Similan is band 4 — 500 baht for a foreign adult, 250 for a foreign child, 100 and 50 for Thai visitors. Only Mu Ko Surin shares that band; every other park in Thailand costs less. It is closed roughly mid-May to mid-October each year for the Andaman monsoon. And a Royal Gazette announcement of 8 October 2018 closed overnight stays and made the park day-return only, excepting permit-holders in the deep-diving category — while the 2021 fee regulation still prices 24 park bungalows on Koh Miang. Both are on the books.
The most expensive park in the country, and by how much
Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 — Royal Gazette, 9 December 2021 — sorts every national park in Thailand into four fee bands. The fourth band has two members and stops there: Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin.
| Band | Who is in it | Foreign adult / child | Thai adult / child |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | 67 parks, including Doi Suthep-Pui | 100 / 50 | 20 / 10 |
| Band 2 | Khao Yai, Khao Sok, Phu Kradueng, Mu Ko Ang Thong, Tarutao and others | 200 / 100 | 40 / 20 |
| Band 3 | Nine parks: Kaeng Krachan, Doi Inthanon, Erawan, Ao Phang Nga and five more | 300 / 150 | 60 / 30 |
| Band 4 | Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin. Nothing else. | 500 / 250 | 100 / 50 |
So a day at Similan costs a foreign adult two and a half times what Khao Sok costs in the same region, and five times what Doi Suthep-Pui costs in Chiang Mai. The regulation defines a child as three to fourteen complete, or not more than 140 cm tall, and a foreigner as anyone without Thai nationality, with no residency test and no resident rate. Free entry goes to monks, novices and clergy of other religions residing in Thailand, Thai persons aged sixty and over, disabled persons, and children under three.
The 2018 announcement that stopped people sleeping there
On 8 October 2018 the Royal Gazette published a Department of National Parks announcement, made on 4 October and signed by the Director-General, headed closing overnight stays at Mu Ko Similan National Park. Its reasoning is stated plainly: the department recognised the degradation and damage to corals, marine life and the ecosystem caused by wastewater from overnight-stay tourism, and therefore set the form of tourism in the park as day-return.
It closes overnight stays except for permit-holders providing tour services to visitors in the park in the deep-diving category. That single clause is the legal footing on which liveaboard dive boats still work the islands while everyone else goes home the same day.
The 2021 fee regulation, published three years after that announcement, still lists 24 Similan bungalows by name, zone and price — all of them on the island the regulation calls Koh Si, Island Four, the one usually written as Koh Miang. Twenty of them are the “Chom Wiew” units at 2,000 baht a night for two; the rest run at 1,000 to 2,000. A published price is not permission, and we could not find a later Gazette instrument reversing the 2018 closure. If you are told you can book a night on Similan, ask the park directly and ask on what authority.
Five months shut, and the date everybody gets slightly wrong
Similan and Surin close together for the Andaman monsoon. For B.E. 2569 the Government Public Relations Department reported the department’s closure of tourism and overnight stays at both parks from 15 May to 15 October, announced on 14 May, with the interval used for work on utilities and facilities before the next season.
The park’s own statement of the standing rule is 16 May to 14 October every year. Those are not the same dates: one day apart at each end. We have not been able to read the department’s own announcement to settle which is the instrument and which is the paraphrase, so both are here and neither is presented as certain. The safe reading is that the islands shut in mid-May and reopen in mid-October, and that a trip planned for the first half of May or the second half of October needs confirming with the operator before money changes hands.
A five-month closure is not a footnote to a diving holiday, it is the shape of the year. Similan season is November to April, which is also the Andaman’s dry season and its high season for everything else. If you are choosing when to be on this coast, those two facts are the same fact.
What a boat pays, which almost nobody publishes
Park admission is the line everyone quotes. Schedules 2, 3 and 4 of the same regulation carry the rest of it, and for a marine park they add up. These are national rates, not Similan-specific ones, but Similan is where a visitor meets most of them at once.
| What is being charged | Rate |
|---|---|
| Speedboat, 1-30 passengers | 50 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 31-60 passengers | 100 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 61-100 passengers | 200 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 101 passengers and over | 500 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 1-100 passengers | 100 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 101-300 passengers | 500 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 301 and over | 2,500 baht per vessel |
| Sleeping aboard, vessel up to 20 passengers | 1,000 baht per vessel per night |
| Sleeping aboard, vessel 21 passengers and over | 2,000 baht per vessel per night |
| Scuba diving | 200 baht per person per day |
| Snorkel mask and snorkel hire | 50 baht per set per day |
| Fins hire | 50 baht per pair per day |
| Life vest hire | 30 baht each per day |
| Sea kayak with vest and paddle | 200 baht per hour, or 1,000 per day |
Two of those are worth pausing on. Sleeping aboard is a charged, named service — 1,000 baht a vessel a night up to 20 passengers, 2,000 above that — which is the fee schedule acknowledging liveaboards as the way people stay at these islands. And camping on a marine park or island, where it is allowed at all, is 80 baht per person per night against 30 on the mainland, with a park dome tent for three at 450 rather than 225. The regulation charges the sea more than the land, deliberately.
What we could not confirm
- Everything on the department’s own park pages. On 7 September 2026, nps.dnp.go.th timed out at the network level and dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th returned an automated challenge page rather than content — from a cloud network and from a home connection, and for the second run in a row. So no island list, area figure, founding date, opening hours or contact number here comes from the department’s own park record, because we could not open it. What is on this page comes from the Royal Gazette and from the Government Public Relations Department.
- The exact 2569 closure dates. Two government-published versions differ by a day at each end, and the underlying departmental announcement is circulated as a scanned PDF with no readable text layer.
