Thailand
Similan Islands
Giant granite boulders stacked like dropped marbles above water clear enough to induce vertigo.
The granite boulders look dropped from a great height — stacked, tilted, balanced impossibly above water so clear it stops registering as liquid. Below the surface, visibility runs to thirty metres. The Similans rank among the world's celebrated dive sites, and Thailand closes them for five months every year to protect exactly that.
The Similan Islands are eleven granite islands in the Andaman Sea, seventy kilometres off the Phang Nga coast, protected as a marine national park that opens only from mid-October to mid-May with daily visitor caps. The eastern shores hold calm, crystal snorkelling over hard-coral gardens; the western side drops into blue channels patrolled by manta rays and leopard sharks. The balancing boulder above Donald Duck Bay has become visual shorthand for Thai diving. There is no overnight stay on the islands themselves — day boats run from the mainland, and liveaboard dive boats carry multi-day itineraries through the archipelago.
Friends
A liveaboard through the archipelago turns the Similans into a multi-day group adventure — diving with mantas by day, sleeping on deck at anchor.
Couple
Snorkel the shallow coral gardens from a day boat and save the deeper blue for a dive course — the water itself is the romance here.
Solo
Solo divers are standard on liveaboards; shared dive decks create instant camaraderie, and the annual closure makes every visit feel earned.
- Granite boulder formations continue underwater, making dive sites that rank among the world's most celebrated.
- Visibility regularly reaches thirty metres — manta rays and leopard sharks patrol the deeper channels.
- The park closes entirely for five months a year, keeping the coral gardens genuinely pristine.
- Liveaboard dive boats are the way to stay — multi-day itineraries through all eleven islands.
The operator’s picnic lunch, eaten in the shade between snorkelling stops.
Fresh fruit and a light pier breakfast before the speedboat departure.
Alcoutim
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Two castle towns face across the Guadiana — Portugal one bank, Spain the other.
Ras Abu Galum
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Camel trail ending at a Bedouin beach where the reef starts a metre from your mat.
Cala Goloritzé
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A limestone needle rising from emerald water, the cove reachable only by a cliff-edge trail.
Bahía de los Ángeles
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Desert ridges frame a protected bay of islands and immensely productive water.
Chiang Dao
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A limestone monolith hiding twelve kilometres of pitch-black caverns and underground shrines.
Amphawa
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Wooden rowboats grilling prawns on the water while fireflies pulse in the cork trees.
Khao Sok National Park
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Floating bamboo huts on an emerald lake where gibbons howl through prehistoric mist.