Khao Lak day trip operators that also cater toward families/snorkelers?

[Buford of Arabia]

Hello All,

We're planning a family trip to Khao Lak in November and will be staying at the Ramada. I've been looking online at day trip operators and there's certainly no shortage of them to choose from. There are so many, in fact, that they are all starting to run together in my mind a bit and I'm having difficulty making a decision on who to go with. So far I've looked at (not an exhaustive list): IQ dive, Sea Bees, Wicked Diving, Sea Dragon, Liquid Adventure, and Similan Diving Safaris. I'm sure there are more. Does anyone have thoughts on these operators? Most of them get good reviews at tripadvisor.com.

A few criteria:
- I'm not interested in liveaboard trips. I'd LOVE to do one, but I don't think it'd be fair to leave the non-diving family behind while I indulge my diving habit. A liveaboard will have to be on a separate trip.
- I'd like one that also does snorkeling trips for the family. I'm planning on doing two days of solo diving on day trips but would also like to spend a third day with the family on a snorkeling trip that I wouldn't be diving on.
- I'm not opposed to using two different operators- one for my day trip dives and one for the snorkel trip- but it'd certainly be more convenient from a scheduling perspective if all trips were with the same company.
- I'd prefer a 'higher end' operator if given the choice. While I'm not exactly made of money, I'd be willing to pay a little more for a good experience, particularly on the snorkel trip. My wife is a little tentative with all of this so I need to impress her!
-Smaller, faster boats are better!
-I'm going to be bringing my own dive gear so a nice boat/better experience is more of a concern than equipment quality.

I realize it's a bit of a picky list but if anyone has opinions on any of the above I'd be grateful for some firsthand advice. Thank you!

 

[Quero]

My divers who have traveled with non-divers wanting to snorkel have been very happy with Oktavia. It is a scuba diving liveaboard, but they make a particularly special effort to take care of snorkelers and families. There's nothing to say that you couldn't skip a dive every day or an entire day to do snorkelling and island visits with your family from the liveaboard. Another boat that used to be a dive boat but later switched exclusively to snorkeling is Sanuk, run through Snorkelsafaris. They do 2d/1n overnight trips. It would be worthwhile learning what these two operators recommend for daytrippers, if you're entirely opposed to a liveaboard. As they have a vested interest in snorkelers, they would be good sources of information. I have to say, though, that the Similans are pretty far away from the coast to just do a daytrip with a couple of snorkel stops.