If your boat trip from Phuket enters a marine national park, you pay a government entry fee: ฿400 per foreign adult (฿200 per child) for the Phi Phi Islands, and ฿300 (฿150 per child) for Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island. Park rangers collect it in cash. Neither the boat crew nor the tour company can waive it.
Rangers collect the fee on the water or at the park checkpoint, and every passenger pays it. What differs between operators is who hands over the cash. Some build it into the ticket price. Others add it at the pier, so a tour that looked cheaper online ends up ฿300–400 dearer per person, paid in cash on the morning of the trip.
Every Simba Sea Trips price already includes it. Our Phi Phi Sunrise Tour from ฿5,310 and our Phang Nga Bay & James Bond Island tour from ฿4,500 cover the park fee, hotel pickup, meals, drinks and snorkel gear. The price you book is the price you pay.
We've been running these islands from Boat Lagoon Marina since 2005. Our crew pays the rangers for every guest, every day, so the figures below come from what we pay, not from a brochure.
2026 national park fees at a glance
| National park | What it covers on a Phuket boat trip | Foreign adult | Foreign child | Thai adult / child |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi | Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Viking Cave, Bamboo Island, Phi Phi Leh snorkel sites | ฿400 | ฿200 | ฿40 / ฿20 |
| Ao Phang Nga | James Bond Island (Ko Tapu), Khao Phing Kan, Phang Nga sea caves and hongs | ฿300 | ฿150 | ฿60 / ฿30 |
| Than Bok Khorani | Ko Hong and Hong Lagoon (Krabi) | ฿300 | ฿150 | ฿60 / ฿30 |
| Mu Ko Similan | Similan Islands (not a Phuket day trip — see below) | ฿500 | ฿250 | ฿100 / ฿50 |
Fees are set by Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and can change without notice. If they change, we absorb the difference on bookings already made.
The Phi Phi National Park fee: Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon and Bamboo Island
Most of the classic Phi Phi itinerary sits inside one park. Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Viking Cave and Bamboo Island all fall under Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. That's why it charges Thailand's highest marine-park rate: ฿400 per foreign adult.
You pay once for the day's visit, not at every stop. Rangers check at the Loh Samah landing for Maya Bay and at the park checkpoints around Phi Phi Leh. On a tour that includes the fee, the crew settles it for the whole boat and you'll barely notice.
Maya Bay closes to visitors every year from 1 August to 30 September so the reef and the blacktip reef shark nursery can recover. It reopened on 1 October 2026. During the closure our Phi Phi tour swaps Maya for Bamboo Island, which is still inside the park, so the fee still applies. It's also still included. Current rules and hours are in our guide to whether Maya Bay is open.
Our Phi Phi Sunrise Tour leaves Soho Pool Club at Boat Lagoon Marina early, and you watch the sunrise at sea during the roughly 1 hour 10 minute run south. That puts you into the park ahead of the day-tripper fleet. From November to April, the Phi Phi Sunset & Shark tour covers the same park in the afternoon, with the fee included as well.
The James Bond Island entrance fee (Ao Phang Nga National Park)
James Bond Island is inside Ao Phang Nga National Park, and the entrance fee is ฿300 per foreign adult and ฿150 per child. The name causes some confusion. The famous needle of rock is Ko Tapu. The island you walk onto to photograph it is Khao Phing Kan. One park fee covers both, plus the sea caves and the hongs (hidden lagoons inside the limestone islands) you'll explore on the way.
If you book a cheaper Phang Nga day trip, check whether the ฿300 is in the price or collected at the pier. Our Phang Nga Bay tour includes it, with a maximum of 18 adults on board. The history behind the island is in our Ko Tapu guide.
Krabi and Ko Hong
Ko Hong and its enclosed Hong Lagoon sit in Than Bok Khorani National Park on the Krabi side, with the same ฿300 / ฿150 rate as Phang Nga. On our Krabi private charter (from ฿41,690 for the boat), park fees for everyone aboard are part of the charter price. That's true of all our private charters.
How the fee is paid, and why nobody can waive it
- It's a government fee, not an operator charge. Rangers collect it on behalf of the Department of National Parks. No tour company can discount it, waive it or "include it free". Either it's in the price you paid, or you pay it at the pier.
- It's paid in cash, in Thai baht. If your tour doesn't include it, carry small notes. Card payment isn't something to rely on at a ranger checkpoint.
- It's per person, per park visit. A combined Phi Phi and Phang Nga day passes through two parks, so two fees apply.
- Children pay half. Thai nationals pay a lower local rate.
- Divers pay a supplement. At Phi Phi, scuba divers pay an extra ฿200 per diving day on top of the entry fee. We don't run dive trips, so this won't apply on our tours.
The "+ park fee" problem: how to compare tour prices honestly
This is where travellers lose money. Picture two Phi Phi tours listed side by side (the figures below are illustrative, not a specific operator): The cheaper one looks like a bargain until you read the small print:
| Typical budget listing (illustrative) | Simba Sea Trips Phi Phi Sunrise | |
|---|---|---|
| Headline price | ฿2,900 (illustrative) | ฿5,310 |
| Phi Phi park fee | + ฿400 cash at the pier | Included |
| Hotel pickup | Often zone-limited or extra | Included (main Phuket tourist coast) |
| Group size | Often 30–60 per boat | Maximum 18 adults |
| What you actually pay | More than the headline, and on the morning of the trip | ฿5,310 |
The cheaper tour may still suit you. The point is to compare like with like. Before you book any Phuket boat tour, ask three questions:
- Are national park fees included? If the listing says "excl. NPF" or "park fee payable on the day", add ฿300–400 per person.
- Is hotel pickup included for my area?
- How many people will be on the boat?
We break down the rest in Phuket Boat Tour Prices in 2026: What You'll Actually Pay.
Where the money goes
Park fees fund the rangers, mooring buoys, reef patrols and closures that keep these places worth visiting. The clearest example is Maya Bay. After it closed completely from 2018, then reopened under strict rules (no swimming, boats moored outside the bay, visitors landing from the back), blacktip reef sharks returned to the shallows in numbers. That's paid for, in part, by the ฿400 every visitor contributes. More on that recovery in Blacktip Reef Sharks Thriving at Maya Bay.
What about the Similan Islands?
The Similans are a separate, higher-category park: ฿500 per foreign adult, open roughly mid-October to mid-May. We don't run Similan day trips from Phuket. The open-water run is long and exposed, and we'd rather not put guests on it at speed for a day trip. Opening dates and our reasoning are in Similan Islands Opening & Closing Dates.
Simba Sea Trips has operated from Soho Pool Club at Boat Lagoon Marina since 2005. Our marine operations are led by Marine Base Captain Paul Chappell. He has run commercial boats in Phuket since 2014 and spent 23+ years as a professional pilot and flight instructor, and he sets the safety and operating standards every Simba crew follows. Our tours are skippered by experienced, Thai-licensed local captains.
Rated 4.9★ across 6,530 verified reviews on TripAdvisor, Google, GetYourGuide and Viator. Questions before you book? Email sales@simbaseatrips.com.
