Koh Tao's training sites offer a perfect environment for novice divers to explore, and there's surprises for more experienced divers too
All of these dive sites are essentially training sites for dive students, and tend to be quite busy as a result. They are still quite remarkable sites all the same - Japanese Gardens has some excellent coral within it, as it's just round the corner from Hin Daeng. There's not much depth at Japanese Gardens, so after spending most of the dive at 5 metres it feels more like power snorkelling than anything else. Mango Bay has a large flat reef which is not particularly exciting, whereas Twins is a great site.
Actually three pinnacles but with two only regularly dived, Twins has a depth of around 12 metres with plenty of fish and coral clinging on to the big boulders making up the peaks. The most famous resident of Twins is a Nemo clownfish family who live just off from one of the pinnacles. Divers have placed a circle of stones around their anenome to show divers where to stop and give the clownfish some room. Twins is certainly worth doing once, but the other other sites mentioned previous to this are better choices once you've passed your Open Water course and are ready to see some more of the great dive sites Koh Tao has to offer.
Koh Tao: An Introduction
Koh Tao, Thailand: Learning To Scuba Dive
Koh Tao Dive Sites: Chumphon Pinnacle
Koh Tao Dive Sites: South West Pinnacle and Sail Rock
Koh Tao Dive Sites: Hin Daeng
Koh Tao Dive Sites: Green Rock, White Rock, Shark Island
Koh Tao Dive Sites: Twins, Japanese Gardens, Mango Bay
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Very nice to read some good descriptions of the Koh Tao dive sites. Having spent two and a half years lving and working on Koh Tao as a Dive Master and Instructor at Planet Scuba, I can agree with almost all of your reviews. Twins is THE perfect training site and after upwards of 400 of my 1,500 dives around Koh Tao at Twins, there are always new things to be found there, hiding in the rocks or just randomly swimming past like the 2m Eagle Ray. There is also the southern shore line of Aow Sam (Bay Three – Twins) which has another dive site to explore once you have tired of the Twins site itself =).
After reading this I feel even more sorry we didn’t get to Chumphon Pinnacle while we were on Koh Tao last Christmas. The weather just didn’t allow it. Did feel very welcome and secure at Ban’s diving, even while losing my buddy and group during a night dive.
Hi Anneke,
that’s too bad – although glad to hear you had fun at Ban’s – that’s where I did my Divemaster and IDC (a looong time ago now!) – hope you manage to get back to see Chumphon again some day – it’s an amazing dive site when the weather is playing fair