Short answer: in Eilat, in high season, up to ₪15,000 a month. The season runs from July through the end of October.
The long answer starts with what happens in the other eight months. That’s the part nobody mentions before you sign up for the course.
Why a “per month” figure is misleading
Four strong months and eight quiet ones is not the same thing as a salary. Anyone who treats ₪15,000 as monthly income finds out in November that the arithmetic doesn’t work.
There are two ways to deal with it, and most instructors pick one without thinking about it: top up the winter with something else, or go where the season is now.
Where the money comes from in season
Here I can be specific, because these are my own prices and you can check them on the site.
A PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience is ₪450 for one person, ₪800 for two, ₪1,110 for three, ₪1,440 for four. One instructor takes up to four divers, and the program runs about three hours.
Look at what happens there: the same three hours in the water produce three times as much when four people show up instead of one. That is the real difference between an instructor who earns and an instructor who runs around all day. Not how many customers per day — how many people in each group.
Whoever learns to ask “is there anyone who could join you?” earns twice as much from the same number of enquiries.
What to do with the other eight months
A PADI certification works anywhere in the world, and that is the great advantage of this job. When the season in Eilat ends, somewhere else it is just starting.
Mexico. On the Caribbean side the high season runs roughly November to April — exactly when Eilat goes quiet. That pairing covers almost the whole year.
Thailand. Around ₪7,000–9,000 a month. It sounds like less, but the cost of living is considerably lower — what stays in your pocket at the end of the month is closer than it looks.
Australia. Students of mine worked there on a one-year student visa and reported around ₪15,000 a month — Eilat high-season money, twelve months a year. That is what they told me; for visa questions go to people who handle visas, I’m not an immigration adviser.
What it costs to get there
- Divemaster — ₪6,500
- Assistant Instructor — ₪6,700
- PADI Instructor course (IDC/OWSI) — ₪15,000
Then there are the annual costs: renewing your PADI membership runs about ₪900 a year. Professional insurance is another ₪700 a year if you buy it yourself — though plenty of dive centres cover it for their staff.
So roughly ₪1,600 a year to stay active — less than a single group of four brings in. This is not the line item to worry about.
And the part that isn’t in the table
Measured strictly in shekels, there are jobs that pay better. But part of what you get here never makes it into a table: you work at sea, in warm water, outdoors, looking at a reef instead of a monitor. Spend the winter in Mexico or Thailand and you’re simply continuing the same summer all year round.
That doesn’t count as income, but it is certainly part of the accounting — without it, it’s hard to explain why people stay in this profession for twenty years.
How long it takes to pay back
I won’t give a number, because it depends almost entirely on you: how many days a week you work, whether you’re employed or working for yourself, and whether you can turn one enquiry into a group of three.
What I will say: this profession pays back the person who treats it as a business. It does not pay back the person who sees it as a way to dive for free.
Is it the right job for you in the first place?
This article is about the money. The other half of the question — what the work is actually like day to day, and who should not do it — I wrote up separately: So You Want to Be a Dive Instructor? An Honest Guide from Eilat.
How to start
The route is Divemaster → Assistant Instructor → PADI Instructor.
I’m a PADI Course Director — the rating that trains instructors. You can do the whole path with me, from your 40th dive to the IDC, without starting over with someone else halfway through.
Questions about the profession? Message me on WhatsApp — 053-431-3418. I answer within minutes.
