Hello,

My girlfriend and I are going to Thailand in June for a few weeks, and we would like to spend about 5 days in a beach area. We also would like to do some diving (she wants to do an Open Water Diver class, I want to do the Advanced Open Water class).

Our ideal place is one in which we can stay at a nice beachfront resort, on a beach that is quiet but where we can walk into 'town' for dinner and drinks and a night out if we want to. Basically, we'd like where we stay to be secluded, but not too far from some civilization when we're so inclined.

As to budget, we have some money to spend, but we're not quite in the league of the really high-end places. Any recommendations for great places in the $100-200 a night range? It seems like so many of the high-end places start at $200+.

Also, recommendations about where the diving will be good in June? I've read a lot about the monsoons, etc. so we're sort of leaning toward Samui. Are there other places we should look at? Keep in mind that while we want to do the dive classes, we are not going on a 'dive trip,' so other things are important to us as well.

Thanks so much for your help!

Andrew Taylor

The main dive island in June period would be Koh Tao, this has a lot of accommodations that offer/include dive courses, however, it is a quiet island and not much in the way of things to do.
Koh Samui is far more busy so perhaps it would be best to base yourself on Samui and then sign up with the dive operators there, and perhaps include a few trips over to Koh Tao.
Can't see accommodation any problem with that budget, Samui Newstar goes from about $50 up to $95 for a deluxe beachfront, Chaweng Cove 'top' price is about $72 for a deluxe beachfront bungalow, even Tradewinds top price seafront bungalow is only $64. There's a huge choice and June is a good time before the busy August time.

james sent us to the peace resort on samui and we loved it...it is 5 min walk to a town and there are boats there and they will assist you in arranging diving....price about $85 for the best (beachfront) bungalow...nice beach and fabulous pool...15 minute drive to charwaeng beach township

the Andaman coast has much better dive sites but it iwill be the monsoon season in June. Koh Tao would definitely be the place to dive at this time of year. However, 5/6 years ago Koh Tao was great, I was there last year and decided to leave after a couple of days as it is now totally over-developed and overrun with backpackers, mopeds and cheap and nasty deveopments. I would suggest you consider a liveaboard out of Koh Samui which should be within your price range & most will be able to fit in OW & AOW courses. The diving around Koh Samui is not great and it is a long sail to Koh Tao.

Thanks for the suggestions. Do you think it would be better to risk the weather and stay at one of the hotels on the eastern side of Ko Phi Phi (I understand that several of them made it through the tsunami intact) and dive from there?
From looking around on the web, we were thinking of either doing that, or of staying somewhere on Choeng Mon beach on Samui. That beach looks less crazy than Chaweng.

Which would you choose for late June?

Thanks,
Andrew

i am going to the west coast for a few days in june...reports are that weather can be decent but not the usual perfect....water may be different however