Come Sail Away to Sail Rock

We believe STYX, the popular band from the mid-70’s, can perfectly start this blog post for us. As one of their most popular song goes, “Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with us … to Sail Rock!

Okay so we changed that last part, but we recently went scuba diving at the best spot we’ve been to-date. We know, the best spot is certainly putting Sail Rock on a bit of a pedestal, but we’ve been scuba diving all over world and this is the best (at least so far) place we’ve been.

Sail Rock is a pinnacle that lies between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, Thailand. It stretches from 15 meters above to 35 meters below the surface and is considered the premier dive spot in the Gulf of Thailand.

It has been a highlight on our round-the-world adventure and we thought we’d share our five reasons on why you should add scuba diving Sail Rock to your bucket list:

 

1. Marine Life:

With any scuba diving trip, you’re hoping to see a plethora of marine life and that is exactly what we got at Sail Rock. While we were swimming around the walls we were amazed by all that was swimming around us! Huge schools of mackerel… check! Batfish… check! giant grouper… check! and plenty of other under the sea friends we don’t know the names of!

2. Cost:

Compared to a lot of the other places we have gone scuba diving, Sail Rock is CHEAP! To give you a comparison, when we went scuba diving in Australia it was about $300 US per person… to see Sail Rock from Koh Tao it only cost about $75 per person! That’s some huge savings to see an incredible underwater paradise.

3. Three Island Paradises:

If you’re adding Sail Rock to your bucket list you’ll also be adding at least one of three islands to your list as well. Sail Rock is accessible from Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao. All of which are amazing islands with beautiful white sand beaches and a ton of things to do. We’d suggest stopping at all three if you have time, but definitely see Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

4. Swim-through Chimney:

Even Santa Clause would enjoy it here! There is about a 12 meter chimney that you can swim through to get an inside look at what Sail Rock has to offer. Just keep a look out for some big fish hiding in the shadows!

5. Opportunity to see a Whale Shark:

There are only a few places you can go scuba diving with the opportunity to see the worlds largest fish, and Sail Rock is one of them. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see one on our trip, but you can’t find one if you never go looking. While you’re on the boat make sure you treat the Whale Shark like Voldemort, as it is the one who shall not be named (for superstitious reasons of course).

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The only downside to visiting Sail Rock is the crowd. Being one of the most popular dive sites in the Gulf of Thailand, and being accessible from three islands, there are a ton of companies that charter boats here everyday.

We booked with New Way Diving on Koh Tao and they are the only company to get there before 8:30AM. This means leaving the island around 6:00AM to be the first ones there and get some one-on-one time with the fish! Avoiding the crowds and being the first ones there definitely went a long way to making Sail Rock our favorite dive site… Not to mention we got to watch the sunrise on our way to there which was pretty awesome too.

What are some places you have or would like to go scuba diving?