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Intro to Cave in worldwide: 131 dive centres on TecDiveTools, with agencies, courses taught and a summary of what students say. 40 publish course prices.
TecDiveTools lists 131 dive centres teaching Intro to Cave worldwide. 40 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). 87 of these 131 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, 72 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.
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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.
131 dive centres on TecDiveTools teach TDI Intro to Cave worldwide: Mexico (69), United States (33), Thailand (17), Indonesia (8), Malta (3) and Philippines (1). Each is listed above.
Published prices for TDI Intro to Cave worldwide range across 7 centres in the TecDiveTools directory — roughly US$500 to US$1,350 at current exchange rates. In each centre's own currency: $800–$1,320 (3 centres), MX$9,500–MX$20,000 (2 centres) and THB 35,000 (2 centres). 9 centres charge by the day instead, which is not comparable with a course total. 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 4 days, based on the durations 15 centres publish for it worldwide. 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 worldwide also teach IANTD Introductory Cave Diver (51), RAID Cave 1 (4), NSS-CDS Apprentice Cave Diver (2), ANDI Intro to Cave (2) and PSAI Intro to Cave Diver (1). They are comparable rather than interchangeable — each agency sets its own standards and card, so check which one your next course accepts.
