Similan Islands Similans
Phuket Scuba Diving

contact Met Sine Travel before the pier can do booking for speedboats and accommodation on island No.4.
Tel: 076 443276, 443340 fax: 595164.

Avoid the National Park Headquarter before the pier. This is a disaster zone, extremely infested with mosquitoes plus not very helpful employees. The Similan islands are an area with pristine beach environment full of beauty above and under the water surface with some exemptions, unfortunately there is plenty of trash laying around at the beautiful beach. 

For Phuket scuba diving

this is the best spot. On the islands huge granite boulders which form a dramatic environment granite boulders a few meters under

the surface form arches, tunnels and swim troughs. Beaches are plenty and you probably will easily find one for you only. It is very exiting to snorkel or just swim around the smooth rocks and use the currents to drift through the shallow water in the gaps between the boulders.

You can explore the islands either by a live aboard tour or with the speedboat on a one day trip, leaving Tap Lamu pier at 8.30 in the morning and coming back to the pier by around 5 pm. One could also leave the speedboat at island no.4 and stay a night or 2 in the bungalows there. Accommodation etc. is very basic and limited, just a few Thai style bungalows on the main island.

That means most of the time no electricity and also no dive supply, only snorkeling. There are no beach cottages, they are about 50 meters inland placed into a small hill to make sure no tsunami can reach them and you can walk from the cottages right into the water crossing the beach, this great Thailand island beach is pictures at the photo left and at the panorama photo above, you can also see the bizarre granite formation.

If you want to do scuba diving the only way is using the live aboard version out of Phuket or the single day version offered at the pier and some hotels at Khao Lak.

The Similan Islands Thailand have been declared a national park years ago to make sure not to have the usual encroaching and souvenirs shops everywhere. The eastern end of the Similan offers the diver beautiful hard coral gardens in the shallow water and on the slops down to thirty meters. Other parts of the Similan are covered with soft corals and plenty tropical fish who like the warm emerald shaded water.

The islands are great for relax and for the real thrill better take the scuba gear. For marine life enthusiasts -mainly by scuba diving- the Similans Islands offer plenty of tropical underwater to see, creatures like different kind of sharks including whale sharks and white-tip reef sharks. Turtles are around and thousands of other multicolored fish