Simon Hansen
SSI Divemaster and Extended Range Sidemount diver. 150-plus dives, most of them around Koh Tao, where I did my Divemaster. Swedish, from Gothenburg, living in Southeast Asia since late 2025, usually Bangkok.
Why I write this
Because choosing a dive shop is the decision that decides your trip, and every "best dive shops" list I found was either a brochure or a listicle written from a desk. I know the Koh Tao shops, I know what a good instructor-to-student ratio looks like, and I've done the maths on what a course should cost. So the ranking on this site is a scoring model with the data shown, not an opinion, and the price index is the shops' own published prices, dated.
What I'm not
I'm not an instructor, and this site is not medical advice. Where a guide touches physiology it cites DAN, PADI or SSI standards, and I say so. I'm also not neutral about one thing: I think small groups and honest pricing matter more than a 5-star logo, and the ranking weights reflect that.
Day job
In my other life I'm an engineer in refrigeration and energy systems with fifteen years in the trade, which is why the site is built around measurement rather than mood.
Money
Top Dive Shops never charges shops for a ranking position. The booking desk, Go Dive Trips, earns a commission from the operator when you book through it; you pay the operator's own price. Full disclosure.
Corrections and questions: hello@topdiveshops.com