Surin Islands
The Moken here survived the 2004 tsunami because of a story: the laboon, a wave that eats people, told them what a receding sea meant, and they went uphill. The reef starts at the sand.
Surin Islands in a nutshell
Surin Islands: what to expect
We hold 1,756,000+ planned stops across Thailand on Stippl, and this is what they say.
The Surin Islands are a national park you sleep in rather than a place with a town on it. The park opens mid-October to mid-May and shuts completely for the rest of the year, boats leave Khura Buri pier in the morning, and the beds are a tent on the beach or a park bungalow. What you come for is the shallow channel between the two islands, a two-hundred-metre corridor of reef that is the reason the park is known at all. Most travellers give it 1 night on Stippl.
Half the people who plan the Surin Islands give them one night, and the night is the entire argument. 50.26% of Surin Islands stops planned on Stippl are a single night and 15.56% are a day trip. The two hours after the day boats leave, and the reef at six the next morning with nobody on it, are what an overnight buys and what a day cannot.
One night is the minimum that works and two is better. Snorkel the channel first, before the day boats land. Walk Ban Moken with a guide from the community's own tourism team, which is a different arrangement from being shown a village off the deck of a boat. Take a longtail across to Mai Ngam, the forested bay on the far side, arranged at headquarters. Divers come in April for Richelieu Rock, Thailand's whale-shark site and the one reason to book a liveaboard rather than a day boat.
Para quem é Surin Islands
Snorkellers before divers
the selling point is a reef you can swim to from the sand, which is rarer in Thailand than the brochures suggest
Divers chasing big animals
Richelieu Rock is the Thai whale-shark site, and it sits inside this park
Campers
a tent on a national-park beach for a few hundred baht is the cheapest way to sleep on a Thai island
A place without a strip
no bars, no beach clubs, no shops beyond a park kiosk
People interested in the Moken
the largest remaining Moken community in Thailand lives here, and the honest version of that visit is
Maybe not for you: anyone travelling between mid-May and mid-October, when it is simply shut; anyone prone to seasickness, because the crossing is a fast open-water run; anyone who needs a phone signal, a pharmacy or a choice of restaurant.
Quando ir a Surin Islands
Open season
15 October–15 May
the only time you can go. Boats, bungalows and tents all operate.
Peak
December–April
calm sea, the best visibility, the whale-shark window, and 450–800 visitors a day at the top of it.
Shoulder edges
late October, early May
open but weather-dependent; boats cancel and the park can shut early.
Closed
16 May–14 October
the southwest monsoon. The park is shut to allow the reef to recover and because the crossing is not safe.
Add your Surin Islands dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Descreva a sua viagem e obtenha um roteiro de Surin Islands em segundos
Tudo neste guia já está na Stippl. Diga ao planeador quanto tempo tem e do que gosta: ele constrói o roteiro, os dias e os tempos de viagem, e você edita o que quiser.
O que não perder em Surin Islands
Snorkel the channel between the two islands
the shallow 200-metre corridor that is the reason the park is famous
Walk Ban Moken with a village guide
the community's own tourism team runs the walks, which is a different thing from being shown a village from a boat
Dive Richelieu Rock in April
Thailand's whale-shark site, and the only reason to book a liveaboard rather than a day boat
Sleep in a tent on a national-park beach
the cheapest island night in Thailand, and the reef is there at six in the morning with nobody on it
Take the longtail to Mai Ngam
the forested bay on the far side, arranged at headquarters
Watch the day boats leave
the strongest argument for staying the night is the two hours after they go
Os bairros de Surin Islands
Mai Ngam Bay
quiet*
The second campsite, a forested bay on the west side of Ko Surin Nuea, reachable only via a park transfer from headquarters
Same reef as headquarters, fifteen minutes away and without the day-boat crowds.
Richelieu Rock
Divers only
A submerged pinnacle 14 km northeast, dive-boat access only, the whale-shark site
Thailand's whale-shark dive site, a submerged pinnacle reachable only by boat.
Khura Buri (mainland)
transit*
The pier town on the Phang Nga coast: where the boats leave from and where you sleep the night before
The mainland pier town where the first boat leaves, at about 08:30.
Ao Chong Khad (park headquarters)
first-timers*
Where every boat lands: the ranger office, a restaurant, the bungalows, the main campsite, snorkel rental and the information desk
Where every boat lands, with the snorkelling channel just offshore between the islands.
Ban Moken, Bon Yai Bay (Ko Surin Tai)
culture*
The Moken village: a living community, a scheduled stop on most tours, and the site of the 2019 fire
Walk the Moken village with the community's own guides, not just from a boat.
