Liveaboard Thailand: Scuba Diving in the Similan Islands

Something that has been on my bucket list since I first learned to scuba dive in 2014 is a liveaboard. It’s basically an intensive diving trip where you live on the dive boat out at sea, rather than taking day trips from land.

However, I had seen people going on liveaboard trips on social media in places like the Maldives, Mexico and Indonesia, and they were crazy expensive. Definitely out of my backpacking budget that’s for sure!

So what made me sign up to this one?

Then the opportunity came up to join a 3 day liveaboard in Thailand in February 2023 and I jumped at the chance. I discovered the trip in October 2022 through a YouTube travel vlogger, Christianne, whose videos I have been watching for years (check out her channel Backpacking Bananas!). Christianne had organised a group trip throughout Thailand which she had planned with Bryan, the owner of a dive shop in Koh Tao called La Bombona Diving.

It was pure luck that she was hosting the trip at the same time that we were planning on being in Thailand. Although we hadn’t yet made any set plans, I knew I had to book a place on this trip and make it work – after all, we knew we would be in the general area so we could then make plans around the liveaboard.

The liveaboard was due to begin in Khao Lak, just north of Phuket in the south west of Thailand. The area we were going to be diving was the Similan Islands, located in the Andaman Sea. I had never heard of the Similans before so I quickly did a bit of research before booking and discovered that it’s one of the best places in Asia for scuba diving, with a chance of seeing various sharks (including whale sharks!), rays, turtles, and more. Images on Instagram and Google looked amazing, so I was hooked. 

I quickly booked onto the trip as soon as it was released and couldn’t wait to get back in the ocean. I hadn’t dived since I first qualified for my PADI Open Water in Honduras in 2014! And yes, I booked just for myself… Joe doesn’t dive and wasn’t too bothered about doing a course beforehand. I was actually really excited to go off on my own for a few days and have a mini solo travel experience, meeting new people and enjoying my hobby. Something Joe and I had spoken about early on in our travel preparation was that we will be together 24/7, so we will need to give each other space and time to pursue our own interests sometimes. This ended up being a great opportunity to do just that!

Let’s skip forward to February 2023…

We spent the end of January and beginning of February in Koh Lanta (you may have read my blog about Koh Lanta) and whilst there I took the opportunity to refresh my dive skills. The liveaboard required a PADI certificate, which I had, but I didn’t want to get on board and then be the only one who hadn’t dived in ages. So I took myself off to Dive & Relax in Koh Lanta and did a shallow dive refresher with an instructor, followed by a half-day trip where we did two dives at Koh Haa.

I’m so glad I did the refresher and a couple of dives as I felt way more confident going into the liveaboard. The day arrived and I headed to the hotel in Khao Lak where we were all meeting. I met two other girls who were joining just for the liveaboard, while the rest of the group had already been on the extended travel tour with Christianne around Thailand for two weeks. I was surprised by how many people there were and was definitely a little overwhelmed when I first met everyone, especially considering most of them had already gotten to know each other.

We went to the dive shop who had organised the liveaboard for us, Khao Lak Scuba Adventures. After getting fitted for our wetsuits, fins, masks and BCDs (the buoyancy vest you use for scuba diving), we jumped in a bus and headed about 30 minutes down the coast to where our boat was waiting.

Stepping on board was so exciting. We had an introductory chat, got to know each other and toured the boat that we would be calling home for the next 3 days. We had basic dorm-bed-style accommodation, there were two toilets (with a shower so more like mini wet rooms), a small kitchen area next to the main seating area with snacks and water, tea and coffee stations, and a rooftop sun deck.

The Dive Schedule

I’m not going to go into detail about what we did each day, because all 3 days were basically the same routine:

06:00 – Wake up, watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee on the sun deck, go through our first dive briefing, get ready to go

07:00 – Dive 1

08:15 – Breakfast

10:00 – Dive 2

11:15 – Lunch

13:00 – Dive 3

14:15 – Snack and chill (sunbathing on the roof or playing intense games of Uno were the go-to)

16:00 – Dive 4

17:30 – Dinner and relax for the evening

As you can imagine, with a wake up call at 6am and four dives throughout the day, most of us were exhausted pretty early and we were going to bed at 9/10pm every night!

Shark encounters…

Every single dive was simply fantastic. One stand-out dive for me was the night dive. It was my first time diving at night and I was a little nervous, but we each had a torch and stuck together really closely in our groups. I was lucky enough to be in the only group that saw a shark!! It was so close to us – one minute we were floating through the pitch black ocean and the next minute our torches lit up a huge reef shark swimming right past us! It got the adrenaline pumping and was definitely a highlight of the whole experience for me. 

Although we didn’t get to see any whale sharks or manta rays (the two ‘big ones’ everyone hopes to see in the Similans) we saw some amazing marine life and beautiful, colourful coral reefs. It’s such a peaceful experience being underwater surrounded by tropical fish and other curious creatures; there’s no time to overthink about anything, you simply drift through the water admiring the beauty around you.

Here’s a couple of photos taken by members of the group who had a GoPro (and kindly shared with the rest of us!)

How to get to the Similan Islands

You can reach the Similan Islands from Phuket or Khao Lak on a boat tour – either a day trip or a liveaboard. These vary in duration and pricing so do plenty of research. I highly recommend Khao Lak Scuba Adventures, who we went on the liveaboard with. The whole team on the boat were amazing and so helpful throughout the trip.

When should I visit the Similan Islands?

The Similan Islands are located within a National Marine Park which is only open from October to May. January is considered the best time to visit the Similan Islands as it’s peak season weather-wise, however February to April is when you are most likely to see whale sharks!

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