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Phi Phi Dive Sites
Koh Phi Phi scuba diving ranks amongst the top 5 dive destinations in Thailand. Limestone cliffs rise dramatically out of the sea and plunge straight back down underwater, forming the colourful soft coral walls for which Phi Phi is famous.
There are more than 15 different dive sites with many rugged walls, interesting caves and cavern penetrations. Swim-through entrances are often obscured by dazzling clouds of glassfish and gorgonians. Sea fans harbour pipefish, seahorses and shrimpfish, keeping even the most experienced divers entertained for days.
The islands lie in a National Marine Park in Krabi Province, so the sea life is substantially different to our other Thailand scuba destinations. In many places, the islands are fringed with shallow coral gardens, where hard and soft corals and sponges prosper harmoniously amongst the myriad marine life. Here's your best opportunity to happen across green and hawksbill turtles munching on bubble corals, black and white banded sea snakes, squid, angelfish, crocodile long-toms, black-tip reef sharks and leopard (zebra) sharks.
Diving Season You can dive Phi Phi all year round, but the best conditions exist from February to May. The waters are at their warmest and clearest during this time.
November to January sees prevailing north westerlies bringing waves to the eastern shores, and cooler waters. Most diving consequently takes place on the sheltered western side of the islands.
Late May to October brings south westerly monsoon winds and surface swells to the islands, lowering visibility by about 25%, but it's pretty rare that diving trips are cancelled due to bad weather. October also brings with it some heavy rains to the Andaman Sea.
The Thailand liveaboard season runs all year round here too.
Reef Basics Great for: Wall dives, dive value-for-money, snorkelling and non-diving activities Not so Great for: Wrecks and advanced divers Depth: 5 - 30m Visibility: 5 - 20m Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Can be choppy Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner - intermediate Number of dive sites: ~15 Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket (3 hours), 30 km southwest of Krabi (2½ hours) Access: Day trips and liveaboards Recommended length of stay: 5 - 7 days
Dive Sites More detailed information on the Phi Phi dive sites:
Bida Nai (Recommend)
Descent is often down a mooring line to 1 of 2 swim-throughs on the site. Without the help of your guide you would not even know that there is a gap in the rocks because it is completely filled by glassfish that make room for you as you fin through. Watch your buoyancy here as bearded scorpionfish are often seen camouflaged on the bottom. Look closely at the rock walls on the outer edge of the swim-through for seahorses and harlequin ghost pipefish, along with boxer shrimps, hinge-beak shrimps and innumerable nudibranchs.
As you work your way shallower at the end of the dive, look for sand holes under small coral heads - a tell tale sign that a bamboo shark has made a home there. Orange-lined, Indian and titan triggerfish are all around the shallow areas and it's not unusual to see a pair of cuttlefish performing one of their colourful dances.
On you safety stop look out for squid and the ever present crocodile long-toms, swimming just under the surface.
Bida Nai Reef Basics: Staghorn Reef and wall diving Depth: 5 - 30m Visibility: 10 - 20m Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Can be choppy Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner - Intermediate Number of dive sites: 1 Diving Season: All year round Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket , 30 km southwest of Krabi Access: Scuba diving day tours from Phi Phi (Pee Pee) and Thailand liveaboard trips
Bida Nok (Recommend)
South West of the islet, just outside a large sheltered bay is where the most beautiful coral and rock formations can be found. It's also the best area for seeing banded sea snakes and hawksbill turtles. The cliffs descend straight into the sea and are covered with soft corals and anemones of purple, green, blue and pink. This creates magical, colourful wall diving. Look closely into the crevices and zigzag clams for all types of moray eels, the most common being the white-eyed moray.
Caverns and overhangs are plenty, with a beautifully diverse finger reef replete with gorgonian sea fans, sea whips, giant brain corals, table corals and bubble coral. Bida Nok is home to lionfish, bearded scorpionfish, bird wrasse and moon wrasse, moorish idols, parrotfish and honeycomb grouper.
Leopard sharks are common here as are black tip reef sharks and, although not regular visitors, whale sharks and mantas are seen here by some lucky divers every year.
Although you probably will not want your dive to end here, as you surface above the water the islet rock formations will take your breath away. As you wait for the boat to pick you up you can watch the sea eagles soaring overhead.
Bida Nok Reef Basics: Finger Reef and wall diving Depth: 5 - 32m Visibility: 10 - 20m Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Can be choppy Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner - Intermediate Number of dive sites: 3 Diving Season: All year round Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket), 30 km southwest of Krabi Access: Scuba diving day tours and Thailand liveaboard trips
Garang Heng
The reef starts just 6m below the surface and goes down to it’s deepest point at 24m. Famous for its large shoals of yellowtail barracuda, twin-spotted sea perch, fusiliers and blue-lined snapper and scorpionfish with a 99% chance to see Leopard Sharks.
The Reef itself consists of soft and hard corals, some barrel sponges, and lots of sea fans and anemones. It is an easy dive site with mild currents although visibility is often only average.
