Assava Dive Resort

Though I know this is a dive resort, little did I know that the pool will be unavailable all day, every day due to scuba diving lessons.  Food was less than mediocre.  Lady at reception very unfriendly, though at least she got things done.  “Private beach” unavailable due to constant high tide, coupled with an unavailable swimming pool, we left 3 days early and forfeited the money rather than waste time here

Me and my girlfriend completed our open water diving course with Assava and had a great time. The whole process was very professional and there was no issues with communication or any negative feedback. Our instructor, Robin, was with us the whole time (one day in the pool and two days out at sea). He was excellent and kept our spirits going the whole time. When we were having issue with certain training he would remain calm and teach us properly and correctly. He constantly had eyes on us and we both felt safe the whole time. The timings were spot on and the resort and transportation was spot-on. Would recommend.

This is a great small hotel and dive resort for a good price. It’s a small and quiet place with good restaurants around it and right off the bay. The dive shop is great and I did several trips with them. The AC and WiFi worked great, they provide bottled water in glass bottles daily and everyone is very nice. The only thing I would suggest is better cleaning of the rooms. When I came into the room I found much sand and dust under my bed, which could be remedied by sweeping better. Also the bathroom didn’t seep to ever be properly cleaned.

went diving in Koh Tao, Thailand through Assava Dive Resort. Beautiful accommodations and right off the ocean. Felt like paradise. I signed up for my open-water scuba diving PADI course with Steven Crane with Diverholics. An amazing teacher and explained everything. He removed the fear and hesitation I had about diving. I felt completely safe under his hands and he was with me for every dive. I loved it so much that I signed up for the advanced PADI open water course, and did ten dives with Steve. Brilliant experience and profound when I swam with a whale shark. I really appreciate the delicate balance of the oceans. Everyone at Assava are top notch with great equipment. Made many friends, and Steve is the one to connect with if you want to learn to scuba dive. I will give one story with Steve — there was another student who wanted to quit after the first few hours into the course because she was afraid of the big blue ocean and all the scenarios you can face. She had a lot of anxiety. But, Steve calmed her down and spent an extra day with her ( and all of us ) to make sure we knew everything and very comfortable. In the end, she completed her course and was the best diver out of all of us.

I moved to Assava from the sister company of Ban's Diving Resort. This location is much further off the beaten path than the more touristy area near Ban's. The diving trips had much less people and were much more catered to doing diving courses, which was great for me. All the staff were fantastic when it came to adjusting the dive sites to cater for the courses I was completing. So much so that after finishing my Rescue Diver course, I tacked on the Advanced Open Water course, nitrox course and shipwreck diver course. All of which was extremely easy to organise compared to trying to set up even a recreational dive with other companies on Koh Tao. This would be the number 1 place I would recommend anyone get any and all dive certifications. However if you are intending to go anywhere from this location around the island, there is a scooter rental 100m from the hotel. - Room size/layout - ⭐️⭐️ - Small room with 2 double beds next to each other - Cleanliness - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Cleaned daily by housekeeping - Maintenance - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Clearly an older build with expected wear and tear - Bed - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Firm but comfortable - Pillows - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Flat and lacking support - Shower - ⭐️⭐️⭐️- Small room w/toilet in the shower. Shower water gets quite cool but not cold - Toilet - ⭐️⭐️⭐️- Bidet toilet, no paper to be flushed - Towels - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Moderately sized towels with good absorption. Extra pool towels provided - Closet/Drawers - ⭐️⭐️ - Small rack with 4 coat hangers - Table - ⭐️ - Small bench to store items, but nowhere to eat/prepare food - Power - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Power outages once a day or so (ranging between 10-45min) - Aircon - ⭐️⭐️ - Barely kept the room cool. - Breakfast -⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Good food a short walk to the restaurant, but no continental breakfast included. - Kitchen - No kitchen in room - Room service - No, but not really required when so close to hotel restaurant - WiFi - ⭐️⭐️ - Unreliable and I tended to use my cellular instead - Parking - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Adequate parking for a rental scooter - Laundry - ⭐️⭐️⭐️- Coin operated washer and dryer near to restaurant, but no laundry service. (We used a laundry service just down the street from the hotel entrance) - Pool ⭐️⭐️ - Mostly used for dive training (very hot water, no shade and highly chlorinated) - Restaurant - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - A nice short walk from the rooms, all outside, small fans but no aircon. The food is a good mix of Thai food and more western options - Literally 10m from the restaurant/dive shop is the beach - Multiple nice areas to sit by the restaurant with bean bags, or chairs and enjoy the beach view - Beach sand is mostly small rocks and coral, not a great beach to walk along if you have soft feet - Dive instructors - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The whole team were fantastic and it was extremely easy to book in for extra dives, certification courses and get additional training. - Skip - fantastic Divemaster, extremely knowledgeable and helpful - Sofia - great rapport with students, made me

I did my Advanced Open Water with Jamie and had so much fun! He is such a good teacher and always makes sure that you are doing alright:)))) thanks for some of the most memorable days of my backpacking trip 🌸🫧🌞🌸🫧🌞🐢🙏🏼👌🏼😌😜 If your are planning to get your open water / aow on Koh Tao, do it will Assava ＜3 (and Jamie)