The Racha Islands

The Racha Islands

The Most Easily Accessible Scuba Diving Sites In Phuket

Our most popular Phuket diving trip for beginners and experienced divers. Racha Noi and Yai are not a great distance away but offer some excellent diving. Training for deep, tech and wreck can all be safely completed in the generally easy diving environment that surrounds these stunning islands. Open up the individual dive site pages for the inside info

Diving Into the Clearest Waters In Phuket Can Sometimes Produce Big Rewards

Racha Noi & Yai are two idyllic tropical islands lying directly South from Phuket. Neither island gets affected by the river run off in Phang Nha Bay so the waters remain clear all year around. Racha Noi boasts white sand beaches, fantastic underwater topography, the best staghorn reefs in the area and regular visits by giant manta rays. Racha Yai has five wrecks, thousands of reef building cubes and a habit of turning up rare and unusual creatures. Even in low season the water is clear and it's where we highly recommend you dive between May and October

banana rock dive site at racha noi

Racha Noi Banana Rock

Racha Noi Banana Rock is just outside the large bay where you'll probably take your first dive of the day. The topography is completely different from the bay. The shallowest depth is around 7m where the rocks and hard coral reef meet the sand. There's a small patch reef at the start of the dive where we can sometimes find octopus hiding in the corals. Swimming deeper across the sand, keep a look out for sea moths and juvenile cockatoo waspf [...]

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Racha Noi North Tip

Racha Noi North Tip is a picturesque little bay and a beautiful Phuket diving location. Granite boulders topped by lush tropical vegetation make a great setting for diving. Boulders reach out from the island on either side of the bay and continue underwater giving the dive site a 'Similan Island' feel. The shallow area of the bay is composed of sand interspersed with small hard coral bommies. Leaves from the island gather here so attractin [...]

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bay one at racha yai island phuket

Racha Yai

Racha Yai is not the place to go if you're looking for stunning coral reefs, although the hard coral gardens in the shallow water are incredibly pretty. To replace the coral damage from the bleaching event that occurred in 2010 the Thai government has placed a whole heap of artificial reef structures to attract marine life and take the pressure off the remaining corals. This is where most of the structures lie, there's 5 small wrecks and [...]

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diving-the-west-side-of-racha-noi-phuket

Racha Noi West Side

The west side of Racha Noi is exposed to the low season weather making the topography completely different from the east side. Any sand gets washed away exposing the granite rocks that tumble down to meet the usually clear water. Both of our regular dive sites are quite similar and easy to manage if there is current. We'll always start the dive in the sheltered bay. If you're participating in a PADI Discover Scuba Diving or Open Water [...]

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Racha Noi South Tip

Quite honestly we wish we could get to Racha Noi South Tip every trip but the converging currents from either side of Racha Noi make it a challenging dive even on weak tides. Only once or twice a month the current is low enough for us to get there but it's a real treat when we can. Even the guides are queuing up for this trip! The dive site consists of a series of huge granite boulders that have been washed smooth by the strong currents. C [...]

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banana bay at racha noi island phuket

Racha Noi Banana Bay South

For many students Racha Noi Banana bay will be part of your first Phuket diving experience. The clear shallow bay is often devoid of current. Making it an ideal dive site for first timers and more experienced divers who haven't got wet for a while. That's not to say it's a bad dive site, just a very safe one. The dive will begin near the very beautiful coral gardens at around 4-5 meters. Many species of jewel like damselfish, butterfly fis [...]

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Local Guides, Local Knowledge, Local Experiences

Don't trust your diving to amateurs or freshly minted dive guides, dive with local experienced experts from Local Dive Thailand. Our Scuba Diving Phuket Tours will take you to see the rarest of the rare critters, you will be amazed by the macro life our guides can find, in the secret places only they know. To put it in perspective, if you were going to climb Mount Everest you would certainly hire a local sherpa to lead the way & keep you safe. Diving is similar because there is absolutely no substitute for local experience & local knowledge, Local Dive Thailand's guides are Phuket's Sherpa's of the Andaman Sea!

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Scuba Diving Phuket, Phi Phi & Thailand

When talking about Scuba Diving in Phuket, you should believe the hype, many seasons we have had Whale Sharks grace us on our regular and easy to reach dive sites and on a good day you can add Sea Horses, Sea Moths, Snake Eels, Frog Fish & Octopus to what you can see on any given dive and so much more. If we are heading to Phi Phi Island for the day, you can possibly see Hawksbill Sea Turtles and Black Tip Reef Sharks, also don't forget the King Cruiser, 84 meters of beautiful wreck and the most amazing reef nursery for fish and nudibranch. Local Dive Thailand day trip tours to these locations are not to be missed when you are scuba diving Phuket, get in touch with us and book an 'awesome' day of diving.

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