Month by month in the Andaman Sea

The season in one paragraph

If you are choosing between months and nothing else constrains you, take January or February. If price matters more than certainty, take the second half of October or November. If the dates are fixed in the green season, plan Phang Nga Bay and nothing else and you will have a good week.

The full grid

The season matrix on this site shows all seven cruising grounds against all twelve months, with the legal park closures marked separately from the weather judgements. That distinction is the point of the table: weather is an opinion and a closed national park is not.

Two dates to write down

• 16 May: Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin close.
• 15 October: both reopen. The second half of October is the first window of the new season and it is not yet priced like one.

What the peak premium actually buys

In January you get near-certainty. In November you get conditions that are close to as good at a materially lower rate, with a small chance of a late-turning monsoon. In the second half of October you get a real discount and a real risk. That is the whole trade, and where you sit on it depends on whether this week is the only week you get.

Christmas and New Year are a separate market inside the peak, with their own rate, a minimum charter length of usually seven to ten nights, and availability that is gone by the previous spring.