Scuba Diving Package – Similan Islands Thailand 6 Days

Overview

Detailed Itinerary

• • Day 1: Phuket Arrival – Dive Preparation & Pool Session
  Arrive at Phuket International Airport and transfer to your Chalong-area dive resort — the hub of Phuket's world-class dive industry. Check in and meet your PADI-certified dive team in the afternoon for a comprehensive briefing. Equipment fitting covers your BCD (buoyancy control device), regulator, wetsuit, mask, and fins — all professionally maintained and regularly serviced. Certified divers present their C-cards for the guide's records. Non-certified participants join a 2-hour PADI Discover Scuba Diving course in the resort pool — basic underwater skills, breathing techniques, and hand signals — before the offshore journey begins. Equipment is adjusted and personalised to each diver. Evening: dive theory session covering Similan marine life identification, depth planning, and underwater photography tips. Early night — the boat departs at dawn.
• • Day 2: Similan Islands – 3 Dives: Beacon Reef, Donald Duck Bay & Christmas Point (B/L/D)
  Pre-dawn departure by speedboat for the 2.5-hour crossing to the legendary Similan Islands — a UNESCO-protected national park of 11 granite islands in the Andaman Sea, consistently ranked among the top 10 dive destinations in the world by sport diving magazines globally. Dive 1 – Beacon Reef: a vast coral plateau at 8–28 metres carpeted in staghorn, plate, and brain coral gardens. Massive schools of golden trevally and striped barracuda patrol the reef edge. Leopard sharks rest motionless on the sandy bottom between coral heads — completely approachable at depth. Dive 2 – Donald Duck Bay: famous for its giant boulder formations above and below the waterline, with swim-throughs draped in sea fans and crinoids. Moray eels peer from crevices; blue-spotted stingrays bury themselves in sand patches. Dive 3 – Christmas Point: a dramatic wall dive where the reef drops vertically from 3 metres to 40+ metres, encrusted with black coral trees, gorgonian fans, and huge barrel sponges. Overnight on the island or boat accommodation.
• • Day 3: Similan Islands – 3 Dives: East of Eden, Fantasy Reef & Elephant Head Rock (B/L/D)
  Day 2 of Similan diving reveals even more spectacular terrain. Dive 4 – East of Eden: one of the most celebrated sites in all of Thai diving. A gently sloping coral garden at 12–20 metres of extraordinary density and variety — over 240 species of coral have been recorded here. The sheer abundance and health of this reef is humbling. Huge humphead parrotfish graze the coral; Napoleon wrasse cruise the mid-water; and leopard sharks are almost always present, resting serenely at the base. Dive 5 – Fantasy Reef: massive granite boulders covered in spectacular purple and orange sea fans, with a resident school of bigeye barracuda spiralling in mid-water above the reef. Giant trevally ambush hunting in pairs. Dive 6 – Elephant Head Rock: the technical dive of the trip. A complex of submerged granite ridges and swim-throughs at 18–30 metres — divers navigate through narrow passages and open caverns to emerge on the other side of the rock. White-tip reef sharks rest in the swim-throughs. Nurse sharks patrol the sandy channels.
• • Day 4: Richelieu Rock – Thailand's Greatest Dive Site, 3 Dives (B/L/D)
  The dive of a lifetime. Richelieu Rock is a submerged granite pinnacle rising from 35 metres to just below the surface, located in the Surin Islands 180 km north of Phuket. Discovered and named by Jacques Cousteau, who described it as the finest dive site in the world — a title it has arguably retained for 60 years. The marine life density here is simply extraordinary and unprecedented in Thai waters. The pinnacle's entire surface is smothered in soft corals, sea fans, whip corals, and encrusting sponges of every colour. Hunting over the reef: giant barracuda, dogtooth tuna, and schools of trevally in the hundreds. Hovering in mid-water: whale sharks during peak season (February–April), circling languidly around the pinnacle at depth. On the rock itself: Thai seahorses — tiny and perfectly camouflaged in matching coral colours, found by expert eyes. Ghost pipefish floating in pairs. Harlequin ghost pipefish. Cuttlefish displaying their hypnotic colour-changing communication. Mantis shrimp in crevices. Three dives here — each one a completely different experience.
• • Day 5: Koh Bon & Koh Tachai – Manta Ray Cleaning Stations, 2 Dives (B/L)
  The manta ray experience. Koh Bon's West Ridge is one of Southeast Asia's most reliable manta ray cleaning stations — a specific depth on the reef where small cleaner wrasse fish service the mantas, picking parasites from their gill plates and skin. Mantas arrive regularly and hover nearly motionless over the station while being cleaned, completely ignoring divers who remain still at depth. It is common to observe 5–10 manta rays at a single session. The wingspans of these animals — up to 5 metres — and their absolute grace underwater is profoundly moving. Second dive: Koh Tachai Pinnacle — a spectacular submerged peak with populations of bull sharks in season, extraordinary soft coral coverage, and huge schools of fish in the blue water above the peak. Return to Phuket by late afternoon.
• • Day 6: Phuket – Dive Log Review & Departure (B)
  Morning: gear cleaning, equipment return, and dive log completion with your guide. Each dive site is stamped in your log book. PADI discovery divers receive their resort course completion cards. Review your underwater photos with the dive team. Transfer to Phuket International Airport. You have dived Similan's legendary coral gardens, navigated Elephant Head Rock's swim-throughs, hovered with manta rays at Koh Bon, and experienced the extraordinary marine density of Richelieu Rock — Jacques Cousteau's favourite dive site on Earth. Thailand's underwater world is extraordinary.