Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives
Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives
5
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Full view
About
Owner of M/V Giamani a luxury liveaboard in Thailand. Just five cabins all with private toilet and shower, aircon and windows. The perfect way to enjoy diving Similan islands, Richelieu Rock and discover diving Hin Deng and Koh Ha
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Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions
5.0
81 reviews
Excellent
76
Very good
3
Average
2
Poor
0
Terrible
0
martin3300
Thailand18 contributions
Jan 2020 • Couples
We had an awesome time diving the similan islands with Francesco. He had the best dive briefings I’ve experienced. Funny but professional at the same time. Has good knowledge of the area. Crew is good at taking care of gear when you get out of water. Food could use some work. Maybe fresh towels after a few days.
Written January 14, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Many thanks for the great review and happy to hear you had a good time scuba diving in Thailand with MV Giamani.
Written January 16, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Bel08j
Sydney, Australia19 contributions
Jan 2020 • Couples
Our first live aboard dive experience was amazing thanks in no small way to MV Giamani crew and dive instructors Francesco and Dima. We were impressed with their knowledge, attention to detail and the service provided by crew when coming back from a dive.
My partner and I also partook in the optional Nitrox course on board, run by Francesco.
Will definitely be returning for another live aboard with MV Giamani
My partner and I also partook in the optional Nitrox course on board, run by Francesco.
Will definitely be returning for another live aboard with MV Giamani
Written February 14, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
many thanks for the great review of your experience on board our MV Giamani. Hope that we not have to wait too long to welcome you again here in Phuket, Thailand for more diving with us.
Written February 15, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Jamie T
Hong Kong, China18 contributions
Oct 2019 • Couples
Fantastic 2 day live-aboard. Met and exceeded all expectations on dive quality, food and hospitality. 5 star service.
We saw lots of coral, fish, a snoozing turtle and schools and schools of yellow snappers.
We saw lots of coral, fish, a snoozing turtle and schools and schools of yellow snappers.
Written October 3, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Many thanks for the great review for our MV Giamani. Hope can welcome you soon again on one of our liveaboard cruises.
Written October 5, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Gitano-SF
San Francisco160 contributions
Jan 2017 • Solo
Did a 4-day liveaboard trip to Similans and Richelieu Rock on the Giamani in January. This was my first liveaboard experience (I have around 80 dives around the world, but had not done a liveaboard before) – so read with that in mind.
The Giamani is one of the most expensive liveaboard options in the area, but picked it due to group size (no more than 10 guests per trip). My trip had 10 guests including two instructors (one diver brought her own instructor and another instructor from a local dive shop joined for free because they had one open berth). We were guided by a team for 3 instructors/dive masters, the ship captain, and a team of support/galley staff.
The trip started in rough water (was raining quite a bit the days leading up to the dive) and we dove the Similans, Koh Tachai, Koh Surin, Richelieu Rock, and a couple of wrecks near Khao Lak.
Overall, the water was pretty choppy, visibility poor (except for a couple of dives at the Similan Islands), currents strong (definitely not advised for a weaker swimmer), and coral life limited. We did see a lot of sea life including a couple of Manta Rays and nurse sharks. If I were to return, will limit my diving to the Similan Islands and will opt for another boat.
Pros:
Small number of guests and high staff to guest ratio.
Reasonably good cabins and acceptable shared space (large table used for dive briefings and meals + small sun deck on the roof).
Sufficiently large dive deck (large enough for the 13 divers to prep without stepping on each other).
The food was good and plentiful. The lady in charge of serving the food was the sweet, motherly type that made sure you got enough (and maybe a bit too much) to eat.
Cons:
Cabins had tiny portholes for windows – not a lot of light or air.
The en suite bathrooms had odor issues – the toilet tended to bubble regularly – and needed to keep the tiny porthole open and the door to the cabin closed most of the time. The shower stall drainage was poor and flooded the entire bathroom.
Dive deck did not have showers or dunk tanks for gear – there was one tank for cameras which eventually was used for all gear – and there were two spray heads on the dive platform that some of the divers used to clean their gear. The support staff aggressively asked for your gear, but did not clean them – so by the end of the trip the area with the wet suits reeked of urine.
We were issued one set of towels for the trip, and despite hanging them on the outside railing to dry after each use, were smelling pretty bad by the end of the trip (likely due to a combination of not having showers in the dive deck and limited time to dry between dives).
The guides liked to fight currents – so we either needed to hold on to rocks (violating good diving principles) or exhaust air just trying to stay in place.
The trip leader (Thomas) liked to touch sea life to point things out and often swam into tiny space where he bumped coral with his fins/SPG. He also wanted the guests to swim into the same tiny spaces to show them stuff (it’s cool that we wanted you to see stuff – not cool that he endangered the reef while doing so).
While the Giamani had only a few divers, we were diving the same dive sites as the other boats and on the same schedule – all boats (mostly) went to the same dive sites and dove at the same time – so some of the dive sites (especially Richelieu Rock) felt like Disneyland. Also, while we had three guides they all more or less followed each other and stopped at the same features, so there was a bit of bumper diving going on.
