mantaraye:
Hi there! Brand new to the boards. I am an avid snorkeler - and was wondering about snorkeling in the phi phi islands in late june/early july. I know that is the monsoon season, but I snorkel alot in the Caribbean in the summer during hurricane season - usually can find a calm place even if the water is choppy.
How is the snorkeling? Looking for good hard and soft coral as well as lots of fish life.
Any advice?
Hi Mantaraye,
I live on the mainland opposite Phi Phi in a small town called Ao Nang and I can recommend snorkeling at Phi Phi for sure! I snorkeled there in May last year during the monsoon and I saw a blacktip reef shark just off the shore so it doesn't matter for monsoon season... there is still good stuff to see for sure.
To go snorkeling yourself without a tour try Long Beach or in Thai "Haad Yao", this is where we saw the black tip and it is notorious for black tips in this area. Just nearby to the beach is a place called "shark point" which I probably don't need to explain
Don't get it confused with the dive site Shark point though which in in the middle of the ocean nearby and not good for snorkeling!
There are a whole lot of dive sites in the area and most are good for snorkeling as they are along walls and in bays. My favourite site is Koh Bida Nok which has a bay on the SE side and is just beautiful on a good day. The bay is beautiful and full of life, cuttlefish, leopard sharks, turtles and just about everything. If the water's clear then you usually have top to bottom vis in the bay it goes as shallow as 3m so good for snorkeling.
Another great site is Ao Nui on Phi Phi Don. This also has a gorgeouse secluded beach which seems to get ignored in favour of Maya Bay where they filmed the beach... unfortunately in Maya Bay there is usually about 50 speed boats and hoards of tourists and snorkelers so not so quiet and you have to be careful of boat traffic. Good snorkeling though if it's not too busy.
Ao Nui has a nice bay though and wall on the beach side. Opposite the beach is a dive site (Karst or rock/wall) and I wouldn't recommend it for snorkeling unless the water is really clean. We usually get razor or shrimp fish here, there's a resident clown triggerfish here too and a resident tigertail seahorse although you'll to don scuba to see that little guy...
The east coast of Phi Phi Don is full of secluded beaches and bays and must be beautiful for snorlkeling too as whenever we go past on the dive boat you can see the reef and the turquoise water.
If you go to Phuket at all there is a beautiful snorkeing site there but it's not on any maps and sorry but I can't remember the name but it's inbetween Nai Harn Beach and the Promthep Cape. You can miss is as you come down the hill there is a beach side juice bar / restaurant and a nice little beach with bungalows across the road.
There's also good surf on Phuket at monsoon time of the year if your interested.
I'm just trying to think of some more good reccomendations for Phi Phi. Phi Phi Ley wall is a pretty nice site in the bay for snorkeling with ALL the fish, sea snakes etc. Maya Nui is good in good conditions also. All these sites are easily accessible by long tail boat.
If I think of anymore I'll let you know. Koh Phangan also has great snorkeling on the North West Coast at Haad Yao (Another long beach), Haad Salad and Koh Maa.
In the meantime here's some diving videos I have made of the sites around Phi Phi to give you an idea of what we see... I hopeyou enjoy them.
http://www.theaquaplanet.com/view_video.php?viewkey=20aa6c7c996a5ee53a70
http://www.theaquaplanet.com/view_video.php?viewkey=fb9384c4cf38708677c4
http://www.theaquaplanet.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b408017b62254211691b
Cheers