- Whether the 2018 overnight closure has been amended. We read the announcement itself and found nothing later reversing it, but a search of the Gazette is not the same as a search by the department. Treat it as in force and ask.
- Ferry and speedboat timetables, piers and prices. Operator-published and seasonal. We are not reproducing a schedule we cannot check against a primary source.
Frequently asked questions
500 baht for a foreign adult and 250 for a foreign child, against 100 and 50 for Thai visitors. That is band 4 of Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564, published in the Royal Gazette on 9 December 2021. Band 4 contains two parks and no others: Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin. It is the highest national park admission in Thailand, two and a half times what Khao Yai or Khao Sok charge and five times Doi Suthep-Pui. A child is defined in the regulation as three to fourteen complete, or not more than 140 cm tall, and a foreigner is anyone without Thai nationality - there is no residency rate. Your boat pays separately: 50 baht for a speedboat carrying up to 30, rising to 500 for one carrying over 100.
Not as an ordinary visitor, on the face of the law. A Department of National Parks announcement published in the Royal Gazette on 8 October 2018 closed overnight stays at Mu Ko Similan National Park and set the form of tourism there as day-return. The stated reason is wastewater from overnight tourism damaging the corals, marine life and ecosystem. The only exception written into it is for permit-holders providing tour services in the deep-diving category - which is how liveaboard dive boats continue to operate. We could not find a later Gazette instrument reversing it. Confusingly, the 2021 fee regulation still lists 24 park bungalows on Koh Miang by name and price. Both are in force on paper. Ask the park before you book anything overnight, and do not treat a price list as permission.
For about five months every year, through the Andaman monsoon. For B.E. 2569 the Government Public Relations Department reported the closure of tourism and overnight stays at Mu Ko Surin and Mu Ko Similan from 15 May to 15 October, announced on 14 May, with the interval used for utility and facility work. The park's own standing statement of the rule is 16 May to 14 October each year. Those two differ by a day at each end, and we have not been able to read the underlying departmental announcement to settle it, so plan around mid-May and mid-October rather than a specific date, and check before booking. Either way: if you want the Similans, you want November to April.
More lines than most people expect, and they are all published. Under the same regulation the park charges 500 baht per foreign adult; a boat fee by size, up to 2,500 baht for a vessel carrying 301 or more; 1,000 baht per vessel per night to sleep aboard for a boat up to 20 passengers, or 2,000 for a larger one; and 200 baht per person per day for scuba. Snorkel gear is 50 baht a set a day, fins 50 a pair, a life vest 30. None of this is discretionary or negotiable at the pier - it is Schedule 2, 3 and 4 of a Royal Gazette regulation. If an operator's quoted price does not separate park fees, ask which of these lines it covers.
We are not going to print an island list or a departure timetable we could not verify today. On 7 September 2026 the department's own park pages were unreachable for the second run in a row: nps.dnp.go.th timed out at the network level, and dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th returned an automated challenge page rather than content, from two separate networks. What we can source from the Royal Gazette is the park's own accommodation, which sits entirely on the island the regulation calls Koh Si - Island Four, better known as Koh Miang - across three zones. That is where the park headquarters is. Departures are from the Phang Nga coast north of Khao Lak; confirm the pier and the timing with your operator rather than with us.
It is, and the seasonality cuts both ways. The same monsoon that closes the Similans for five months is what empties the west-coast tourist towns from May to October, which is when rents are negotiable and when you find out whether a place suits you in the rain. Phang Nga province is quieter and cheaper than Phuket next door and has the park on its doorstep; Phuket has the hospitals, the international schools and the airport. If diving is the reason you are considering the move, note that the best of it is legally shut for five months of every year, and plan the shape of your calendar around that rather than being surprised by it.
Related guides
- National parks in Thailand — the four bands, the booking system and the rules that carry a fine.
- Scuba diving and snorkelling in Thailand — the seasons, the coasts and what a course costs.
- Phang Nga — the province the park belongs to, and what living there is like.
- Phuket — the airport, the hospitals and the schools most Andaman residents actually use.
- Khao Sok National Park — the rainforest an hour inland, and its two different foreigner rates.
- Island living in Thailand — healthcare, internet and what the off season is really like.
- Thailand’s seasons — why the Andaman and the Gulf close in different months.
- Explore Thailand — the section this guide sits in.
Diving is five months of the year here
That is worth knowing before you choose a coast to live on, not after. Both coasts are in the search.
Sources & References
- Royal Gazette, vol. 138 special part 301 Ngor, 9 December 2021, pages 57-58 - Department of National Parks Regulation B.E. 2564 on service fees, signed 18 November B.E. 2564. Schedule 1 band 4 contains exactly two parks, Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin, at Thai child 50 / adult 100 and foreign child 250 / adult 500; Schedule 2 sets the boat and vehicle rates; Schedule 3 sets scuba at 200 baht per person per day; Schedule 4 sets camping, marine mooring and every Similan bungalow by name and zone
- Royal Gazette, vol. 135 special part 249 Ngor, page 10, 8 October 2018 - Department of National Parks announcement closing overnight stays at Mu Ko Similan National Park, made 4 October B.E. 2561 and signed by Director-General Thanya Netithammakun. It sets the form of tourism in the park as day-return, citing wastewater from overnight tourism damaging corals, marine life and the ecosystem, and excepts only permit-holders providing tour services in the deep-diving category
- Government Public Relations Department, Region 1 - Mu Ko Surin and Mu Ko Similan National Parks announce the closure of tourism and overnight stays for five months from 15 May to 15 October B.E. 2569, announced 14 May B.E. 2569, citing the department's closure proclamation and the arrival of the Andaman monsoon, with the interval used for utility and facility work
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
