James Bond Island Speedboat Tour

The trip was great. The only negatives were that we were told to expect collection from our hotel but when I called to find out where it was, we were told to walk to the registration point (which wasn't a problem but would've been good to know this in advance rather than sitting in the hotel reception). Our guide, New, was fantastic and ran the trip really well. James Bond Island itself is beautiful but there is only one thing to see so having the kayaking on top of this makes the trip worthwhile. Lunch was decent and the floating village was amazing. Overall a good trip and would recomend

We were picked up at our hotel by a driver, and continued the rounds to pick up others. When we arrived at the tourist providers office, we were directed to a specific person at a specific table. After waiting ten minutes in line, it was our turn. He said it was the wrong line and made us go to another person at a different table. After checking in, we waited for our transport. Once on the boat, our guide stated that we needed to go to James Bond Island first, to avoid the crowds (so the itinerary was altered immediately). We went with it and the island was very interesting. We then went to the canoeing spot, where we excitedly got a tour of the caves, which were stunning. Except that the canoe driver had us ‘lay down’ so as not to hit our heads, and apparently he expected me to put my head right in his lap? No, thank you. I kept mine to the side. Then, the driver kept touching me, squeezing my arms, calling me ‘Mama,’ and telling me I was a VIP and repeatedly saying I should tip him 100-200 Baht. I do not like being touched without consent, nor do I think it appropriate to put my head on a stranger’s lap. It got weirder from there. We went to the ‘floating village’ for lunch. We had let the company know we were vegetarians, and were told that we would have lunch options. Upon arrival, our guide told us to go through the buffet line. There was rice and noodles, followed by a strange soup. When I asked if it was vegetarian and asked about ingredients, I was told first it was lentils, then chickpeas, then that it was vegetarian and then that it was not. I went to the guide, and he took me to the restaurant manager. He explained that we would appreciate something with protein, not just rice and noodles. The manager asked if eggs and tofu would work, and I said yes. I said a bowl of peanuts would work. Ten minutes later, we received a bowl of hot water with lettuce, glass noodles, and carrots in it. We then got french fries and tempura baby corn. No tofu, no nuts, no eggs, zero protein. So again, everyone else on the tour had a buffet of options and we had noodles and rice. We all paid the same price, I am not sure why vegetarians are not offered anything. We then had 15 minutes to ‘explore,’ then back on the boat to drive by a rock formation. No explanation, nothing. Just, ‘take a photo of the rock,’ and then we were off again. Finally we arrived at the snorkeling spot. We had 15-20 minutes in the water and were called back in for the drive to Hong Island. I was excited to finally get to go. And then…we were told we were dropping someone off and the rest of us had to stay on the boat to go back to the pier–no Hong Island for us. That makes no sense. We booked this tour specifically for the fact it hit the islands we wanted to see. But only two people on the tour got to go to the Hong Islands. No explanation was ever given. After we arrived at a different dock than the one we departed from (we were told it was due to choppiness), we were loaded onto a pickup tuktuk. But there were 12 of us and 10 seats in the back. One person had to ride up front and the other had to stand up and hold on for the trip back. I asked the guide about the trip discrepancies, and said I thought maybe we had been checked into the wrong tour. He called the office, who apparently told him that their tours don’t necessarily match the listings on Viator. If that is the case, why am I using Viator at all? If the tours do not include the listed venues, it seems like Viator and the tour operators can drop things with no consequence. I requested a partial refund from Viator and was told they would not consider it. I do want to specify that our tour guide and boat team were so sweet and caring (but had zero options to fix anything). They were the one good thing about this trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed this experience. It was New Year’s Day and the great speed boat had a comfortable number of people on it. The Thai guide spoke great English, was fun and explained timings and where we were going several times so everyone got it. We had done a similar experience at Phi Phi Don and this experience was far superior and better priced.