Dive Review of
Big Blue Dive Resort in
Thailand/Koh Tao

 Sipadan, Galapagos, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Truk, Palau, Yap,
Florida, Cayman Islands & more 

Dive Conditions

Dive with dive master.  Reasonable depth & time limits  

Not much provided.  I had to rinse my camera in my room shower.  

Overall Rating

Big Blue Dive Resort, Koh Tao, Thailand
July, 2004
John Crossley

The diving at Koh Tao isn’t bad in July, but it’s not nearly as good as
the livaboard based diving based out of Phuket in January.  Although the
seas were flat, and the water was a toasty 84 to 86 degrees, visibility was
typically only 40 to 50 feet, and sometimes less.  A few dive sites had
hundreds of anemones, and one site (White Rock) had a super friendly red
wrasse named Lucy that would swim right into your hands to be stroked. 
Other sites typically had some nice reef fish and nudibranchs, but not much
in the way of big fish or any special critters.

The big disappointment on this trip was the Big Blue Dive Resort.  It was
the most disorganized and poorly managed dive resort I have ever visited. 
Problems included botched transfers, loss of my reservation (although I had
several email confirmations), mediocre food at best, poor lighting in the
rooms, weak air conditioning, huge cracks in door and window frames that
let mosquito’s in, no hot water, a toilet that could barely flush, a
disorganized dive shop for gear storage, a shower drain that had a strong
sewer smell, and not a single hook, towel rack, or shower curtain rod in my
room to hang anything on.

On the positive side, the dive masters were pretty good, and I listened in
on a few of their many open water certification classes, and believe they
give good instruction.  This helps explain who the main market seems to be:
20-something Europeans who want to learn diving on the cheap while they
smoke and drink a lot after diving.  Overall, this island is getting pretty
junked up with bad roads and dilapidated buildings.  It does have a couple
very nice resorts, but Big Blue is not one of them.    







 

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