Are the Similan Islands and Surin worth it?

[jolie714]

Hello fellow divers, I'm hoping some of you who have experience in Thailand can help me. We are traveling to Thailand over the Christmas and New Years holiday and we're on a tight schedule. We can't do a live aboard for more than 1 night and we're staying in Phuket with the other half of our group who don't like the water whatsoever.

We would LOVE to do the Similan Islands or Surin Islands (Richelieu Rock). Here are our options that I've come up with after some research:

1. Book a liveaboard for 1 night/2 days on a VERY crowded boat to Similan Islands, not Richelieu Rock :depressed:
2. Day trip to Similan Islands or Richelieu Rock which would mean a VERY long day from Phuket for only 2 dives that day.
3. Forget about the Similan or Surin islands and just dive Phi Phi/Phuket area.

Can't decide what we should do and your help would be most appreciated. Are the Similan and Surin islands that worth the trip? Or is Phi Phi almost as good (Shark Point?) Thanks so much!

 

[stevenl]

Yes, I get that question very often.

Similans is very nice, Richelieu Rock even better but also further. IMO all in all too far for 2 dives, especially with very nice daytrip sites from Phuket available, so excellent alternatives..

So I would recommend one of 2 options: 1) do a short 2 days/1 night liveaboard trip to Similans, there are boats that are not overfilled; or 2) do 1 or 2 days of daytrip diving from Phuket. There are some very nice divesites in the area. Also here: the boats will be full, but there are boats that are just that, full, and there are boats that will be overfilled.

 

[whooyeah]

I Would ditch your friends and do a 4 day livaboard. Its so worth it. Phi phi is crap in comparison.

 

[Quero]

Worth is so subjective! Mostly it depends on what you're comparing the experience to. If you've done most of your 50-100 dives in California, I'd say yes, you will enjoy the Similans a great deal. If you've done a bunch of diving in Indonesia, however, you might find the Similans less rich an experience in comparison. Also, it depends on what you like. To me, the Similans' greatest attraction is the topography of the boulder sites like North Point and Elephant Head Rock. And of course in the Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock and Tachai Pinnacle. Depending on the day you are free to dive, it may be possible to get a speedboat daytrip to these dramatic dive sites. It's not cheap, and it makes for a long day, but it's possible in some cases.

 

[jolie714]

Hey thanks for the response guys! Still unsure on what we're going to do. We've never dove in asia before.

 

[stevenl]

I Would ditch your friends and do a 4 day livaboard. Its so worth it. Phi phi is crap in comparison.

Agree with the first part of your statement, but not the latter part. If you have a good DM and go to the right sites there is plenty to see at Phi Phi, with a prolific fishlife, including leopard and black tip reef sharks, seahorses, ghost pipefish, and also some beautiful hard and soft corals.

 

[pwrighte]

Do it. Ditch your friends. If you have never been diving in Thailand before you would be silly to miss out.



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[Scuba Cat Diving]

There is some great diving from Phuket, and if you have not dived Asia before well worth seeing. Sites arounf Phi Phi have alot to offer and good variety of life, Shark Point, Koh Doc Mai and Anemone reef are great dives too.
If your friends font dive they could go snorkeling with you on the daytrip?
You can do the daytrip to Similan, but IMO it is a long day for little return, you need to go for a minimum of 2 days 1 night. But even then I would suggest that the more North you go the better so this means a minimum of 3 days to get to Richelieu and Tachai. Boat will be busy at this time, look out for ones that limit the number of divers on board, there are some around. Avoid the liveaboards that take daytrip passengers too, they can get very busy for the middle 2 dives of the day.

 

[xerula]

I'm also looking to go to the Surin Islands to do some snorkeling for five days this February. However I have read that there has been 90% bleaching of the corals around these islands just this year. Can anyone here give an informed assessment of the condition of the reefs at Surin and if there are likely to be any good sites for snorkeling this February?

 

[Quero]

There hasn't been any bleaching this year that I'm aware of. Water temperatures were within the normal range (and it's excessively high water temperature that triggers bleaching). We did have a bleaching crisis about 2 and a half years ago, and some large areas of shallow staghorn coral forests on several islands became bleached. Because these are the sorts of depths that are needed for snorkeling, a snorkeler might be able to say, "I went to Surin Island this year and 90% of the coral was bleached." The corals are recovering, and some areas weren't as badly damaged, so you can expect to see some areas with algae-covered coral rubble, and you can also expect to see some areas with live coral.