Handpicked experience · Phi Phi Islands
Phi Phi Islands, Thailand
Snorkelling above a living reef beneath cliffs that are a fossil one, on islands with a resident fishing village and evacuation arrows still standing.
An open-deck crossing with photo stops along the cliffs
Snorkelling in shallow, sheltered water
Beach time on Bamboo Island's white sand
Time ashore at Phi Phi to walk the beach
Crew and safety equipment on board throughout
Eight hours by speedboat from Phuket to the Phi Phi group and out to Bamboo Island, with an open deck for the crossing, snorkelling in the shallows and time ashore on the sand.
Most of the day is spent either in the water or moving between places to get into the water. The boat runs fast and open, so the crossings are wind and spray rather than a cruise, and the stops are what you came for. Time ashore is allocated rather than open-ended — the crew will tell you when to be back at the boat.
The cliffs you are snorkelling beneath are themselves a reef. Phi Phi's limestone was laid down in the Permian, roughly a quarter of a billion years ago, from the shells and skeletons of marine organisms in a shallow tropical sea that no longer exists anywhere on the map. Tectonic movement lifted it, rain dissolved it into towers, and the sea came back. So you float above a living reef, in water that is slowly dissolving a dead one — the same process, running at both ends of the same rock.
Phi Phi Don has a resident community, not just an industry. The first people here were Urak Lawoi, one of the sea-nomad groups of the Andaman coast, and from the middle of the last century Muslim fishing families settled the island from further south. That is still the majority population today, which is worth knowing ashore: cover up when you walk away from the beach, and take the call to prayer as a reminder that this is somebody's village.
You will notice green arrows and small metal plaques on posts around the flat ground of the main island. They mark evacuation routes and high points, put up after the 2004 tsunami, which struck the low isthmus from both bays at once. The island was rebuilt, and the signage stayed. It is unobtrusive, and it explains itself once you know what you are looking at.
Bamboo sits north of the main group, out on its own with nothing between it and open water, which is why the swell there can be flat and glassy one week and unworkable the next. It closes to visitors for part of each year so the reef and the beach can recover, and when it does the crew substitutes another stop.
Wear reef-safe sunscreen or a rash guard — the light off pale sand burns faster than it looks. Carry local currency for anything you want ashore and for the conservation charges collected at the islands. Bring your own mask if you have one that fits; it makes more difference to a day's snorkelling than anything else you can pack.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
An older reef. It formed in the Permian, roughly 250 million years ago, from the shells and skeletons of marine life in a shallow sea that no longer exists — so you snorkel over a living reef beside a fossil one.
Yes. Urak Lawoi sea nomads came first, and Muslim fishing families settled from further south in the last century. They remain the majority of residents today.
Cover up once you move away from the beach, and treat the village as a village rather than a resort strip. It is a small, largely Muslim community.
Evacuation routes and high-point markers, put up after the 2004 tsunami struck the island's low isthmus from both bays at once. The island was rebuilt and the signage stayed.
It lies exposed north of the main group, so swell can rule it out, and it closes for part of each year to let the reef and beach recover. The crew substitutes another stop.
If you have one that fits, yes — fit matters more than anything else for a comfortable day in the water. Rental is not part of this booking unless arranged separately.
Allocated rather than open-ended. The crew gives a return time at each stop so the day's route stays on schedule.
Yes — and small notes are more useful than large ones, since card acceptance ashore is patchy.