Places of Phuket
Every place here is included in at least one of our tours. Open any card — read the story, browse the gallery, and jump to the programs that visit it.
Bamboo Island
Bamboo Island — Koh Phai in Thai — is the northernmost of the Phi Phi group and looks like a postcard of everything you've ever imagined about a tropical paradise: a long white sandbar, coconut palms tilting over the water, and reef so shallow and clear you see fish from the beach. The water here is some of the calmest in the archipelago, which makes it a favourite for families and anyone who wants to just lie in the sand rather than race from spot to spot. Most tours include a 45-60 minute stop; it's enough to swim, snorkel the reef's edge, and take the 'Bounty-style' beach photos everyone wants. No restaurants, no shops — just the island and you.
Coral Island
Coral Island (Koh Hey) is the closest day-trip island to Phuket — just 15 minutes from Rawai pier — and for that reason it's also the most accessible. The beach is long, white and lined with coconut palms; the water is calm and clear, and a healthy reef starts just offshore with good snorkelling for all levels. The island has a few beach clubs and restaurants, so it's an easy 'lazy day' option — you arrive mid-morning, swim, have lunch under a beach umbrella, snorkel at Hin Dam Bay on the other side of the island, and return by afternoon. It's the go-to for guests who want a beach day without committing to an all-day program.
Hong Island
Hong Island is a hidden-lagoon gem in Krabi's marine park — ringed by high limestone cliffs, with a shallow emerald bay inside that you enter through a natural doorway in the rock. The beach is long, white and usually quieter than Phi Phi, and the panoramic viewpoint at the top of the island (the one featured in the Russian film 'Jungles' with Vera Brezhneva and Sergey Svetlakov) shows you the full archipelago in a single shot. It's perfect for snorkelling over soft corals, paddling through the 'hong' lagoon on a kayak, or just lying on the sand. The coconut trees along the shore make for postcard photos; the inner lagoon glows when the sun hits it just right.
James Bond Island
Khao Phing Kan — universally known as James Bond Island since 'The Man with the Golden Gun' filmed here in 1974 — is a photo stop you have to make at least once. The star is Ko Tapu, the 20-metre limestone needle that juts straight up out of Phang Nga Bay next to its taller sibling. The boat drops you on a small beach, you walk five minutes to the viewpoint, take your photos, and spend another fifteen browsing the floating sea gypsy market selling pearls and dried seafood. It's crowded during the day but the geology is genuinely stunning — these karst towers rose from an ancient coral reef 75 million years ago, and the bay around them is Thailand's largest national marine park.
Khai Islands
The Khai Islands are a trio of tiny, bright-white sandbanks 10 km off the east coast of Phuket — Khai Nai (the biggest), Khai Nok and Khai Nui. They're so small you can walk around each one in ten minutes, and so shallow that the water off the beach is ankle-deep for 50 metres in every direction. That makes them an easy pick for families with small kids, for people who can't swim well, and for anyone who wants the 'Maldives in a day' photo without sailing for three hours. Snorkelling here is the best in Phuket's immediate waters: the reefs start at the edge of the sand, the water is clear, and you'll see sergeant majors, butterflyfish and sometimes reef sharks.
Koh Haa
Koh Haa — 'Five Islands' in Thai — is a ring of five limestone islets southwest of Lanta that divers know as one of the best visibility spots in the Andaman Sea. Above the water it's a handful of tiny vertical cliffs sticking out of a blue lagoon; below, the walls drop into 20+ metres of coral gardens, caves and pinnacles. The central 'lagoon' between the islands is calm and sheltered — perfect for snorkellers and swimmers — while the deeper outer walls are for scuba divers. Expect to see black-tip reef sharks, seahorses, nudibranchs and dozens of species of reef fish. A typical day-trip from Phuket or Lanta visits three or four of the islets in a single morning.
Koh Phi Phi Don
Koh Phi Phi Don is the only inhabited island of the Phi Phi archipelago and its beating heart — the 'main' island you actually stay on, eat on, and party on. A narrow sandy isthmus connects two opposing bays (Ton Sai and Loh Dalum), making the whole village look from above like an hourglass dropped between two cliff walls. There are no cars, just a maze of narrow alleys lined with guesthouses, bars, tattoo studios, dive shops and Thai food stalls. The Viewpoint trail behind the village climbs 186 steps to one of Thailand's most photographed panoramas. Nightlife is lively, beach parties go until dawn, and there's a Muay Thai ring in one of the bars where brave tourists try their hand.
Koh Rok
Koh Rok is a pair of twin islands south of Lanta in the southern Andaman, far enough from Phuket that only the longer speedboat tours make it out. The reward is one of the least-crowded snorkelling experiences left in Thailand — the reef is healthy, the water is almost unreal in its clarity, and you can walk the sandbar between the two islands at low tide. The surrounding coral gardens are home to fusiliers, sea turtles, reef sharks and triggerfish. Because of the distance from land, you only see a handful of boats here on the same day, and the beaches stay pristine. Koh Rok is a National Park — swim with care and take only photos.
