Activities
Diving Ko Lanta
Exploring the underwater world and tropical coral reef is truly one of life's must-do experiences. Ko Lanta is a diver's paradise for beginners and the experienced. Very few places on the planet can offer divers an underwater world so rich and diverse.
Dive sites
Hin Daeng (Red Rock)
The reason diving on Koh Lanta became world class is Hin Daeng – Hin Muang, which offers everything a diving addict needs: dramatic walls, big schools of barracuda, manta rays, whale sharks and lush tropical underwater gardens. Hin Daeng rises only about 3 metres above the surface and looks like an ordinary limestone rock, but its secret lies below: the southern side drops straight down to the sea floor at 60 metres — the deepest vertical underwater cliff in Thai waters. The cliff is dotted with soft and hard corals and sea fans, all in the same red theme that gives the rock its name.
Hin Muang (Purple Rock)
A few hundred metres from Hin Daeng, this submerged rock is home to countless marine life among its huge boulders. Its name comes from the thick purple soft corals found everywhere on the rock. About 200 metres long and almost 20 metres wide, shaped like a loaf with vertical sides, its walls are decorated with large red and orange sea fans, glass fish and silversides, with carpets of sea anemones in the shallower sections. Whale sharks and manta rays are often found around these pinnacles. Currents can be strong — recommended for experienced divers.
Ko Haa
A group of five small islands about one and a half hours west of Ko Lanta, with depths from 3 to 50 metres, clear water and visibility sometimes over 25 metres. The highlight is cave diving: the largest cavern lies on Ko Ha Yai and is safe to enter even without light, with large entrances and only one way in and out. Inside you can surface in the heart of the island beneath stalactites hanging from a ceiling over 30 metres high. Suitable for all levels, with chances to see manta rays, whale sharks, leopard sharks and giant turtles.
Ko Bida Nok – Ko Bida Nai
Two small limestone islands west of Koh Lanta on the route to Phi Phi Island, offering an excellent variety of diving for all levels from 8–28 metres. Colourful soft and hard corals are home to moray eels, scorpionfish and leopard sharks, and the shallower anemone garden is home to the famous little 'Nemo'.
Hin Bida
Also called 'Phi Phi Shark Point' — leopard sharks are the stars here. A few kilometres from Ko Bida Nok–Ko Bida Nai, this rock breaks the surface at low tide and drops to the sea floor at 18–22 metres, surrounded by boulders and staghorn corals. Large stingrays are also encountered, and the soft corals at the southern end are particularly beautiful.
King Cruiser Wreck
On 4 May 1997 the 85-metre passenger ferry King Cruiser, on a routine run to the Phi Phi islands, strayed several kilometres off course and hit Anemone Reef, sinking in less than an hour. At 25 metres you'll find the engine room and car deck; at 18 metres the passenger section with bar, tables and chairs; at 15 metres the captain's cabin and wheelhouse. The wreck is teeming with life and is one of the most popular dives in the area.
Anemone Reef
A huge limestone pinnacle that soars 30 metres from the ocean floor to 4 metres below the surface, less than a mile north of Shark Point. Known in Thai as 'Hin Jom' (submerged rock), it is famous for vast fields of sea anemones swaying in the current, attracting enormous schools of snappers, groupers and clownfish, along with tuna, barracuda and the occasional leopard shark.
