Phi Phi, Maya Bay & Khai Islands Speedboat Tour

Overall a disappointment but the staff were very warm and helpful. First of all, in the “what’s included session” it says national park fee is excluded, but in the itinerary it doesn’t say which part is national park, and only when we arrive at the pier, we are told we have to pay the national park fee otherwise we can’t go to the tour as the phi phi island area (our main destination) is considered national park zone. This doesn’t make sense as if it is compulsory it should be included in the price and the price getting increased accordingly, otherwise it makes it sound optional (and no part in the itinerary mentions which stop belongs to the national park, the only item that says clearly ticket not included is actually the long tail boat, the rest of the stops all include tickets or doesn’t require tickets. Secondly, I chose this tour because it says starting time is 8:30 so we can sleep in a bit later, but we were informed at 10:48pm the previous night that the driver will pick us up between 7:30am and 7:45am. We were already asleep and luckily I saw this when I woke up at night. We accommodated by getting up an entire hour early and it ended up the driver only came at 8:05am, and no message / whatsapp beforehand. At one point I wasn’t sure if the driver was coming at all. Thirdly the itinerary was changed randomly. The green island was cancelled due to weather, this was clearly explained in the email at the 10:48pm email. But the Khai Island was changed to a Coconut Island last minute without giving any good reason. I have to say this is a huge disappointment as if I’m not mistaken you can see fish / snorkel near the khai islands, but this Coconut island is a joke, the only free item on the island is swimming and the zone they circle out for swimming is full of rocks (attaching the photo). And we spend 1 hour 20 minutes on this island and was given only 30 minutes for snorkelling at a spot where the waves were quite strong so we were not able to enjoy watching the fish. And that was the only snorkelling stop. Fourthly, the Maya Bay was a huge disappointment too, with 400 Baht fee you cant swim and can’t even walk too far in the water, basically spent more than half an hour there to just take some pictures (also attached, but it’s hard to take one with only you as the beach is very crowded). We didn’t see any animals in the water. And it turns out only this stop requires the 400 Baht entrance fee, not the entire Phi phi island area like what we were told before the tour. Should we have all this information we would have chosen to skip Maya Bay. Last but not least, lunch was tasty enough but there are a lot of flies on the food, the staff was standing there, with probably hundreds of flies stinking on the food and he chose not to look after the food and shoo away the flies but look away. The hygiene condition is really worrying.

The island themselves were amazing and the trip is definitely worth it. Could have removed the Viking Cave as felt like it was an opportunity to make more money from those wanting a tail boat ride. Shame we did no canoe or no offer of it. Snorkel gear did not include fins. Shame we left hotel at 8.30 but didn’t leave the Pier till 11 and we returned to pier at 7pm so a really long day.

The trip is not recommended for anyone who does not speak Russian, as both at the port and all tour information during the trip are only given in Russian and only in very small parts in English upon request (!). The biggest scam of all is the recommendation of swimming shoes. They say that you could cut yourself on something or step on something - but that's complete nonsense, because you don't have to wear such things while snorkeling or on the beach, as there are no dangers in these places. Or do you all always wear swimming shoes when you go for a walk on the beach? The places we traveled to were mostly beautiful, but completely overcrowded. The biggest joke is the visit to the Maya Bay National Park. You won't be able to take a picture of yourself on the beach without other people in it. The food was mostly okay. The lunch dinner felt like it was the leftovers from the hotel buffet where you ate. All in all, my girlfriend and I wouldn't do a tour like this again because all you're doing is jumping in the water, getting out of the water, going to the next bay and doing the same thing all over again. That's really no fun, especially since the boat is completely overcrowded and you sit on the perch like chickens.

Reservation with Viator for phi phi, paid and canceled one day before by Viator, with documents confirming it. They don't refund the money, we had to book another excursion and they don't want to take responsibility. I will not contract with Viator again. Taking into account that we had booked 5 excursions.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the tour. It was organized in a pretty chaotic manner and we did not feel comfortable. When we arrived at the resort, we were told that we needed to buy swimming shoes (250 Baht per pair) because the risk of injury was too high. But in the end, we didn't need them. The snorkeling goggles were already used. Which wouldn't have been a problem if they had cleaned the used ones first. Of course, you could buy new mouthpieces (50-60 Baht). You got the feeling that they were trying to get extra money out of everything. There were always additional costs, such as a boat trip on the longtail boat for 300 Baht per person. A private trip would have cost 2000 euros. Just to take a picture at the front of the longtail boat and to stop briefly on a small beach for a few pictures. You could also refuse, but then you would just have to wait on the boat for the others and that was too stupid for us. After all, we wanted to do something. You were only at the individual spots (Maya Bay, Phi Phi Island, Khai Island) for a short time. You had the feeling that there was only time for a few pictures, a quick drink or to use the toilet and then you quickly moved on. At the end I asked if you could go canoeing or stand up paddling with a glass, as it was described here on Tripadvisor that this was included. The answer was that they didn't have any because it was broken - new ones had been ordered and weren't there yet (seemed like an excuse to us). It's a shame, because that was one of the reasons why I booked the tour in the first place. The boat also doesn't look like the pictures!! Which I also thought was a shame. It wasn't that nice. Unfortunately we didn't like it. I've done a lot of tours in Phuket, but this was the worst.