From Phuket: Phi Phi, Maya Bay & Khai Islands Speedboat Tour

Poor experience with unsafe food, don’t waste your time and money

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.

Response from the operator: Thank you very much for taking the time to share such detailed and honest feedback. We are truly sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations, and we sincerely appreciate you outlining your concerns so clearly. We apologize for the confusion regarding the national park fee. We understand how this information could have appeared unclear and how being informed at the pier can feel compulsory rather than optional. Your comments about transparency in the itinerary and clearer communication of which stops require additional fees are very valid, and we will take this feedback seriously to improve how this information is presented in advance. We are also very sorry for the late notification and inconsistency regarding the pickup time. We understand how inconvenient and stressful this must have been, especially when travel plans are based on the advertised start time. This is not the experience we aim to provide, and we will review our communication and pickup coordination procedures with our team. We are also sorry to hear that Maya Bay did not meet your expectations. You are correct that swimming restrictions apply there to protect the marine environment, and we understand that this can feel disappointing if not clearly explained beforehand. Your point about the entrance fee applying specifically to this stop is well noted. Lastly, we sincerely apologize for your concerns regarding hygiene during lunch. This is certainly not acceptable, and we will address this matter directly with our food service team to ensure higher standards are maintained. We are grateful that you still found our staff warm and helpful, and we truly appreciate your honest feedback, as it helps us identify areas where we must improve. We are very sorry that this tour did not deliver the experience you were hoping for, and we hope we may have the opportunity to restore your confidence in us in the future. Best Regards, Oh-Hoo Team

via Viator

Worth it but just check out timings

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.

via Viator

Russian trip!

Not very well organised. We felt like we are on the Russian trip and we had to ask to speak in English as well as main language was Russian. The team was not polite at all. Generally poor service.

via Tripadvisor

big disappointment

Unfortunately I have to write a negative comment about them. We felt cheated. After booking we received an email with a message that because our hotel is far away we have to pay another 1,600 bt for special pickup, when it was written to us that it includes pickup and when we went to check the fine print it was written that special prohibitions from our area entail an additional 1,200 and not 1,600. In addition, their behavior towards us was very unfriendly, they spoke to us in an insulting and offensive manner. We were not able to enjoy the trip because of this and I do not in any way recommend traveling with them.

via Tripadvisor

Wasted day

I don’t recommend this tour , it was worst tour i had in Thailand. Whole trip was rushed , we didn’t spend more that 30 min in any of the places , while it was written that we will spend more in some places. For snorkeling we were thrown in the worst places you could do that with only few fishes. Also it was written that we we will have clear canoe and paddle board included but we didn’t have that. Guide was rude and loud( he wasn’t thai)screaming at people in boat- Sit down! Why are you standing up? You only stand up when I tell you! Very rude and arrogant , we didn’t feel welcome like we did on our other tours in Phuket. Overall if you want to relax and not feel rushed all the time and have lunch in less than 10 minutes and have rude attitude towards you, don’t choose this tour.

via Tripadvisor