See every Surin Islands neighbourhood on one map
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Onde ficar em Surin Islands
The only accommodation is the national park's own, at two beaches on Ko Surin Nuea: bungalows and tents at Ao Chong Khad, tents at Mai Ngam Bay
Mai Ngam Bay
The second campsite, a forested bay on the west side of Ko Surin Nuea, reachable only via a park transfer from headquarters
Richelieu Rock
A submerged pinnacle 14 km northeast, dive-boat access only, the whale-shark site
Khura Buri (mainland)
The pier town on the Phang Nga coast: where the boats leave from and where you sleep the night before
Ao Chong Khad (park headquarters)
Where every boat lands: the ranger office, a restaurant, the bungalows, the main campsite, snorkel rental and the information desk
Ban Moken, Bon Yai Bay (Ko Surin Tai)
The Moken village: a living community, a scheduled stop on most tours, and the site of the 2019 fire
O que comer em Surin Islands
Cook-to-order Thai, the park restaurant format
Discover food spots in Stippl
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Surin Islands customs and what not to do
The Moken live on Ko Surin Tai
an indigenous seafaring people of the Thai–Myanmar marine border, and the largest such community left in Thailand. They lived semi-nomadically on wooden boats called kabang, coming ashore to stilt houses during the May-to-October monsoon, the same months the park now closes
Borders ended their old life
park designation did too, and neither was a choice. Much of the sea they used is now national park, so the park authority is the body that regulates how they live
Many Moken are stateless
citizens of neither Thailand nor Myanmar. Statelessness is the central fact of their legal position and it governs their access to healthcare, schooling and work
The village burned in 2019
Bon Yai Bay, on 3 February. Sixty-one houses were destroyed, at least 237 people were made homeless, 76 of them children under fifteen, and 34 fishing boats, 38 engines and 11 generators were lost, the boats being the livelihood
The rebuild is contested.
The authorities reconstructed the village to its original design; reporting at the time carried the community's objection that this reproduces an unsafe housing model, and villagers describe being kept in place as an attraction for park visitors rather than consulted
The village is a living one
your tour's stop is somebody's home. The community's own tourism team of nine trains and runs village guides, and taking their walk rather than wandering is the difference between an exchange and an intrusion
Buy from the village itself
and ask before photographing people: the standard courtesy, which matters more where the subject is marketed as scenery
Fazer
- Book the village walk with a Moken guide rather than treating the village as a viewpoint.
- Take everything you brought back off the island.
- Ask before photographing anyone in the village.
Evitar
- Don't stand on, kick or touch coral, for why this is not a small thing here.
- Don't repeat the Cousteau story about Richelieu Rock; it is disputed by the park's own reference source.
- Don't plan a Surin leg between mid-May and mid-October.
Orçamento diário em Surin Islands
Budget
tent 350 THB plus park entry and food
A rented tent with a thin mat, sleeping bag and pillow at one of two campsites
Mid-range
bungalow ~3,000 THB
One of the few park bungalows at headquarters, air-conditioned
High-end
liveaboard rates, no local figure
A dive boat out of Tap Lamu; you never sleep ashore
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Curiosidades sobre Surin Islands
The Moken on Surin survived the 2004 tsunami because of an oral tradition. The laboon: described in their stories as a wave that eats people, told them what a receding sea meant, and they moved to high ground before it arrived
How many Moken died in 2004 is reported two ways. Some accounts say no Moken life was lost on Surin; others record a single fatality. Both appear in serious reporting and our sources carrie the disagreement rather than picking
The islands hold migratory bird species not found elsewhere in Thailand, though the park is not a birding destination in practice
76% of the national park's 135 km² is water
Ko Ri, Ko Khai and Ko Klang are the three smaller islands that complete the archipelago
Dicas locais para Surin Islands
The pier is Khura Buri
getting this wrong is the most common practical error here. Speedboats leave from the National Park office there and from the pier across the road, at about 08:30
Sleep in Khura Buri first
if you are on the first boat. The town exists for the pier and the transfer is arranged there
The speedboat is a hard ride
sources are unanimous about it. Fast, noisy and open-water; travellers prone to seasickness are repeatedly warned off it
The reef is what is at risk
snorkelling is where the damage lands. In April 2024 northern Andaman sea-surface temperatures went past 34 °C in the shallows against the roughly 30.5 °C threshold at which coral starts to starve, and stayed there. Surveys from April to late May 2024 found bleaching at 152 monitored sites across 21 Thai marine parks; in the Andaman about 55% of coral was affected and the damage was worst in the top two metres of water, which is precisely where beach snorkelling happens
Closing the water worked
it was Thailand's response. From 13 May 2024 officials shut popular diving and snorkelling areas under a "reduce, refrain, rescue" policy; two years on more than 60% of the coral has recovered
Perguntas frequentes sobre Surin Islands
Around the boat and the season, because both are fixed. The park opens mid-October to mid-May, boats leave Khura Buri pier in the morning, and beds are tents or park bungalows booked ahead. Travellers leave 73 days between planning a Surin Islands stop on Stippl and arriving. Lay it into the route in Stippl.
Yes, in a tent on a national-park beach or in a park bungalow, and it is the cheapest island night in Thailand. There is no resort layer and no village to stay in, so what you get is the park's own accommodation and the reef at six the next morning with nobody else on it.
For some people, though it is the weaker version: 15.56% of Surin Islands stops planned on Stippl carry no night. The day boats arrive and leave together, so a day trip puts you on the reef at exactly the hours everybody else is there, which is the opposite of what the park is good at.
Mid-October to mid-May, and shut completely for the rest of the year, like the other Andaman marine parks. April is the month divers aim at, because that is when whale sharks turn up at Richelieu Rock. Outside the open season there is no way to visit the islands at all.
A sea-nomad community with a village on the islands and a language of their own. Their tourism team runs the walks through Ban Moken themselves, which is a different arrangement from being shown a village off the deck of a day boat, and it is the reason to do the walk rather than photograph it.
One night for half of them: 50.26% of Surin Islands stops planned on Stippl are a single night. Two is better where the boat timings allow, because it buys two early mornings on the reef instead of one, and the mornings are the whole reason to sleep out there.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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