Lipe Island
Koh Lipe is an end-of-the-line paradise in the far south of Thailand — near the Malaysian border, part of the Tarutao National Marine Park. Three long beaches ring the tiny island: Sunrise Beach on the east, Sunset Beach on the west, and Pattaya Beach in between with the village and most of the restaurants. The sand is finer and whiter than anywhere else in Thailand, the water is mostly shallow for tens of metres, and the reef snorkelling is legendary — neon fish, sea turtles, reef sharks and huge sea fans in the first few metres of water. It takes real effort to get here from Phuket (a long ferry or a flight + ferry combo), but guests who make it always say it's the most 'untouched' Thai beach they've seen.
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Maya Bay
Maya Bay is the impossibly perfect cove on Koh Phi Phi Leh that Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The Beach' made famous — a horseshoe of powder-white sand enclosed by 200-metre limestone cliffs and a lagoon so clear the boats above cast shadows on the seabed. After years of closure to let the reef recover, it reopened with strict visitor limits: the first hour after sunrise is magical, before the day-trip boats arrive. Kayaks, longtails and bigger speedboats all anchor in the bay, but you only get true silence if you come before 9 AM. Underwater, the coral is slowly returning, with reef sharks, parrotfish and the occasional sea turtle cruising the edges of the bay.
Monkey Bay
Monkey Bay — or Ao Ling as the locals call it — is a small cove on the north side of Koh Phi Phi Don that's exactly what the name promises: a crescent of fine sand where a troop of wild long-tailed macaques lives in the palms above and wanders down to meet the boats. The monkeys are used to visitors and will pose for photos — but they're also opportunists, so don't bring sunglasses, hats or snacks you actually want to keep. Most tours stop here for a 15-minute photo-and-swim break; the shallow water and soft coral just offshore make it a nice quick snorkel spot. It's one of the most photographed points in the entire archipelago.
Panyi Island
Koh Panyee is a village built entirely on stilts over the water — no land, no streets, no ground. Settled 200 years ago by Malay fishermen who were forbidden from owning land in Siam, it now holds around 1600 residents who fish, run restaurants for passing tourists, and play football on a floating pitch that went viral after a Thai commercial showed the local team training on it. The mosque, school and houses all rest on stilts driven into the seabed. Lunch here is the freshest seafood you'll eat on your tour — the catch is unloaded from longtails right next to your table. Walk the wooden alleys, browse pearl and handicraft stalls, and stop by the floating football pitch at the back of the village.
Pileh Lagoon
Pileh Lagoon is a secret emerald-green pool on the eastern side of Koh Phi Phi Leh, hidden between 100-metre limestone walls so sheer that you can only enter by boat through a narrow passage. Inside, the water is so still and shallow that it looks like a natural swimming pool cut into the cliffs — perfect for swimming, cliff jumping and snorkelling among the vibrant marine life that shelters in its protected walls. The best time to come is mid-morning, when the sun lights up the turquoise water from above and the lagoon glows from within. It's one of the most photogenic spots in the entire Phi Phi archipelago.
Racha Island
Racha Island (Koh Racha Yai) is a small paradise 20 km south of Phuket, famous among locals for the clearest water of any nearby island and for a beach so calm it's a favourite of families with small children. The main bay, Ao Tawan Tok, is a long arc of soft white sand with coral reef starting a few metres offshore — beginners can walk into the water and be snorkelling over fish within the minute. The early-bird tours from Phuket arrive before 9 AM, giving you an hour of the island to yourself before the main wave of day-trippers. There's a small resort, a handful of beach cafés and almost no development — Racha is where we send guests who want 'private island vibes' without the long travel time.
Similan Islands
The Similan Islands are a cluster of nine granite-and-jungle islands 65 km off the coast of Phang Nga, consistently ranked among the world's top ten dive sites. The water above is that impossible Andaman turquoise; below, 30-metre visibility reveals soft corals, manta rays, whale sharks in season and reef fish in numbers you rarely see elsewhere. The islands are a national park, closed to visitors from May to October to let the ecosystem rest; the short season runs November through April. Most tours visit four of the islands: #4 (Koh Miang) for beach time, #7 (Koh Payu) for snorkelling, #8 (Koh Similan) with the famous Sail Rock viewpoint, and #9 (Koh Bangu) for more reef. Come early — after 10 AM the islands fill up fast.
Viking Cave
Viking Cave on Koh Phi Phi Leh gets its name from the drawings on its walls that looked, to 19th-century visitors, like Scandinavian longships. The cave is actually famous for something else: swiftlet bird nests, which local villagers harvest on bamboo scaffolding under dangerous conditions to supply the bird's nest soup trade in Hong Kong and China. The cave is closed to entry — the nests are too valuable — so tours only view it from the boat, but the scale of the entrance and the intricate bamboo climbing rigs inside are worth the photo stop. Your guide will tell you the story of the nest harvesters, who rappel up the dark cave walls for a living.