Racha Island

Visit to Racha Island

Racha Island is one of the easy boat day trips from Phuket Island with tour operators that take you out to snorkeling and island hopping experiences. One of the most popular snorkeling and diving experiences in Phuket the cruise to the islands are easy and visually stimulating with a visit to one of both Racha Island, Racha Noi or Racha Yai, the two main islands comprising Racha. Check out this tour experience.

Boat tour experience visiting to Racha Island

The main island geared for day trippers is to Racha Yai which comprises of hotels, restaurants and bar area with a floating dock that most boating tour operators dock at. Walking from the dock to a gorgeous white sand beach, the bay is mostly U shaped and called Ao Tawan Tok. Gorgeous clear waters turn into aqua color ocean and are perfect for swimming, snorkeling and doing some fun water sport recreation.

Racha Yai is also home to the getaway resort called The Racha which is a nice getaway from Phuket Island and low key and ocean front to the white sandy beach.

Getting to Racha island

boating operators ply through with speed boats to Racha island with day tours that offer a combination of snorkeling stops and lunch and lounging activity at Racha Yai. You can also do Long Tail or speed boat transfers that take about 45 minutes to reach the island. Most departures leave from Chalong pier or at Rawai harbor area.

You can check out these outdoor outfitters below for more details.

Full Day itinerary

Many of the outfitters include pick up from different areas and resorts around Phuket island to the Rawai harbor and assigned to the speedboats that take you directly to the islands. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to the first destination and typically a local snorkeling spot around Rachai Yai or Racha Noi.

A snorkeling experience is first in line offshore at Rachai Yai, a more remote and uninhabited and more popular with diving and snorkeling visits to the area. Anchored offshore the outfitter let’s visitors enjoy some time snorkeling the colorful reefs and tropical fish that can be found in these reef areas.

After the snorkeling tour, the speed boat continues to the next island at Racha Noi for lunch and lounging around the beautiful beach area. Lunch is included in the experience with a buffet lunch in an open air pavilion which is delicious and easy to accommodate the entire party.

Lunch is served

Once we docked at Racha Noi, we followed everyone to the dining pavilions and the buffet area is set up easily for everyone to access the food and order their drinks. Needless to say everyone was already hungry and ready to eat.

A scrumptious lunch meal and drinks were served quickly to the starving day trippers.

Spotting local wildlife on the island

Along with lizards and tropical fish you’ll find around the island, check out the most colorful inhabitant which is the giant bush crested hornbills that live in the trees and forested areas. They typically fly into the tourist spots to pick up some of the throw away foods that are fed to them. These hornbills are quite loud and gregarious and hang out in groups squawking at each other and the visitors rushing to photograph them.

Free time and water recreation on Racha Noi

The rest of the afternoon timeframe is open to exploring the island, lounging around the beach or doing some of the fun adventure experiences like parasailing, kayaking or SUP boarding on crystal clear waters. You could just relax at the bar and swing on the beach swings, swim or take nice long walks on the beach.

This down time was all about enjoying the beautiful beach here at Racha Noi

Banana boat for or para sailing are all water options for the adventure seekers

Or how about some easy SUP boarding on crystal clear waters?

Returning back to Phuket

It was a generous time spent at Racha Noi do any water fun or just lounging on the beach and do as you please. Eventually it was time to head back to Phuket and everybody loaded back onboard for the speed boat ride back.

A delicious fruit spread and cold drinks were set up for the trip back which was a really nice touch.

Tour operators to Racha Island

There are a variety of speed boat operators that offer these day snorkel and island tours to the Racha Islands. You can check out the different tours offered below.

Book a Racha Island Tour

Racha Island sailing experience to Racha and Coral Island

Full day Racha Noi and Racha Yai experienceRa

Diving experience at Racha Noi and Racha Yai experience

Racha Island game fishing experience in Phuket

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Conclusion to visiting the Racha Island

The day trip snorkeling and hanging out at Racha island was fun, easy and a great way to explore the neighboring islands around Phuket, I would definitely recommend this as a fun day trip to exploring the nearby islands.

Thanks for checking out this post on Racha Island, it really should be on your list of worthwhile places to visit here in Phuket.