Similan Islands

Without question, Similan Islands diving is the best that Thailand has to offer. No other region offers such a number of excellent dive sites and such wonderful diving as can be found in this protected national park. The Similans are a chain of 9 tiny and verdant islands fringed with white sand beaches and surrounded by some of the area's richest waters.

Liveaboard boats cruise around this picturesque scene stopping at the choicest sites to allow divers to explore at their leisure all the marine life that abounds: leopard sharks, white tip and black tip reef sharks, batfish, moray eels, snappers, barracudas, triggerfish, surgeonfish and unicornfish.

On the eastern side of the islands, hard corals in big numbers cover the steep slopes down to the sea floor, with impressive table corals and staghorn corals being the most prevalent. Bommies bedecked with soft corals are a magnet for the sea life and dot the seabed. Elsewhere, huge granite boulders rest mightily on the sandy sea bed and provide an imposing backdrop to all the fish action as well as being the canvas upon which is painted a riot of colourful soft corals and gorgonian fans.

Given the diversity and convenience of such wonderful dive sites it is little wonder that the Similans continue to be a popular choice for discerning divers, many of whom return year after year.

Christmas Point - This is a dive site which in many ways typifies Similan scuba diving since it is dominated by the enormous granite boulders, arches and swim-throughs that make diving here unlike anywhere else. Using the walls as substrate, soft corals and huge sea fans proliferate and act as the backdrop to the passing sharks, jacks and fusiliers. A dive site with impressive and unique topography, there are plenty of reasons to look forward to Christmas Point.

Elephant Head Rock - Named after the rock that sits out of the water and, to the imaginative mind, resembles a Pachydermal cranium, this is another Similan dive site where the stunning topography is the chief feature - with more penetrable holes than a Swiss cheese factory. Around this inspiring underwater scene you can check out all the resident sea-life including groupers, turtles, trevallies and reef sharks. Sometimes a little bit tricky with current but always exciting, Elephant Head Rock is another 'must do' site when diving the Similans.