Very beautiful and very worthwhile snorkeling tour. - The journey is tough, more than an hour and a half sailing, but definitely worth it. You will snorkel at three locations. One focuses on the fish, while the other focuses on the combination with breathtakingly beautiful coral, anemones with clown fish, Nemo, and many other species. A Thai lunch in between. Good care on the boat with fresh fruit, coffee, tea and soft drinks. Also beer for those who want it for a small fee. Definitely do it if you are in the area.

Must do - family friendly! - I went with my family, including my parents who are in their mid-60s. We all had a really amazing and memorable day! The mode of transport is a speed boat, and it was quite bumpy! A few people got quite seasick. They have a seasick tablet that you can take beforehand if you are prone to travel sickness. We went quite late in the season, but still saw plenty of fish. The water was warm and it was a lot of fun swimming around the ocean. There was plenty of water and soda available throughout the trip. There was also a big lunch provided. As well as a small breakfast and snacks at the end of the day. I recommend going in your swimwear! The first snorkelling stop is off the boat, so there’s no where to change once you get there.

Read the bad reviews but DEFINITELY go anyway if you love snorkelling! - I was very glad that I'd read other reviews so I was prepared for the crowds, the crazy process of needing to eat 3 meals with hundreds of other people, and the busy beaches. We decided to do the trip anyway and I am SO pleased that we did. It was a highlight for the whole family of our Thai holiday. This is because we love snorkelling and it really is something else. I wouldn't advise if it you're simply going to get a photo on a deserted beach, that's not going to happen. However, the islands are really stunning and you do get to appreciate them despite the crowds. The most astounding feature though is the water - it's like nothing we'd ever seen. Just beautiful. So bring your own snacks (the food is not great at all, particularly if you're English) and enjoy the experience. The staff were brilliant - we had the amazing Way as our guide - so informative, funny, efficient and professional. Enjoy!

Nice, but many people - Super organized trip according to the American system. Price/performance is great. Negative: In high season there are lots of boats and people on the islands. You can save yourself the climb up the rocks because there is a line of people waiting to have their photo taken. Lots of influencers. Positive: Plenty of food and drinks, very nice staff. You have to be aware, though, that you are definitely not alone on the island and everyone is trying to get the best photo with selfies. You should definitely do this trip though. Sea Star Andaman is recommended.

A really rough ride! - We recently traveled with Sea Star to the Similan Islands for birding, not snorkeling. There were just the 2 of us and our Thai guide - so it was essentially a private trip. We met our crew and departed straightaway. As soon as we got out of protected waters it got really rough as we crashed and banged our way to Ko Miang. The Island was delightful and we found the birds we were looking for. As we departed for Ko Similan, it got enough rougher and we decided to cut the day short and head back to the mainland early. After another 1.5 hours of crashing and banging we were (thankfully) back at the pier. Our crew were great and very helpful but a speedboat on the open ocean is not the way to travel I soon realized. Several also mentioned that the day we traveled was a typical day and not especially rough. We are not strangers to boating/cruising having spent weeks circumnavigating the Bering Sea and then cruising from Argentina to Chile around Cape Horn, not to mention numerous multi-day pelagics in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This experience was however, too much for me. I loved visiting the beautiful Similan Islands and appreciated our crew, but unless there's another mode of travel to them I won't be visiting again.

too many people - We booked the tour with a local because we wanted to support them. Since we found the tour on Get your Guide and there was an early bird tour there, we clarified this with the local. Of course he said - it's the same tour. We were then picked up at the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and drove to the port in Khao Lak. The journey took about 35 minutes from the Grand Mercure Bangsak. When we got there, everything looked really well organized and we thought great, it would start at 8:00 a.m. At 9:00 a.m. we got impatient and at 9:30 we were allowed on the boat. There were 4 boats with 50 people each (I would say) and together we visited all the islands. Snorkeling was OK - the reef is nothing. A few fish but the reef is completely dead. Every spot was full of people. It was too much for us individual tourists who wanted to avoid the crowds. We would never do it again. The islands are very beautiful so it's better to book private tours✌🏻

