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Intro to Cave in Thailand: 17 dive centres on TecDiveTools, with agencies, courses taught and a summary of what students say. 8 publish course prices.
TecDiveTools lists 17 dive centres teaching Intro to Cave in Thailand. 8 of them publish course prices, in the currency the shop advertises and with the date each was checked — not converted, and not estimated.
Listings are ordered by how much evidence exists about their technical diving, not by a star rating, with any paid Featured listing shown first and marked as such (how rankings work). 9 of these 17 carry reviews we have read and classified as being about technical or overhead training. The count excludes recreational certifications by name, so a busy resort does not outrank a one-instructor cave operation on the volume of its reef trips. Separately, 9 have at least one instructor whose reviews we have read and summarised — a dive centre carries no synthesis of its own. How we read and count reviews.
Looking for individual instructors instead? Instructors in Thailand.
About the course
First formal cave certification beyond Cavern, introducing basic cave navigation and single-line-following technique with conservative penetration limits before progressing to Full Cave. Teaches jump-free single-line navigation, silt-avoidance finning, and team communication specific to cave environments, without yet allowing the complex multi-line navigation Full Cave covers. Deliberately designed as a bridge course—TDI limits penetration distance and duration here specifically so divers build cave comfort in stages rather than jumping directly to unrestricted cave access.
Divers must perform jump-free single-line navigation, demonstrate silt-control finning, maintain team communication and awareness, complete 4 dives with limited penetration (no fixed depth, limited by gas and distance), accumulate 80 minutes of bottom time minimum across 2 different cave locations, and execute emergency procedures safely.
The centres listed above teach TDI Intro to Cave in Thailand. Requirements are set by the agency, not the centre, so they are the same wherever you train — what differs is price, class size and how much diving is included.
17 dive centres on TecDiveTools teach TDI Intro to Cave in Thailand: Bangkok (7), Phuket (6), Koh Tao (2), Krabi (1) and Pattaya (1). Each is listed above.
Thailand's caves are a step up from showcase training systems: Khao Sok's limestone caves and the deep sinkholes of Sra Keow near Krabi and Song Hong in Trang combine depth with overhead, and see far fewer divers than the Yucatán. They suit divers who want to build cave skills in more challenging conditions — and Phuket, Krabi and Khao Sok keep a cave course within reach of a beach holiday.
Published prices for TDI Intro to Cave in Thailand range across 2 centres in the TecDiveTools directory. That is THB 35,000 (2 centres). Prices differ mainly in what they include, so compare the inclusions before comparing the numbers. Prices were last checked in September 2026.
Between 2 and 3 days, based on the durations 2 centres publish for it in Thailand. The time depends on the centre's schedule, weather, and how quickly the required skills are demonstrated — agencies set a minimum number of dives, not a fixed number of days.
At the same tier in TecDiveTools' cross-agency comparison, dive centres in Thailand also teach IANTD Introductory Cave Diver (9), RAID Cave 1 (2) and ANDI Intro to Cave (2). They are comparable rather than interchangeable — each agency sets its own standards and card, so check which one your next course accepts.