Garang Heng Reef Basics: Submerged soft coral reef Depth: 8 - 24m Visibility: 5 - 15m (Usually not great visibility) Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Can be choppy ( Mild to strong ) Often flat during November to April. Low season (May to September) wind action makes this site sometimes inaccessible. Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner - Intermediate (not on an introduction course) Number of dive sites: 1 Diving Season: All year round ( All year round depending wave action. ) Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket (3 hours), 30 km southwest of Krabi (2½ hours) Access: Scuba diving day trips and Thailand liveaboard trips
Hin Dot
When not exposed to strong currents, Hin Dot forms a great multilevel dive. There are 3 chimneys aligned close together in a north-south direction, the deepest rising only to 16 metres below the surface. The main pinnacle has 3 ledges at 3 metres, 12 and 15 metres, then drops down to 30 metres. This provides an ever-changing underwater scenery as you slowly ascend, spiralling ever upwards.
There is an amazing amount of sea life concentrated in such a small area. Huge schools of yellow fusiliers circle around, and larger fish such as trevally and barracudas are common, feeding on the smaller baitfish. The show will easily keep you occupied for an hour.
Purple and orange soft corals, tube corals and hard corals cover the pinnacles, with christmas tree and tube worms. Inside the rocky crags are all manner of shrimps, small lobsters and crabs; and nubibranchs are easy to spot here. The deeper walls are embedded with zigzag clams, giant clams and oysters.
Hin Dot Reef Basics: Pinnacles and ledges Depth: 5 - 28m Visibility: 10 - 15m (Usually not great visibility) Currents: Can be strong ( Mild to strong ) Surface Conditions: Can be choppy Often flat during November to April. Low season (May to September) wind action makes this site sometimes inaccessible. Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Intermediate Number of dive sites: 1 Diving Season: All year round ( All year round depending wave action. ) Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket (3 hours), 30 km southwest of Krabi (2½ hours) Access: Scuba diving day trips and Thailand liveaboard trips
Loh Samah Bay
Loh Samah Bay is also a very popular site for snorkeling trips. The main dive site is around the large islet that fills the bay although it’s is small enough to allow divers to complete a complete circle of it at least once on a single tank of air. This wall dive descends to around 20m on the side furthest away from Phi Phi Lay.
At around 15m depth there’s also an interesting narrow canyon just inside the bay that divers can swim through, taking care not to damage the gorgonian sea fans which hand from either side.. The wall is covered in soft corals and clams and is home to all the usual marine life around Phi Phi dive sites especially Giant Morays, cuttlefish, octopuses, pipefish and lionfish.
Loh Samah Bay is frequently included as a Night Dive site for many liveaboards, during these dive you’ll often stay within the shelter of Loh Samah and dive the inner walls of the bay itself with a maximum depth of around 15 meters. Torches bring to life the vibrant colours of the coral covered walls plus the reflective eyes of shrimps and lobsters dot the walls like stars. Night is a good time to see moray eels hunting as they swim up down and across the walls, which makes a nice change from just seeing their heads.
The swim through is also accessible during the night dive and is even more spectacular at night. Because Loh Samah Bay is sheltered it’s a great place to see bioluminescent algae which glowes when you agitate the water with your fins or hands. To get the best view hold your torch into your chest to block the light and watch the sea light up around you.
Depth: 5 - 20m Visibility: 5 - 15m Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Calm Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner Number of dive sites: 2 Diving Season: All year round Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket (3 hours), 30 km southwest of Krabi (2½ hours) Access: Scuba diving day trips and Thailand liveaboard trips
Maya Wall
Maya Bay was made famous by the movie "The Beach" in early 2000. These days visitors come looking for the deserted paradise that the movie portrayed. The natural beauty of the island is breathtaking and although it can get crowded during some times of the year it’s certainly well worth a visit. The best way to experience the island as it was portrayed in the film is to spend a night there. Once all the day trip boats have left there’s a new kind of magic which comes out with the stars.
The limestone rocks which circle Maya Bay are full of cracks and crevices that are teaming with marine life and scattered amongst the sand are coral bommies. There are also some small swim-throughs and small caverns to explore. This is another area with a large amount of boat activity so it’s important to always be aware of what’s above you and to use a SMB (surface marker buoy) during your ascent.
For the more experienced diver, Maya Bay gets even more interesting once you get just outside Maya Bay. The walls on either side of the entrance to the north and to the South make for popular dive sites although the Maya North Wall is more frequently dived and has several mooring lines along its length which make for convenient ascent and descent lines if you prefer. Although at the start of the dive you may drop down to a maximum of 30m just to see if there are any leopard sharks on the sandy bottom but the majority of your dive will be at around 15-20 meters where all the action is. A frequent highlight of this wall dive can be found around the most northerly mooring line where groups of Black Tip reef sharks cruise around. It’s also a good spot to look out for more Leopard sharks and Turtles.
