Luxury Catamaran Tour to Racha and Coral Islands with Sunset Cruise from Phuket

Because the speedboat ride before felt quite bumpy, I thought it might not be suitable for this trip with elderly people and children, so I specifically chose a slower catamaran. Unexpectedly, because the boat was slow, most of the time was spent on the boat. It took three hours to get to Racha Island. Although it was slow, we were rocking for three hours, and in the end, the elderly person still got seasick and vomited in the last hour. The actual time spent on Racha Island was only one hour, and the small beach near the pier was quite rudimentary. If you pay extra to take a vehicle to the big beach on the island, the time becomes even tighter, making it almost impossible to go swimming and snorkeling. Instead, the happiest moment was snorkeling for 20 minutes while staying on the boat next to Coral Island during lunch, but it was only 20 minutes... Then we continued on a half-hour boat ride to Coral Island, and we only stayed for an hour before leaving. During the return trip, we made a brief stop for half an hour, ostensibly to let everyone go fishing and watch the sunset (about 15 minutes spent dealing with tangled fishing lines), and then we docked back at the pier. I really do not recommend it.

What review can I write for a paid and unused service? Organized the trip days before departure. They ask me two weeks later (I was already on my way) if I can change the day from 31 January to 1 February a few days before the excursion, they were fully booked (I wonder why they make me book anyway...) I accept, even if I'm notified late and I had to plan with the rest of the holiday. Two days earlier on January 30 I received an email saying that everything was confirmed for February 1, that they would pick me up at the hotel.... It comes on February 1st... I waited an hour for someone who never arrived. I contacted all the numbers I had through the confirmation email. Nobody spoke English. I asked for help from a guy at reception who kindly conversed with the girl on the phone in Thai.... The tour had been canceled I don't know how you don't know when and nobody warned me about the fact, neither an email nor a message. Horrendous organization, unavailable staff... never again I very much hope they get a full refund and learn to speak English if they want to deal with international audiences.

This was amazing value for money! It was a lovely relaxed day spent out at sea and visiting some beautiful islands along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Bad organization catamaran small and dilapidated, overcrowded and dirty very long wait even for the return discouragement

I booked this trip due to 197 reviews on Tripadvisor, most of which were positive, and many of which I fear were faked. The Racha and Coral Island area off the east coast of Phuket are in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. But this trip was anything but luxury. And when you go thru the labyrinth of contractors and subcontractors it’s easy to see why. The companies or entities involved were: OH-HOO Travel, Honeymoon Catamaran Tours to name two that sit under or somewhere relative to Luxury Catamaran. First problem- the pick up. We were told we had to be ready for pickup by 0640. The pick up was more or less on time. The drive not long, but I was charged an extra pick up fee. It was in the fine print so I swallowed it. We then waited for well over 2 hrs at Honeymoon for other people to arrive. We then had another transfer to the pier. A wait there for 30min. We were finally on the boat by shortly before 10am. Second problem- the boat. It’s NOT the one in the photo. It was an old boat that had seen much better days. The toilet was inoperable. The seating limited, the life jackets deficient AND it’s advertised as max 30 pax. There were 45 on our boat plus crew of 6. The boat was overloaded and over crowded. Most seemed to be a Chinese tour group. Third problem- the provided snorkeling equipment was nearly all faulty. I know people don’t look after stuff, but most of the fixes were minor and this was a minor problem. Fourth problem- this old boat only had one speed- SLOW. Maybe it was for passenger comfort. It did get us there and back and had we left by the advertised time we would have been back at the dock earlier. It was about 7-8pm before we got back to the dock and then had to wait for the ridiculous system to get off the main pier. I have 2 stars because the tour people on the boat did try. But they were generally less than the normal Thai pleasant. And who can blame them with the hand they had been dealt? This was a bulk-package-el cheapo experience. There was NOTHING luxury about it.