Tours from Khao Lak: the best day trips — and which one is for you

Around fifteen day trips leave Khao Lak with hotel pickup: the speedboat tours to the Similan and Surin Islands (฿4,100 and ฿4,300, season 15 October to 15 May), Phi Phi, James Bond Island and Krabi from Royal Phuket Marina, plus Khao Sok, three temple tours, a cooking class and an evening in Patong. All of them can be booked on the spot by WhatsApp, most with a German- and English-speaking guide.

At a glance

• ·Similan Islands — Early Bird: ฿4,100, children ฿3,100 · daily in season · pickup 5:00 · see the tour
• ·Surin Islands & Moken village: ฿4,300, children ฿3,500 · daily in season · 5:00 · see the tour
• ·Phi Phi Island X-Large: ฿4,100, children ฿3,100 · daily · from Khao Lak at 4:00 · see the tour
• ·James Bond & Beyond (Phang Nga Bay with canoe): ฿4,100, children ฿3,100 · daily · 4:00 · see the tour
• ·Krabi: 4 Islands + Koh Hong: ฿4,300, children ฿3,500 · Mon · Wed · Fri · see the tour
• ·Khao Sok Highlights (Cheow Lan Lake): ฿4,100, children ฿2,500 · Mon · Wed · Fri · 7:30 · see the tour
• ·Three Temples: ฿2,500, children ฿1,600 · Mon · Wed · Fri · Sat · see the tour
• ·Nature & Culture Phang Nga (waterfall, Little Amazon, Takua Pa): ฿3,400, children ฿2,300 · Sundays · see the tour
• ·Local Life (market, monks, old town): ฿2,900, children ฿1,450 · Tue · Thu · Sun · starts 5:30 · see the tour
• ·Khao Lak Experience (school, bamboo raft, turtles): ฿2,950, children ฿1,800 · daily · see the tour
• ·Thai cooking class with market visit: ฿2,000 · Mon · Tue · Thu · see the tour
• ·Evening in Patong: ฿1,450 · daily 15:30–22:30, transfer only · see the tour

Prices per person, with hotel transfer, lunch and — on the sea tours — national park fees, snorkelling gear and insurance. As of September 2026; the full list is under tours from Khao Lak.

Sea: Similan, Surin and the speedboats from Phuket

Two tours leave from the Khao Lak side, and they are exactly why many guests holiday here: the Similan Islands with their white beaches and granite boulders, and the Surin Islands with shallow reefs and the village of the Moken. Pickup at 5:00, a light breakfast at the pier in Ban Nam Khem, back by 16:00. Both national parks are open only from 15 October to 15 May.

Phi Phi, James Bond Island, Krabi, Koh Rok and Koh Kradan depart from Royal Phuket Marina. We collect you at your Khao Lak hotel for those too — but at 4:00, because the drive to the marina takes a good hour and a half. It is a long day; if that puts you off, take Similan or Surin, which start here, or Phang Nga Bay by longtail, which does not begin until 7:30.

Land: Khao Sok, temples and village life

Khao Sok is the inland classic: a 90-minute drive, then a longtail across Cheow Lan Lake between the limestone towers, lunch in a floating restaurant, a canoe on the Sok River in the afternoon. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, ฿4,100; the ฿340 park fee is paid on site.

The three culture tours complement each other: the Three Temples tour with a dragon cave, a hilltop monastery and a cave temple, Nature & Culture Phang Nga with the waterfall in Sri Phang Nga National Park, a canoe ride through the "Little Amazon" and the old town of Takua Pa, and Local Life, a morning from 5:30 with the fresh market, the monks' alms round and a dim-sum breakfast. If you would rather cook yourself, book the cooking class — three dishes, market visit first.

With children

The speedboats take children from age 4; ages 4 to 12 pay the child price (Similan ฿3,100). For families the 4 or 5 a.m. pickup is usually a bigger hurdle than the boat itself. Calmer days children enjoy: the Khao Lak Experience with a bamboo raft and the turtle station (from age 3), the Khao Sok Eco Tour feeding and bathing elephants — no riding, no chains — and the Phang Nga Bay canoe trip by big boat, where a paddler steers the canoe (children ฿1,975).

On your own or with a tour?

The beaches — Nang Thong, Bang Niang, White Sand Beach — and the markets need no tour: walk or take a taxi. Takua Pa's old town is 40 minutes away by taxi. Similan, Surin, Khao Sok and Phang Nga Bay, on the other hand, are tour territory: the islands are national parks served by licensed boats, the lake is 90 minutes inland, and the bay needs a boat, a canoe and a park ticket.

How to book on the spot

Message us on WhatsApp — tour, date, party size, hotel. We check availability with the operator and confirm in the chat, usually within a few hours; you pay after confirmation. On the tour page the message is pre-written for you. For sea tours we send the exact pickup time the evening before; bring a towel, sunscreen and a little cash for tips. Everything else is in Thailand from A to Z.