Similian Thailand Liveaboard Recommendation sought

[loady]

I'm looking at liveaboards this December in the Similian islands Thailand. If you have recommendations or warnings about dive boats please post here or message me. Specifically looking for 2012 and more recent trips.
I don't have a budget limitation, but the difference between low and high is around $1,800 for the same length and itinerary. That seems extreme.
Are the cheap boats less safe or just less comfortable with less amenities?
thanks!

 

[stevenl]

Cheap boats are less comfortable, tend to have more inexperienced divers, tend to cater more to singles, have less space per person, less experienced guides, etc.

Some boats are better value than others, giving an advice based on no information about requirements/preferences is not possible though. See also my answer in the other thread where you enquired about liveaboard boats.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

I haven't done a liveaboard yet but I have dived with Big Blue and they have a really professional setup. I have seen the Hallelujah up close when we were diving on a day trip close to it. The managers and the owner really take good care of their equipment and boats so I would highly recommend it.

 

[TT_Vert]

Just finished a liveaboard on Sawadee-Fasai and it was very nice. They take good care of you and the accommodations are nice. Get a room w/ a bathroom IMO or risk fighting every on else for showers/toilet. Skill level varied greatly but they'd pair you with people w/ similar SAC. Truth be told most of the dives were deep enough where even the best SAC was getting you an hour or less. Average depth seemed to be in the mid 50' range for the trip. We were up in north andaman but are doing south in a few days on Diver Ace.

Dave

 

[Tippytoes12]

Dave

Just finished a liveaboard on Sawadee-Fasai and it was very nice. They take good care of you and the accommodations are nice. Get a room w/ a bathroom IMO or risk fighting every on else for showers/toilet. Skill level varied greatly but they'd pair you with people w/ similar SAC. Truth be told most of the dives were deep enough where even the best SAC was getting you an hour or less. Average depth seemed to be in the mid 50' range for the trip. We were up in north andaman but are doing south in a few days on Diver Ace.

Dave how was the diving , did you see anything big ?

 

[outofofficebrb]

I'm looking at liveaboards this December in the Similian islands Thailand. If you have recommendations or warnings about dive boats please post here or message me. Specifically looking for 2012 and more recent trips.
I don't have a budget limitation, but the difference between low and high is around $1,800 for the same length and itinerary. That seems extreme.
Are the cheap boats less safe or just less comfortable with less amenities?
thanks!

This is an area of interest to me as well. I haven't done much research on the matter but is this area only accessible by liveaboards or can it be done by land or dayboats?

Thanks!

 

[stevenl]

I jus

Dave

t returned from a few days Similans, nice diving with plenty of life, but nothing big.

 

[TT_Vert]

Saw very little big sea life. Saw a 5 ish foot grouper and a few larger puffers but that was really about it over 1'. Here is apparently what they saw collectively. Starting a southern Andaman liveaboard tonight so I'll let you know how that compares.

 

[TT_Vert]

This is an area of interest to me as well. I haven't done much research on the matter but is this area only accessible by liveaboards or can it be done by land or dayboats?

Thanks!

You can do the Similans w/ a speed boat but it takes I think 1.5 hours each way to get there so it is possible but it's your call if you want to do it that way or not. I wasn't all that impressed w/ the diving and it wouldn't warrant 3 hours of travel to see it.

Dave

 

[Fibonacci]

I dived with Wicked Diving in November 2012 on a 3 day/3 night liveaboard, and to be honest I wasn't too impressed with the diving either, not much decent sized marine life... but of far more concern was the level of overcrowding.

Wicked stressed a code of conduct regarding not touching marine life, good buoyancy control and extremity awareness... and were quite vigilant in policing it. Other operators were not so concerned.

Richelieu Rock had TWELVE other boats (day trippers and other liveaboards) around the site, and large groups of divers marauding around obliviously crunching coral and manhandling marine creatures for photo-ops.

After being 'oversold and under delivered' at several Similan/Surin dive sites (and later 2013-15 at Koh Chang, Koh Kut and Koh Mak) the experience was enough for me to never want to dive Thailand again, so all my diving has since been in Indonesia (Komodo) and PNG (Walindi).