Horrible - We paid over $100 per person for this trip, so we had higher expectations for the quality of service. They picked us up from our hotel first, which is fine, but then we spent over an hour going to other hotels to pick up other customers. To us, on our vacation, it felt like a waste waking up at 0630 so we can drive around to other hotels. Second, when we arrived at the dock, we were herded like cattle to different lines. One line to pay a national park fee, one line to get a wrist band, one line to get a subpar breakfast. It was total chaos. Over two hours later, (three hours after getting picked up from our hotel), we were finally able to board the boat. Third, the boat is not comfortable or luxurious by any means. There is very little room to sit outside and you’re crammed onto a boat with 30 other people. Both my wife and I were strategizing how we could leave early. The boat guides were nice and they tried hard to provide good customer service. Finally at the end of the day, we had to wait until everyone ate dinner before the company would bring us back to our hotel. And not to our surprise, we were the final stop - meaning we went to a couple other hotels first. We spent two hours in a car, and 3 hours waiting at the dock while people ate breakfast/dinner. That’s a total of 5 hours of the day. Manage your expectations when they say this is a “full day activity”. If you are looking for any type of luxury whatsoever, do not choose this tour.

an HORRIBLE experience - Day excursions from Khao Lak to Similan is a huge organization with a departure room as big as a small airport, filled with hundreds of persons. Lot of time wasted for grouping people. In the boat you can't see the sea, thus we were sick. The employee speaking on the boat TOTALLY REFUSED to speak english, he spoke only chinese because there were many chinese onboard. Thus we had zero explanations nor understanding. Several times during the day, a woman employee on another boat from the same company used to yell, yell, yell again: calling for ??? The food was nothing excellent, we wasted 2/3 of it. I hope they feed animals with the bin's content. This day was precisely the opposite of what we would appreciate for a day cruise. It has been a TOTAL NIGHTMARE: NEVER NEVER AGAIN!!!

Not for us - awful trip - No reflection on SeaStar as they all worked very hard and were all very helpful and friendly but this trip was NOT for us!! Like other reviews we felt we were all being herded like cattle, put into groups. It felt like a school trip with a packed catamaran, with no room to move! Photos taken at the start like being at an aquapark - really tacky I am sorry to say! Lots of people with selfie sticks taking photos sitting in trees and on the rocks but with 100 people in the background - it didn't make any sense to me! Seeing all the people getting off the boats onto these stunning beaches was a bit heart-breaking; we looked like ants and the people screaming & jumping off the top desk while we were all trying to enjoy snorkelling was a joke. One child face flopped and really hurt herself, so she spent the return journey in a lot of pain! Such a long day to then return to the Seastar hub and have to wait for people to eat the free food was torture! We just sat in the minibus for 45 minutes and was hoping the others from our resort would do the same, so we could make it back for sunset at least, they didn't they just waited there until 5:10 until I asked the driver to go get them. This is not a negative for Seastar as clearly some people like these kinds of trips and as I mentioned the staff were great, it was just not for us (family of 4 from the UK) If you can do this trip privately it would be better but then you would still have to put up with all the Seastar boats and hundreds of people!

***** CAUTION – DANGER OF NOT ACTUALLY DOING THE EXCURSION CONTRACTED ***** - ***** CAUTION – DANGER OF NOT ACTUALLY DOING THE EXCURSION CONTRACTED ***** I would strongly advise against booking any trip with this company, or Seastar (their “partner”). We had a very bad experience, do not let this happen to you. The 1 star is because I cannot give 0. We contracted with click2gothailand a 1-day snorkelling trip to the Similan islands for a family of 4, what should have been the highlight of our stay in Thailand. We received emails with confirmation and payment receipt, and confirmation of hotel pick-up between 6:40 and 6:50. We got up at 6 am, were already waiting for them at 6:30; we were all excited for the trip, especially my children who had been reading about the water species that we might be able to see there. However, as nobody showed up to pick us we started calling and sending emails. They responded to emails confirming that we were in the list for pick-up and we would be picked up shortly. Unfortunately, that was not true. They never picked us, and only told us at 7:45 that they would not pick us, they simply missed us blaming a third party. With that, they basically destroyed our chances for this excursion, as we did not have more days when we could do it; had they told us earlier, we could have even driven to the pier ourselves, as we did have a rental car, and we only took the pickup service because it seems to be the only way to get a trip to these islands. Needless to say, that we were extremely upset. So upset that we demanded economical compensation, not just reversing the charge for the trip (obviously) but giving us at least the same amount as compensation. After a couple of rounds of email, they only offered as compensation 2300 baht, i.e., the price of the excursion for 1 person out of the 4. This clearly does not compensate the destroyed day and missed opportunity to visit the Similan islands, and my kids upset, but they do not seem to be able to understand the importance of providing an adequate service to customers, or at least compensate for damages to avoid reputational problems. These types of unscrupulous operators do a very poor service to Thailand being considered a great tourist destination, where tourist can feel well / fairly treated and not just as the means to make easy money.