4 scuba diving and snorkelling adventures in Thailand

Don’t waste your time on the wrong underwater adventure…

There are an underwater abundance of Southern Thailand scuba diving and snorkelling sites. With so many options, how do you choose your best Andaman Sea adventure? Here are Kara Murphy’s best of the best.

With warm water temperatures (usually 27 to 30°C) and underwater terrain that includes swim throughs, caves, caverns, pinnacles, boulders that appear to have tumbled from islands to the sea floor, and ethereal karst islands surrounded by coral, Southern Thailand offers enticing opportunities for scuba divers and snorkellers. With several notable diving areas, how do you choose which is right for you? Check out our guide below as you decide where – and when – to go.

1. Busy, boulder wonderland: Similan Islands

About 50 kilometres west of Khao Lak is Mu Ko Similan National Park, named for the park’s original nine granite boulder islands. Today, the park includes 11 islands, including Ko Bon and Ko Tachai to the north.

Together, the boulder seascape, coral, and clear waters create a dreamy environment. Snorkellers linger above rocks decorated with soft corals and anemones, while divers descend towards Anita’s Reef/Hin Muan Deaw (‘whole roll of film rock’), cloaked in soft corals and sea fans, as well as more advanced sites such as Ko Bon’s West Ridge, a manta ray cleaning station where staghorn and brain corals, yellow soft corals, and schools of reef fish and trevally compete with rays for attention.

Tip: Don’t arrive seeking solitude. If you’re on a liveaboard, you’ll probably enjoy some tranquil moments after the day-trippers depart; otherwise, expect the more popular sites to be crowded.

When: December through April (the park is closed from mid-May through mid-October); March and April are best for manta rays.

Where: Khao Lak (in Phang-Nga province, about 80 kilometres north of Phuket airport) is the closest tourist area to Thap Lamu pier, the main departure point.

2. Dazzling rock star: Richelieu Rock

Drift past vibrant pink, red, and violet corals, pausing to spy on hawksbill turtles, groupers, puffer fish, scorpion fish, moray eels, anemones, mantas, and more at Richelieu Rock, a flat, horseshoe-shaped limestone rock that only breaks the surface at low tide.

Heaven? In spite of the other boats around, pretty much. And especially for underwater photographers, as the colours and diversity of marine life make this spot – north of the Similans and part of Mu Ko Surin National Park – a favourite. Thanks to the depth range (five to 35 metres) and potentially strong currents, it best suits intermediate to advanced divers. Snorkelling isn’t advised.

Tip: Some operators offer day trips, however, on multi-night liveaboards, you’ll probably dive this site at least three times and experience the Similans as well.

When: November through April (the park is closed from mid-May through mid-October)

Where: Liveaboards depart from Thap Lamu pier near Khao Lak and Chalong Pier in south-eastern Phuket.

3. Year-round stunner: Phi Phi islands

Planning to visit Southern Thailand during the rainy season (May through October)? Then the dramatic Phi Phi islands (Ko Phi-Phi Don and Ko Phi-Phi Leh), east of Phuket, are your best bet. While the chance of rain and thunderstorms is higher than other months, they don’t happen every day. “Diving in rainy season [also] provides more encounters with different fish and nudibranchs," explains Sea Bees instructor Jenna Avery. “It’s a lot quieter on the island, and you’re more likely to dive with a smaller group."

Ko Bida Nok and Ko Bida Nai, two small islands to the south of the main Phi Phi islands, are both popular diving and snorkelling sites with sloping reefs and walls. The former is renowned for its large schools of snappers, while the latter is rich with anemones, angelfish, stingrays, and hard and soft corals.

Around Phi-Phi Leh, Turtle Rock (where hawksbill turtles are frequently spotted) and Viking Cave (an artificial reef) are also good choices; like most sites here, they’re suitable for beginners.

Tip: Phi Phi’s sites tend to be quieter in the afternoon.

When to go: Year-round (although the best visibility is between February and June and the best snorkelling between January and April, says Avery).

Getting there: Day trips depart from Chalong Pier in south-eastern Phuket.

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4. Away from the crowds (maybe): South-east Andaman Sea

If you’re craving more peaceful dive sites (and a less touristy base), venture further south-east. Ko Ha – five beautiful limestone islands blessed with hard coral gardens, caverns, and thrilling swim throughs – is just an hour away from low-key Pak Meng Beach (Trang province) via speedboat. Ko Ha’s six sites include the Cathedral, where you can surface within blue-lit caverns; the Chimney, a semi-daunting vertical swim through with an entry at four to five metres and an exit at 17 to 19 metres; and the Lagoon, which attracts plenty of snorkellers, predominantly on day trips from Ko Lanta.

Other possibilities include Ko Rok Nok and Ko Rok Nai, also an hour from Pak Meng and featuring pristine hard corals, and, closer to Pak Meng, Ko Waen and Ko Kradan, which – with their flabellinas, other nudibranchs, and reduced visibility – are best suited for macro photography.

Hin Daeng (‘Red Rock’) and Hin Muang (‘Purple Rock’) – two remote submerged rocks, the latter bathed in soft purple corals and both attracting barracuda, tuna, trevally, grey reef sharks, and mantas – are options for intermediate to advanced divers; however, to make the significantly longer journey there, sea conditions and currents must be ideal.

Tip: For proximity, visibility, and beauty, Ko Ha is a wonderful south-eastern choice.

When: November through April

Where: Day trips depart from the luxurious Anantara Si Kao near Pak Meng Beach, about 1.5 hours south of Krabi airport.

Sea Bees Diving operates day trips and/or liveaboards to all the above sites.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

4 best scuba diving and snorkelling adventures in Thailand

1. Busy, boulder wonderland: Similan Islands

2. Dazzling rock star: Richelieu Rock

3. Year-round stunner: Phi Phi islands

4. Away from the crowds (maybe): South-east Andaman Sea

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