The Similan Islands Travel Guide

The Similans are not somewhere you stay. They are a national park of nine uninhabited granite islands in the open Andaman, sixty kilometres west of the Phang Nga coast, and every visit to them begins on the mainland at Khao Lak and ends there the same day or after a few nights on a boat.

They are also, by most accounts, the best diving in Thailand: granite boulder formations on the west side of the chain, soft coral gardens on the east, and enough water movement to bring big animals through.

The season is a gate, not a preference

Mu Ko Similan national park closes for roughly half the year. It opens around the middle of October and closes around the middle of May, and the dates move a little each season. Outside those months there is no legal way to visit, and the Khao Lak dive industry shuts with it.

If the Similans are the reason for the trip, that window decides your dates before anything else does.

Day trip or liveaboard

Day trips run from Khao Lak and Phuket by speedboat and are long: an early start, an hour and a half to two hours each way in an open boat, and three or four stops. They are the affordable way to see the islands and they are not comfortable in any swell.

Liveaboards of two to five nights are what serious divers come for, and they are the reason the Similans have the reputation they do. They reach the northern sites, including Richelieu Rock outside the park proper, which is the best-known whale shark site in Thailand.

Snorkelling

Worth saying plainly: the Similans are excellent for snorkelling as well as diving, and a large share of the day-trip passengers do not dive at all. The water is clear, the reef comes shallow, and Koh Miang and Koh Similan both have beaches you can swim off.

Visitor limits

The park caps daily numbers and overnight stays were ended some years ago; the simple park bungalows and camping that used to exist on Koh Miang have been restricted. Rules here have changed several times in the past decade, generally in the direction of fewer people, and it is worth checking the current position with an operator before building a plan around a specific island.

Getting there

Everything leaves from Thap Lamu pier near Khao Lak. Phuket airport is about ninety minutes from Khao Lak, and most people fly there, stay in Khao Lak, and go out from it.

The Khao Lak guide and how to get there

How long to give it

One long day if you are snorkelling. Three or four nights on a boat if you dive, and the boat is the trip rather than a way of reaching one.