Depth: 5 - 25m Visibility: 5 - 20m Currents: Gentle Surface Conditions: Can be choppy Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Beginner Number of dive sites: 2 Diving Season: All year round Distance: ~45 km east of Phuket (3 hours), 30 km southwest of Krabi (2½ hours) Access: Scuba diving day trips and Thailand liveaboard trips
Phi Phi Shark Point
Hin Musang derives its name from the leopard sharks that are resident there, making it one of the more popular spots for in scuba diving in Phuket. These docile creatures grow to approximately 2½ metres, are nocturnal, and sleep on the sandy bottom at the edge of the reef during the day. Shark Point's your best chance to get up close and personal, and maybe take a photo or 2 of these sharks.
Bamboo sharks can also be found hiding under coral ledges but there's a lot more to see here than just sharks. Lionfish and scorpionfish are all over the reef, the latter being incredibly well camouflaged against the coral. There are many different types of pufferfish including the cute little yellow boxfish. Moorish idols and the very similar looking bannerfish can be seen on every dive. Blue-ringed angelfish and emperor angelfish are also common.
As Shark Point is made up of more than 1 pinnacle there is always somewhere on the reef to shelter from any currents, so you can dive here any time of the month.
Maya Wall Reef Basics: Pinnacles with soft and hard corals Depth: 5 - 22m Visibility: 5 - 20m Currents: Moderate ( Mild to strong ) Surface Conditions: Can be rough Often flat during November to April. Low season (May to September) wind action makes these sites sometimes inaccessible Water Temperature: 27 - 30°C Experience Level: Intermediate Number of dive sites: 3 Diving Season: All year round ( All year round depending wave action. ) Distance: ~25 km east of Phuket (1¾ hours), 20 km west of Phi Phi (2 hours), 40 km southwest of Krabi (3 hours) Access: Phuket, Phi Phi Island or Krabi day tours
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Actually 2 Islands - Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh - these 2 awesome sisters languish in the sea like a pair of emerald jewels studding the aquamarine waters of Phang Nga Bay. It's one of the most picturesque islands in the world. You'll marvel at the stunning movie-set desert-island scenery both above and below the waterline.
"Inner Father" lies 1 kilometre south of Phi Phi Leh. Like its larger neighbour, Bida Nok, Bida Nai is a limestone cliff islet with similar underwater terrain and, together with Bida Nok, is regarded as Phi Phi's best diving.
"Outer Father" is a small limestone cliff islet, 2 kilometres south of Phi Phi Leh. It is Phi Phi Islands' best dive site, due to its great diversity of marine life and is often visited on Thailand liveaboard cruises.
Garang Heng is circular coral reef about 2km east of Phi Phi Ley giving Phi Phi Divers almost guaranteed views of Leopard Sharks. This dive site is a completely submerged circular coral reef about 2km east of Phi Phi Ley. It’s only visited by Phi Phi Dive companies and Liveaboards so it’s also a popular site since there are none of Phukets many dive boats here. 
'Chimney Rock' is located just outside Tonsai Bay to the south of Phi Phi Don and is therefore only dived by Phi Phi diving boats and liveaboards. 
The sea floor here often has leopard sharks, and it is recommended to carry a safety balloon as the entry and exit point is in the middle of Tonsai Bay and exposed to boat traffic.
Loh Samah Bay on the east side of Phi Phi Ley is popular with snorkelers and great for night dives. Located on the east side of Phi Phi Ley, Loh Samah Bay is separated from Maya Beach by a thin limestone wall with a small hole which cuts through the rock making it possible to walk /crawl through.
Loh Samah Bay Reef Basics: Canyon and wall diving 
Maya Bay made famous by the movie The Beach offers scuba divers multiple dive locations depending on experience. The bay is a very popular snorkeling spot but is good for new, less experienced divers and even dive training. For more experienced divers, the Maya North Wall is especially recommended.
Maya Wall Reef Basics: Wall diving and swim-throughs 
Hin Musang was given official marine sanctuary status in 1992. It's made up of 3 large rock pinnacles, the largest of which breaks the surface. These rocks abound with life. The sheer density and diversity of coral and fish life makes diving here a wonderful, sensual experience. Phuket Shark Point's most colourful feature is the profusion of the purple and pink soft corals that cling to the rocks, and its huge barrel sponges.
1 metre long potato groupers are quite shy, making photographing them a challenge but there are plenty of other, more willing subjects to snap away at whilst you're diving at Phuket Shark Point. Schools of fusiliers are dotted around the reef and in places the reef is completely carpeted by glassfish which are constantly being dispersed by raiding trevallies. Moray eels are in abundance and banded sea snakes are often seen in the shallower areas. A small rock outcrop, just off the south west corner on the main rock at 18 metres depth is home to a yellow seahorse and while you're hunting for him you'll probably also see free swimming white-eyed morays, banded boxer shrimps and hinge-beak shrimps.