The Giamani is one of the most expensive liveaboard options in the area, but picked it due to group size (no more than 10 guests per trip). My trip had 10 guests including two instructors (one diver brought her own instructor and another instructor from a local dive shop joined for free because they had one open berth). We were guided by a team for 3 instructors/dive masters, the ship captain, and a team of support/galley staff.
The trip started in rough water (was raining quite a bit the days leading up to the dive) and we dove the Similans, Koh Tachai, Koh Surin, Richelieu Rock, and a couple of wrecks near Khao Lak.
Overall, the water was pretty choppy, visibility poor (except for a couple of dives at the Similan Islands), currents strong (definitely not advised for a weaker swimmer), and coral life limited. We did see a lot of sea life including a couple of Manta Rays and nurse sharks. If I were to return, will limit my diving to the Similan Islands and will opt for another boat.
Pros:
Small number of guests and high staff to guest ratio.
Reasonably good cabins and acceptable shared space (large table used for dive briefings and meals + small sun deck on the roof).
Sufficiently large dive deck (large enough for the 13 divers to prep without stepping on each other).
The food was good and plentiful. The lady in charge of serving the food was the sweet, motherly type that made sure you got enough (and maybe a bit too much) to eat.
Cons:
Cabins had tiny portholes for windows – not a lot of light or air.
The en suite bathrooms had odor issues – the toilet tended to bubble regularly – and needed to keep the tiny porthole open and the door to the cabin closed most of the time. The shower stall drainage was poor and flooded the entire bathroom.
Dive deck did not have showers or dunk tanks for gear – there was one tank for cameras which eventually was used for all gear – and there were two spray heads on the dive platform that some of the divers used to clean their gear. The support staff aggressively asked for your gear, but did not clean them – so by the end of the trip the area with the wet suits reeked of urine.
We were issued one set of towels for the trip, and despite hanging them on the outside railing to dry after each use, were smelling pretty bad by the end of the trip (likely due to a combination of not having showers in the dive deck and limited time to dry between dives).
The guides liked to fight currents – so we either needed to hold on to rocks (violating good diving principles) or exhaust air just trying to stay in place.
The trip leader (Thomas) liked to touch sea life to point things out and often swam into tiny space where he bumped coral with his fins/SPG. He also wanted the guests to swim into the same tiny spaces to show them stuff (it’s cool that we wanted you to see stuff – not cool that he endangered the reef while doing so).
While the Giamani had only a few divers, we were diving the same dive sites as the other boats and on the same schedule – all boats (mostly) went to the same dive sites and dove at the same time – so some of the dive sites (especially Richelieu Rock) felt like Disneyland. Also, while we had three guides they all more or less followed each other and stopped at the same features, so there was a bit of bumper diving going on.
Written March 12, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kaci B
Los Angeles, CA20 contributions
Jul 2019 • Friends
We did the 2 day/ 2 night live aboard to the Phi Phi islands. The dive briefings were excellent and I felt very safe with our dive guide. The crew was so hospitable - we were spoiled!
Written July 6, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank your very much for the nice review. Hope we an welcome you again one day on one of our diving trips.
All the best - Your MV Giamani Team
Written July 7, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Jamiela K
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia24 contributions
Nov 2017 • Couples
Completed my PADI Enriched Air certification here, with my husband. We had Francesco as our instructor. He is an amazing instructor and we felt really safe diving with him. We managed to learn a lot from him as he would take the trouble to patiently explain things to us. He has a good sense of humour too. He took the trouble to remind us of the steps to prepare our equipment before each dive. The boat we used to get to the dive site was very well equipped. We felt safe on board. They even have hot meals prepared by Thai cooks. I would highly recommend Francesco and Colona Liveaboards for your dive trips/certification in Phuket. It was easy for us to make last minute reservations, both Ingo and Franceso were very accomodating. Francesco came to our hotel to deliver our Padi reading materials and get our measurements for the diving equipments which we needed the next day, as we arrived late. Keep up the good work guys!
Written November 22, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
many thanks for the great review. Hope we can welcome back in Phuket for more scuba diving fun soon.
Written November 24, 2017
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
vince908
Perth, Australia6 contributions
Apr 2016 • Friends
10 of us, all friends spent a week on the MV Giamani last week.
Ricardo and Martino were excellent.
Collectively our group has dived on many liveaboards throughout the world and nothing compares to the excellent treatment we all received.
MV Giamini was clean and well maintained.
Food was superb. On other liveaboards it's fairly common to have breakfast, leftovers are re-incarnated for lunch and what's left over again is re-incarnated for dinner. Not on this liveaboard, every meal was different and the quality was second to none.
Ricardo and Martino have a great working relationship with plenty of banter keeping their company entertaining.
From the moment you stepped onto the dive deck, the staff couldn't do enough for you. Wetsuits were on your tanks, those on nitrox had a staff member with the analyser as soon as you went near your gear. They even put you fins on for you....That's unheard of. When you finish the dive, there they are again, to help in any way they could.
