 3 battles in World War II before being bought by the Thai Navy and donated to Koh Tao in 2011 to act as an artificial reef. It’s also the nearest dive site to Big Blue Diving!
The best bit is that on the Open Water Diver Course you are not allowed to have a camera with you because you need to be focusing on yourself. But with the Advanced Diving Course, you can rent a camera, or take your own, and snap away to your heart’s content! We all know that one of those shots will be your next Facebook profile picture. Completing five more dives right after your Open Water Course will really start to shape you into a relaxed and confident diver and you’ll probably want to keep diving for the rest of your life!
So give yourself a bit more time for your trip to Koh Tao so that you can enjoy the Open Water Diver Course and then really enjoy the Advanced Diving Course! Check out Lomprayah and Seatran websites for their most up-to-date ferry schedules to and from Koh Tao.
