French 
I wouldn’t say that the diving off Pattaya and the surrounding islands is the best in the world (being a scuba diver myself), but depending on the time of year and weather conditions, it can be very good. At times it can be like diving into a tropical aquarium with a wonderful variety of fish and coral to discover, at other times, the visibility is less good (although never really bad). In any case, even in the cold season (cold for the Thais, not for Westerners) the bottom temperature of the water is in the mid to high twenties Celsius.
In addition to the corals and fish, you can go wreck diving (there are a couple of wrecks off the coast), drift diving, night diving etc. There are a wide range of Padi Certified dive centres where you can sign up for anything from ‘Discover Scuba’ days (for those who haven’t dived before or who don’t have a Padi certificate) to certification as an accredited Padi Instructor. You’ll also find Diver Masters in the area from most countries so you can be accompanied and trained by someone who speaks your own language.
Dive Boats leave the pier every day and mainly concentrate on dive sites on the nearer islands, but there are schools with their own speedboats (try MKDivers for example) who will take you to the further islands where the diving is better. You’ll pay around 3000 baht for a day’s diving with one of the local schools – including equipment hire and being accompanied by a local Dive Master or Instructor. If there are a few of you and not everyone wants to dive, you can easily arrange a dive trip that will include snorkelling and fishing for the non-divers, leaving those who fancy discovering the underwater world free to enjoy the day without feeling guilty about everyone else getting bored.
However, if you want to do some serious diving, why not take an over-night trip to Koh Chang (Elephant Island) or Koh Tao (Turtle Island) where the diving really is fantastic. Koh Tao for example has almost nothing but Dive shops – it can even be nigh on impossible to get a hotel room here unless you’re signed up on at least one dive trip. This can be a good compromise if your travelling companions haven’t got the scuba bug!
On the other hand, if you’ve never scuba dived before but fancy a real experience, why not go diving with the Sharks in Underwater World – we can arrange this for you.