During the dive briefing with Ricardo, apart from a detailed plan for the dive, a huge emphasis is put on your safety. During one of our dives, we lost a fellow diver. Within minutes Ricardo deployed the dive sausage and had us all surface, where we found our missing diver. Excellent. Similan Islands is a popular dive location and there are many dive boats. We even rescued a couple of divers from another dive boat, who simply didn't do head count and left them behind.....
Similan is also a national park so there are rules like, no gloves, reef hooks or pointers. Ricardo and Martino enforce this, unlike other dives we saw with all of these underwater.
Obviously I'm very impressed them and look forward to diving with them again.
We also rescued a couple of divers from another liveaboard
Ricardo and Martino were excellent.
Collectively our group has dived on many liveaboards throughout the world and nothing compares to the excellent treatment we all received.
MV Giamini was clean and well maintained.
Food was superb. On other liveaboards it's fairly common to have breakfast, leftovers are re-incarnated for lunch and what's left over again is re-incarnated for dinner. Not on this liveaboard, every meal was different and the quality was second to none.
Ricardo and Martino have a great working relationship with plenty of banter keeping their company entertaining.
From the moment you stepped onto the dive deck, the staff couldn't do enough for you. Wetsuits were on your tanks, those on nitrox had a staff member with the analyser as soon as you went near your gear. They even put you fins on for you....That's unheard of. When you finish the dive, there they are again, to help in any way they could.
During the dive briefing with Ricardo, apart from a detailed plan for the dive, a huge emphasis is put on your safety. During one of our dives, we lost a fellow diver. Within minutes Ricardo deployed the dive sausage and had us all surface, where we found our missing diver. Excellent. Similan Islands is a popular dive location and there are many dive boats. We even rescued a couple of divers from another dive boat, who simply didn't do head count and left them behind.....
Similan is also a national park so there are rules like, no gloves, reef hooks or pointers. Ricardo and Martino enforce this, unlike other dives we saw with all of these underwater.
Obviously I'm very impressed them and look forward to diving with them again.
We also rescued a couple of divers from another liveaboard
Written April 20, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
FayeW
London, UK741 contributions
Jan 2015
We managed 21 dives in 6 days on a combined 2 and 4 day trip. The boat is very comfortable and well kitted out, but it is the crew who really make the trip special. Everything is taken care of so you can just kick back, relax and enjoy the sunshine and diving. Thanks to Ricardo, Martina and Martino for their excellent guiding and for being great company. The chef made sure we were well fed with delicious meals and the whole boat crew are outstanding. If you want a thoroughly relaxing experience with a small group (the boat takes max 10 guests) with knowledgeable and experienced guides with a true love of diving, this is the boat for you! I loved it. Thanks to all for making the trip so enjoyable xx
Written January 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you very much for your support and great review, we are proud of our team that mange to keep the boat in perfect conditions and same time offer a unique service
All the team wish you all best and hope to diving again with you
Written January 30, 2015
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Jacques Martinet
San Francisco, CA7 contributions
Aug 2019 • Couples
This was our first scuba dive cruise. We live in the US and we booked everything online. What a divine surprise it was! All has been soooo perfect. We have been picked up at the hotel on time. The ship is very clean and the cabins are great (we had the master cabin). Only 10 divers max on this ship so it is almost a private cruise. Only 4 divers this time per dive master. Crew 100% pro, super briefing by Francesco the boat leader. Super dives in Koh Phi Phi, different spot each dive. 2nd dive master Giorgio adorable and funny man on board but we did not dive with him. The food was excellent. The entire crew from Captain to assistants to help us with our equipments went above and beyond. We have been spoiled during these 3 days. Thank you guys, kop kun ma krap .
I highly recommend your ship and the cruises you organise to everyone.
Thank you so much.
Grazzie mille à Tutti. Baci.
I highly recommend your ship and the cruises you organise to everyone.
Thank you so much.
Grazzie mille à Tutti. Baci.
Written August 30, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Jacques, many thanks for your great feedback. Will pass it on to the crew, Francesco and Giorgio. Hope we can welcome you soon again on board. May be next time a cruise to the Similan Islands.
Greetings from Phuket Island
Your MV Giamani Team
Written September 2, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Robert T
Portocolom, Spain50 contributions
I was on board for the 3 days cruise to Hin Daeng / Hin Muang. Unfortunately we had plenty of wind and waves so that we couldn't reach so far south. But the decision to make one day Koh Haa with various dive sites was quite good and of course safety first - like always! Thank you for the fantastic time on your vessel. I did enjoyed it very well!
Written February 6, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dear Robert,
Thank you very much for your support and the honest review. We are happy to see our divers satisfied even when weather doesn't help.
We wish you all best and hope to dive again with you on the Giamani
Written March 20, 2015
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
No questions have been asked about this experience
Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)
Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives Information
Excellent Reviews | 76 |
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Very Good Reviews | 3 |
Colona Liveaboard - Day Dives Photos | 89 |