Private vs group dive guiding: compare service and price

What does 'private dive guide' mean?

Two dives off Lembongan, in Bali, cost $104 a day at Emperor Divers on a short prepaid booking, with tanks, nitrox, lunch and a guide included. Add $98 from the same price sheet and a guide dives with your party alone. The day now costs $202. ^{1, 5}

Start with the word itself. A guided dive is sold four ways, from a shared group to a boat of your own, and each one reserves something different. Before you compare prices, find out which one a quote describes.

• A shared guided dive: you join other divers under one guide, grouped by the dive center's own rules.
• A private guide on a shared boat: a professional dives with your party, while the boat, the departure time and the sites stay shared.
• A private shore outing: your own timing, still tied to site access and the drive to the entry point.
• A private boat charter: the boat is yours, and guiding can still be a separate line on the bill.

Then ask how long the exclusivity lasts. One dive, the two-dive trip and the whole day are three different products. Ask for the number of professionals and their roles in writing, including who stays on the boat while you are underwater.

Group size needs two numbers: divers per guide in the water, and passengers on the boat. A small group underwater on a busy boat suits a diver who wants guidance and is happy with shared logistics. If you are still choosing between sleeping aboard and diving from shore, liveaboard vs shore diving cost compares the whole trip.

How much more does a private guide cost?

The same word is priced three ways. Emperor Divers prices its private guide by the day on Lembongan and in Sharm el Sheikh. Scuba Seekers in Dahab prices it by the dive, per person. Emperor's Red Sea liveaboard sheet prints €599 and leaves the unit blank. Read the unit first, then the price. ^{1, 2, 3, 4}

On a short Bali booking, the supplement is 94% of the base day. At Lembongan's rate for one or two days, the shared-guide day is $104 and the supplement is $98, so the private day is $202. Paid locally in rupiah, it is IDR 1,870,000 plus IDR 1,760,000, or IDR 3,630,000 for the day. ¹

Sharm el Sheikh adds 74% to a three-day package. Emperor Divers prices three days and six dives at €264 pre-booked, or €88 a day. Its private guide is €65 a day, so one private day comes to €153. Book locally and 14% VAT lands on both: €100.32 for the day and €74.10 for the guide, €174.42 in all. ²

Dahab charges by the dive. Scuba Seekers lists its private guide at €15 a dive under supplements charged per person, which is $17.19 at the ECB rate for 18 September 2026. Two dives add €30 to one diver's package. A pair who book a private guide for the same two dives pay €60 between them, because each pays the per-person rate. ^{3, 6}

The liveaboard number needs a question. Emperor's onboard price list shows a private guide at €599, or $686.45, with 14% VAT already applied. For scale, its Simply the Best week sails 15 to 22 May 2027 aboard Emperor Asmaa, from €1,350. The route takes in the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone, and the wrecks of the Numidia and the Aida II lie on Big Brother's walls. ^{4, 6, 7}

If the €599 covers the whole week, it adds 44% to that departure's 'from' price of €1,350. ^{4, 7} A private day or a private week is one line in a longer year of diving, and the annual diving budget shows where it fits.

What does the price include?

A shared guide is already in Emperor Divers' base day. Its Lembongan and Sharm el Sheikh sheets both list a guide among the inclusions, beside two dives a day, tanks, nitrox, weights and a weightbelt. The private supplement buys a guide for your party alone, on top of the guide you already pay for. ^{1, 2, 5}

A guide alone has a price too. On Emperor's house reef in Sharm el Sheikh, the same dive costs a third more guided than unguided. That gap buys a shared guide, and the private supplement sits on top of it. ²

On Bonaire, Buddy Dive sells guiding as its own line: $52 for one guided dive with a divemaster, $83 for two. Two together work out at $41.50 a dive, $21 less than two singles. ⁸

Put these lines on every quote, and mark each one included, extra with its price, or unconfirmed:

• The base dive or excursion fee
• The guide supplement, with its unit
• Equipment rental, item by item
• Tanks, weights and nitrox
• Marine park, jetty and other local fees
• Transfers to the boat or the entry point
• Tax, with its rate

An unconfirmed line is a question for the dive center, and the answer belongs on the quote. How to compare dive packages builds this grid for a full week. If you own part of your kit, buying vs renting scuba gear settles the equipment line.

Compare prices with the same starting point

Start both columns from the identical outing: the same date, departure point, number of dives, site and people. Then add the supplement. A private guide quoted for a calm morning on a house reef and a group trip to an offshore reef describe two different days, whatever the prices say.

Next, separate per person from per party. Scuba Seekers states its supplement per person. Emperor Divers states its supplement per day, and one of its guides, quoted on its blog in June 2024, says up to four people can share one private guide. Ask whether a pair sharing that guide pays the supplement once or each. In Sharm el Sheikh, that one answer moves a pair's pre-booked day by €65. ^{2, 3, 5}

Some prices carry a head count. Riding Rock Resort on San Salvador, in the Bahamas, says extra boat dives may be possible at $50 each, with a minimum of six divers, arranged once you are on the island. ⁹ A group price assumes the group turns up. If yours is smaller, ask for the price at your own number.

