Alvaro Diving Courses Koh Tao

The scuba diving paradise island of Koh Tao offers more than 35 dive sites around the island. Some of them, like Chumphon Pinnacle, South-West Pinnacle and Sailrock, are a bit further away from Koh Tao and it takes about an hour or more to get there by boat. Nevertheless, the dive sites near by the island are not much less spectacular and according to Thomas Goreau, an internationally known coral specialist, we have still one of the healthiest coral reefs on the planet around Koh Tao. An extraordinary variety of tropical fish can be found here and large pelagic sharks and whales come along for regular visits. Diving Koh Tao is every time a new adventure and many scuba divers have come back to visit the island for many years again and again. Find below some more dive site descriptions and pictures of Koh Tao’s underwater beauty.

White Rock

White Rock is one of the most dived sites in the world and that is for a good reason! White Rock is a large dive site on the west coast of Koh Tao consisting of two groups of rock formations separated by a slim channel of sand. The dive site ranges from depths of 9 meters to 24 meters on the outer edge towards the south. White Rock is home to most of Koh Tao’s spectacularly diverse fish species and some exceptionally healthy hard- and soft corals. With something to excite divers of all levels of skill this dive site is a Koh Tao legend. White Rock covers a very large area and offers three buoy lines, two in the north and one in the south of the dive site. Because of it’s relatively shallow waters, White Rock is a widely beloved dive site for scuba diving courses on Koh Tao, allowing all kinds of underwater training activities starting from Open Water Diver.

We know this dive site very well and we love it; so let Alvaro’s instructors and divemasters find you a great Giant Barracuda, a Banded Sea Snake, a Turtle, a Moray Eel or a Blue Spotted Stingray and all manner of colorful reef characters. Look closely in the Stag Horn Corals for big eyed Porcupine Fish and Hermit Crabs and see if you can spot a well camouflaged Scorpion Fish or two. The fish on White Rock have gotten used to scuba divers over the many years we do recreational diving here that they come unbashfully nearby allowing observation from very close up. White Rock is also a great place for a night dive where you can see Barracudas hunting for careless fish and spot stingrays digging in the sand or Hermit Crabs walking by, carrying huge shells on their back. When you are diving in Koh Tao, White Rock is a must see dive site!

IDC Wreck

Another Alvaro favorite is a recently sunken dive boat. Yes, that’s right, Koh Tao has now a real wreck to dive on! The former dive boat lays in 18m depth and is now home to a spectacular variety of tropical fish. The wreck is momentarily beginning to develop into a reef foundation. Currently the wreck is still intact and you can have a lot of underwater fun by strolling the dive deck, swimming through the captain’s cabin, and visiting the head or go for a “giant stride” off the back step! This dive site makes for fantastic underwater pictures or videos. If you don’t have an underwater camera, ask Alvaro Diving to rent one and shoot some awesome underwater pictures here.

This unique wreck of Koh Tao is often frequented by Tiera Batfish of various ages (the young ones are stunning)! The main residents of the wreck are different kinds of Groupers, Snappers, Sea Chub, many different kinds of Goat Fish, File Fish as well as a mated pair of Titan Trigger Fish. Occasional Eagle Rays and Jenkins Rays as well as Octopus, small schools of squid and Marbled Groupers have all been seen by Alvaro Diving here. Since the boat is made of wood it won’t be there forever and the wreck is well worth a visit while it is still intact! Come along at Alvaro Diving in Chalok baan Kao and ask us for the next dive trip to the IDC Wreck.

Twins or Twin Peaks

Alvaro Diving loves this beautiful coastal dive site, just outside Koh Nang Yuan, to the west of the island. The name Twin Peaks comes originally from the two main rock formations of the dive site. Actually there are three formations, one starting of in very shallow waters in the east from around 5 meters reaching down to 19 meters at the outer pinnacle to the west. The pinnacles are facing the open ocean and has just about everything to offer (Although we’ve yet to see a whale shark on Twins)! A massive variety of marine life adds to the stunning natural beauty of this arrangement of submerged granite boulders and makes this site a must see for any serious diver on Koh Tao. No matter how many times you’ve been on Twin Peaks you can’t fail to have fun on this dive site.

