Scuba diving Phú Quốc from An Thới — PADI courses, prices, dive sites, and when it's actually good.
Scuba Diving Phú Quốc: An Thới Courses, Prices, Best Season
Most visitors who come to the An Thới islands stop at snorkeling — mask, fins, float on the surface, look down. Scuba diving is the same water, ten or fifteen metres deeper, where the reef holds its shape even when wind stirs the surface above. If you’ve snorkeled An Thới before and want to see more of it, or you’ve never dived anywhere and want to try it somewhere forgiving, this is a reasonable place to start.
Scuba diving Phú Quốc trips leave from An Thới harbour, about 45 minutes south of Luna on Bãi Trường. The same archipelago that hosts the An Thới snorkeling boats — Hòn Móng Tay, Hòn Gầm Ghì, Hòn Mây Rút and a few smaller outcrops — has enough depth variation and reef structure to make the extra step worthwhile.
Courses: from a single dive to full certification
Dive centres based at An Thới offer two starting points, and it matters which one you pick.
Discover Scuba (no certificate needed). A short briefing on land or in shallow water, then one guided dive with an instructor holding your hand — literally, for the first few minutes. This is the option for someone who’s curious but not ready to commit a whole trip to diving. Expect roughly 1,000,000–1,500,000 ₫, gear and instructor included.
PADI Open Water certification (about 3 days). Classroom or e-learning, confined-water skills practice, then four open-water dives around the islands. The certificate is recognised worldwide and doesn’t expire — useful if you plan to dive again on a future trip somewhere else. It costs more than a single Discover dive and takes real time out of a Phú Quốc holiday, so it’s worth deciding before you arrive rather than mid-trip.
What you’ll actually see underwater
The reef around Hòn Gầm Ghì and Hòn Móng Tay is soft coral rather than the hard branching kind — fans, small colourful colonies, and enough structure for reef fish to hide in. Visibility runs better in the dry months, but a few metres down the water is calmer than the surface suggests on a grey day.
Reef fish weaving through coral — a few metres down, the water holds still even when the surface doesn’t.
Don’t expect the drama of the Red Sea or the Great Barrier Reef. What Phú Quốc offers is closer, cheaper, and forgiving for a first dive — clear enough water, warm enough temperature, and a short enough boat ride that you’re not committing a whole day to get there and back.
Best season for diving An Thới
November to May is the settled dry season — flat seas, best visibility, the version of An Thới everyone photographs. But diving doesn’t need the same conditions snorkeling does. Because the archipelago sits somewhat sheltered from the open west coast, dive operators run trips through most of the May–October rainy season too, adjusting sites day to day based on wind. If the surface looks unpromising from Bãi Trường, it’s worth calling ahead rather than assuming the whole south is out — the dive centres know which sites are calm that morning.
Full-moon and new-moon weeks bring stronger currents across the whole archipelago; instructors plan around it, but it’s one more reason to book through a centre rather than showing up and hoping.
Booking it from Luna
We don’t run dive boats ourselves, but the same drive that takes snorkeling guests to An Thới harbour works for diving — about 45 minutes south from SS27 Sonasea, Bãi Trường. Tell us the night before whether you’re doing a Discover dive or starting the Open Water course, and we’ll arrange the car for the right pickup time (courses often start earlier than a snorkeling day trip).
If you’re unsure which to book, a Discover Scuba dive is the lower-commitment choice — one dive, no course, see if you like it before signing up for three days.
Send a note through contact with your dates and we’ll hold what we can.
Photos: hero — NIR HIMI on Unsplash; in-body — David Clode on Unsplash.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a certification to try scuba diving in Phú Quốc?
No. Dive centres at An Thới run a 'Discover Scuba' introductory dive for first-timers — a short pool or shallow-water briefing followed by one guided dive, no certificate needed. If you want to dive again elsewhere, the PADI Open Water course (about 3 days) gets you a lifetime certification.
How much does scuba diving cost in Phú Quốc?
A single introductory dive with full gear and an instructor runs roughly 1,000,000–1,500,000 ₫. A 3-day PADI Open Water course, including certification, is priced separately and higher — ask your dive centre for the current rate before booking.
Is scuba diving still good in Phú Quốc during the rainy season?
Yes, more often than people expect. The An Thới archipelago sits in the lee of the main island, so the dive sites stay calmer than the open west coast even when Bãi Trường gets an afternoon downpour. Surface chop matters more to snorkelers than to divers working a few metres down.