Dahab shows the same rule from the solo side. Scuba Seekers prices its guided packages per person for at least two divers diving together. When you are the only diver on a guided dive outside the bay, the private-guide fee applies: €15 a dive, or €30 for two. ³ If Dahab is on your list, Dahab for a diving month prices the rent, packages and transport around these dives.

Does more money mean more attention?

More money buys pace, and the briefing is where you set it. A guide with a group briefs everyone at once, helps divers at different moments and leads one route while each buddy team watches out for itself. With a guide of your own, ask for a longer briefing and a slower entry, and agree before you descend how long the guide will wait.

One of Emperor's guides, quoted on the company's blog, lists what else the money buys. You dive at your own pace, with someone pointing out the more camouflaged critters. The plan can change too: a boat dive instead of a zodiac drop, or a profile deeper or shallower than the group's. ⁵

Your buddy is a separate question. PADI describes buddy diving as clear communication and a shared responsibility for each other's safety, and it calls diving in pairs the usual best practice for recreational divers. Groups of three or more are harder to keep track of, especially in low visibility. Settle on land whether the private guide is your buddy, or a guide alongside your buddy team. ¹⁰

Match the question to what you want from the dive:

• Photographers: ask about pace, and whether the guide will wait while you work a subject and your buddy stays close.
• Nervous but qualified divers: ask for a full briefing and an unhurried start. Both count for more than distance covered.
• Divers chasing one species: ask whether the guide knows it, and where it lives on this site.
• Pairs who dive at different speeds: tell the dive center both goals. One guide follows one pace, so two goals call for two outings.

A guide leaves your training where it was. DAN's guide to seven mistakes divers make puts diving beyond your training on the list, beside buoyancy, dive planning, gear maintenance, fitness and running out of air. A site beyond your experience calls for a different site or a course, whoever swims beside you. ¹¹

Some things belong to the ocean and to the guide's judgment on the day: wildlife, visibility, a quiet site and a set bottom time. Emperor's Simply the Best page says the sites on its itineraries are not guaranteed and change with the weather, at the discretion of the cruise director or captain. ⁷ A good quote names those limits plainly, and a good guide changes or ends the plan when conditions call for it. Write your hopes down as preferences.

When to book a course or refresher instead

Name the problem before you buy the fix. A group that dives faster than you want to, an unfamiliar entry, a language preference and rusty skills are four different problems. A private guide fits the first three. Rusty skills call for an instructor and a refresher, which is training with its own price.

Emperor's Lembongan sheet prices both fixes as supplements to the diving: a pool skills review at $18 a session, and a private guide at $98 a day. ¹

If time away is the issue, dive refresher course costs prices the pool session and the online part. If the dive you want sits beyond your current card, scuba certification cost prices the next course.

What if your dive doesn't happen?

Find out what happens to the guide fee before you pay it. Your cancellation, the dive center's cancellation and a change of site are three different events, and a contract treats each in its own way. Ask whether a private-guide deposit follows the same refund schedule as the diving, whether it turns into credit, and when that credit expires.

Buddy Dive on Bonaire publishes the kind of tiered schedule worth asking for. It covers the whole confirmed booking, so read it as a model, then ask your dive center how a separately paid guide fee is treated. ¹²

Write down what is at stake. On five prepaid days at Lembongan with a private guide every day, $490 of the $960 total is guide fee. With the private guide on day one only, the guide fee falls to $98 of $568. Put each refund deadline beside the amount it governs. ¹

Then ask these on land:

• The first dive ends early. Does the full supplement still apply?
• One of two divers drops out. Can the other keep the booking alone, and at what price?
• The second dive is cancelled. Is the refund worked out per dive, per day or at the dive center's discretion?
• Your named guide is unavailable. Who replaces them, and does the price change?

Trip cover is a separate contract, and scuba insurance costs shows what its wording needs to say.

Book in a way that keeps your options open

Book one private day first, then decide on the rest. On a multi-day trip, ask for a private first outing with group days after it, if the dive center agrees the order suits the sites. Day one settles the boat, the briefing style and the entry. The rest of the budget stays yours to spend.

Ask whether one guide stays with you across the booking, and whether that is promised or requested. The same guide all week saves repeat explanations, which matters for a photography goal or a language preference.

Bring accessibility into the first email. Describe what you need for boarding, carrying equipment, communication or support, and ask what the dive center provides. A private booking changes who guides you, and the boat and the entry stay as they are. Ask what happens to your money if the agreed support is missing on the day.

Then send the same brief to every dive center on your list:

1. 01

   Describe your diving

   Your certification, your recent dives and the date of the last one, your party size, what you want from the dive, and any support you need.

2. 02

   Ask for both prices

   A complete price for the shared guided trip and for the private option, with rental, transfers, local fees and tax on separate lines.

3. 03

   Ask for the unit

   Per dive, per day or per trip, and per guide or per diver. Scuba Seekers answers on its own sheet: €15 per dive, per person. ³

4. 04

   Settle the buddy

   Who your buddy is, how the dive center pairs solo divers, and whether the private guide fills that role. PADI frames a buddy pair around planning together and clear communication. ¹⁰

5. 05

   Get the change terms in writing

   Your cancellation, the dive center's cancellation and a change of site, each with its deadline, for the guide fee and the diving separately.

Keep the accepted quote, the inclusions and the cancellation terms in one email thread, in the dive center's own words. That thread is the agreement you check at the dock.