Twins is another dive site that offers something for every level of scuba diver – first ever dive or veteran – with large schools of smaller Reef Fish, an excellent array of Shrimps and Nudy brunches and the occasional oceanic visitor such as Tunas and Marlins as well as all manner of brightly colored tropical Reef Fish and the predators love them too. Twins is also the only spot on Koh Tao where we have a seahorse colony – if you can find it out in the sand… Another attraction of twin peaks are the two Clown Fish who have been given the names “Mork and Molly” and are the attraction of allmost any group of divers spotting their nest. A rather new development is the underwater training facility called “Buoyancy World”, an artificial dive site built by many dive centers on Koh Tao to have a training dive site for beginners who are not so good yet in keeping their balance underwater.

Aow Leuk

Aow Leuk is a shallow sandy bay on the south-east coast of Koh Tao with beautiful reefs along either side of the bay. Aow Leuk is also of the only bays on Koh Tao where the beach slopes steeply into the sea and is therefor an excellent place for diving courses on Koh Tao. It is an ideal spot to do your first ever dive in the open water or learn your dive skills in the shallow water area before taking off to explore the immaculate coral gardens around Koh Tao. In the sandy patches of Aow Leuk you will also find some nests of Clown Fish which is always worth to hang around for a bit and watch them working on their anemone nest.

The coral reef is in good condition and the stocks of small to medium reef fishes – from tiny Damsel Fish to great big colorful terminal male Parrot Fish and Blue Neon Angelfish – often attract juvenile Black Tip Reef Sharks from the nearby Rocky Bay or Shark Bay, where you can snorkel with Black Tips almost every day. If you see one you’re lucky as these are beautiful sleek creatures, usually only 70-80cm long so don’t worry they can’t bite you!! Furthermore small schools of Squid, Porcupines, and occasionally an octopus can be spotted in Aow Leuk. On the south-west end of the bay is one of the few spots on Koh Tao where you will find Whip Corals. Aow Leuk is a great spot to dive when the weather isn’t all that good on Koh Tao because the bay is quite sheltered.

Tanote Bay

A large bay with a tall rock in the middle that is blessed with excellent coral all the way across its breadth. You can dive from 5 meters to 18 meters in Tanote Bay and it is therefore another site that has something to offer people of differing experience and skill levels. Alvaro Diving often goes to Tanote to visit the small catamaran wreck. It’s not a large boat but out in the sand at 17m it attracts large rays, Travallies, all manner of schooling Bait Fish, Teira Bat Fish and the whole wreck is covered in macro delights from transparent Cleaner Shrimps to Pipe Fish colonies. Tanote Bay may well be the coral reef with the greatest coral diversity on Koh Tao because many of thecorals you will find here have been artificially planted here in 1999 and are thriving here ever since.

We often hold Advanced Open Water Diving Courses on this wreck in Tanote Bay. The bay is also an ideal dive site for Fish Identification Courses and Navigation Training, which is one of the mandatory dives if you want to become a PADI Advanced Diver. Furthermore Tanote Bay is home to large numbers of mated pairs of our largest colorful fish, such as Six-Bar Angel Fish, two varieties of Unicorn Fish, a type of Surgeon Fish, the beautiful Lined Butterfly Fish and of course we find Titan Triggerfish here as well.

Koh Nang Yuan Pinnacle and Cave, Red Rock

Koh Nang Yuan Pinnacle is a small granite pinnacle that rises out of the water from depths of about 20-24 meters just to the surface. The pinnacle offers a wide variety of colorful Sea Slugs and Nudy Brunches. Occasional you will find large schools of squid and you can often see the larger reef fish feasting on the fields of eggs that they lay between the pinnacle and the shoreline.
After starting the dive on the pinnacle in the channel you transfer to the boulder strewn coastline of Koh Nang Yuan which boasts bright coral gardens and a wide assortment of animal life. One of the coral gardens is a favorite spot for the local turtle and right next to this there is a large cave where divers can swim through.

All along this coast line of Koh Nang Yuan you will find different sizes and shapes of habitats that are home to many tropical fish, Banded Sea Snakes, colorful corals and Stingrays.
Whip coral, soft coral and sea fans are common and Blue Spotted Stingrays are abundant around Koh Nang Yuan Island and a huge number of groupers can be seen hiding in nooks and crevices. Recently we also found two Eagle Rays on this beautiful dive site that we hope are going to mate here.

Find the Best Dive Sites of Koh Tao here!