Dive Review of Zeavola Resort in
Thailand/Phi Phi Island

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Zeavola Resort: "Excellent resort with a knowledgable dive operation on site.", Apr, 2019, by Jeff Bloomer, IA, US ( Contributor 18 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 11006 has 2 Helpful votes.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	So my wife and I were contacted by friends from Australia who we met while diving Yap years ago and have gotten together with from time to time for dive trips. In the past I had setup trips and would invite them but this time it was their turn. Thailand was an easy sell as I had been researching it already for a trip. After exhausting my usual travel agencies for details I decided to book with the agent in Australia. After a number of back and forth emails (I was convinced we were not getting a great rate as the resorts online booking was considerable less expensive) we got things hammered out. In the end I could have booked directly online and I don't believe there would have been any issues. The flight to Thailand was uneventful. Having flown to this side of the globe a few times we opted for First Class seats, the cost wasn't terrible and for the comfort we thought it was worth it. We overnighted in Phuket at a great little resort close to the airport with assurances that we would be picked up at noon for a ride to a nearby marina for a boat ride to Phi Phi island. At exactly 12:00 PM the air-conditioned van rolled up to the resort and we were loaded and on our way to the marina. Our bags were left with the boats crew and two representatives from Zeavola Resort and we took time for a quick lunch and an adult beverage at a dockside restaurant. Then we were off for a quick 1 hour boat ride to Phi Phi island. We arrived right at the resorts beach at high tide. With no dock I assumed we would be walking in but the resort sent out a tractor with a wagon with seating for 8 or so people. Luggage was brought in afterwards. We were met by David the Director of Water Activities, an amiable guy from Kokomo Indiana and his assistant Apple. Dave explained he was brand new to the operation but made us feel right at home. He was putting his degree from Purdue to good use obviously. We were given the choice of our gear being taken directly to the PADI 5 Star shop or to our villa, we let them handle the gear. Zeavola Resort is visited by a number of nationalities with Europeans being prevalent but Americans make up their biggest percentage at 15%. The resort is laid out like a traditional Thai village on its own beach. The sand here is like talc and a delight to walk in. The individual buildings, or villas, are spread out under the canopy of a palm tree forrest. The villas are perched on top of legs off of the ground with two structures on either end and the space between these is equipped with a refrigerator, coffee/tea station, chairs and mats for lounging as well as an outdoor shower, sink and vanity area. The bathroom and indoor shower are not conditioned but well ventilated. The bedroom is wrapped by floor to ceiling doors/windows with a powerful air-conditioning unit for sleeping. The entire villa is surrounded by reeded shades that are motorized and lowered in the evening for privacy. There is no central lobby, etc. but two small structures that form the office of the resort. There is an onsite restaurant bar for relaxing open air dining on the beach as well as a separate dining area where a huge breakfast buffet is served each morning. Breakfast is a mix of American, European and Asian items with made to order items available as well. The coffee is excellent and the service is top notch. The resident rooster, Klaus, could be seen walking around making sure we were all safe. There is a small workout room and an onsite spa, I would highly recommend the Thai massage! The dive shop is a small affair with a few items for sale but mostly its a gathering place in the morning to watch your gear being loaded onto the waiting boat. The staff, Dave, Apple, Ton and Add, take care of your gear from cleaning to assembling to hauling around. We used two different boats for diving. Not traditional dive boats, as one is pressed into service to shuttle guests to and from the resort sometimes but they were both well maintained and fast. The ladders were small and the best way to get on the boat was to remove your gear in the water and let the crew take it aboard. All of our dives left in the morning and finished in the early afternoon. Lunch was provided each dive day and you had your choice of all sorts of Thai themed items. All were good and there was a lot of variety. Lunch was always on some island with fantastic scenery surrounding us. The diving was a mix. Super sized schools of fish were the norm. It is not hyperbole to say that you would totally disappear into these schools of fish. Sharks were common on our first few dives and visibility was 80 feet. There were times later in the week the visibility would drop to as little as 10 feet but you could always find interesting things to see and the viz would usually clear up in a few minutes. The reefs are very healthy. I was told that the Thai government monitors the reef health and will place areas off limits for a period of time so that there is time for the reefs to recover. This area gets A LOT of snorkeling tourists from Asia. Giant boats would pass by where we would have lunch and disgorge their guests into the water. You could have walked across the water and never gotten wet. Luckily the diving areas are nowhere near the snorkeling areas and we were the only boat on any of the sites we dove. When our diving day was done we would mostly walk down the beach to a wonderful little open air restaurant on the beach, Mama Ping's, to see what the catch of the day was. Often she would ask us what we liked and have the fishermen catch it for the next evening. When it was time for us to go the Assistant Manager Lion (pronounced Leon) was waiting at the boat that would shuttle us back to Phuket. Lion was always around and would always stop and visit a few minutes to make sure things were going well.
Websites	Zeavola Resort Zeavola Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	All over
Closest Airport	Phuket	Getting There	Flight from OHare to Phuket with a short layover in Seoul on Korean Air.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	85-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	10-80 Ft/ 3-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Standard restrictions like depth but we were a small group and the crew was easy going
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	The boat isn't a true dive boat but there was room for my rig. The crew would hand it to me once I was in the water. There is room in the villa to work on things with plenty of outlets for charging. I didn't find it difficult and have certainly seen worse. Mostly wide angle shots as we had a number of sharks on some of the dives and enormous schools of fish on most dives. There were some underwater structures and housed a lot of interesting animals from nudies to eels, and the usual suspects. You want to have a phone or topside camera on the boat, the islands you visit or pass are right out of the movies.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Zeavola Resort in Thailand/Phi Phi Island

Zeavola Resort: "Excellent resort with a knowledgable dive operation on site.", Apr, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Zeavola Resort in
Thailand/Phi Phi Island