Phuket/Things to do/ water
The Similan Islands
Granite islands and the clearest water in the Andaman, about 100km north-west of Phuket, open roughly half the year and shut for the monsoon.
What we checked, 18 September 2026
Checked on 18 September 2026, when the park's main islands were inside their annual closure. Of the Similan trips listed on Klook, one clears our bar of 9.0 out of 10 and 50 reviews with a real sample; the one named below does not, and the rest carry single-figure review counts. The 500 baht fee comes from the department's own published fee table. The 2026 closure dates were confirmed on 19 September 2026 from the department's closure announcement of 18 December 2025, as republished by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, since the department's own portal returned a server error on every attempt. The 15 October 2026 reopening comes from the Tourism Authority of Thailand's newsroom item The Andaman Opens Its Doors Again, of 20 October 2026 (tatnews.org), read on 27 October 2026. We have not done this trip.
Verified via. The Department of National Parks publishes the entrance fee for Mu Ko Similan National Park in its own fee table: 500 baht for a foreign adult, 250 for a foreign child, 100 and 50 for Thai adults and children. The operator below was read off its own Klook listing page on 18 September 2026.
Who runs it
Separate companies, listed separately. We do not average scores across operators, because the average would describe a trip you cannot book.
| Operator | Score | Reviews | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Similan Islands Speedboat Snorkeling Tour from Phuket, by Seastarklook | 4.6/5 (9.2/10) | 249 | varies by package |
These are booking links. When our partner accounts are approved, we may earn a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect which operators clear our bar.
The Similans are nine granite islands about 100km north-west of Phuket, with boulder formations above the water and some of the best visibility in Thailand below it. They are a national park, and unlike almost everything else on this list, they are shut for a large part of the year.
The season is the first thing to settle. The Department of National Parks’ 2026 closure announcement, signed on 18 December 2025, closes Ko Similan (island 8) and Ko Miang (island 4) from 16 May to 14 October 2026, and several named sites, including Ko Tachai, indefinitely. On the day we checked, 18 September 2026, those islands were inside that closure. The Similan Islands reopened on 15 October 2026, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s newsroom (20 October 2026). Check before you book a trip that claims to run outside those dates.
The fee is the part we can stand behind. The department’s own fee table gives Mu Ko Similan National Park as 500 baht for a foreign adult and 250 for a foreign child, against 100 and 50 for Thai visitors. That is charged on arrival and is separate from the boat.
The trips. One operator clears our bar with a real sample behind it, and it is the one listed. This one does not:
| Operator | Score | Reviews | Clears our bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Similan Islands Day Trip From Phuket or Khaolak | 4.3 / 5 | 56 | No, 8.6 out of 10 |
Several other Similan trips on the platform carry between two and thirty reviews, which is not evidence of anything, and none of them are here.
Two rules in circulation that we could not confirm but which shape the trip. Overnight stays on the islands have been reported as banned since 2018, and a daily cap of a few thousand visitors plus a smaller diver allocation has been reported since 2019. Both come from news coverage rather than from a department page we could open. If either matters to your plans, ask the operator to confirm in writing.
It is a long day. Roughly two hours each way by speedboat in open sea, which is why the trip is usually sold from Khao Lak rather than Phuket, and why the seasickness warnings on the listings are not decoration.
Best for
Snorkelling and diving in the season, mid-October to mid-May
Skip if
You are travelling between May and October. The park closes, and anyone selling you a trip then is selling something else
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