Private sunset cruise in Phuket: 8 boats with a published sunset charter, from ฿31,900

The published sunset formats on these boats run three to four hours and leave between 14:00 and 15:30: a 'Sunset tour (3 hours)', a 'Sunset charter, 4 hours, 15:00 to 19:00 — Koh Yao Yai', a 'Half day with sunset (14:00–19:00): Coral Island'. The first hour is the run out to an anchorage, the second is the swim — Koh Yao's sandbar or the bay by Santhiya from the east-coast marinas, Coral Island's north beach from Chalong — and the last is the slow return with the light going down behind the island. Phuket faces west, so from the east-coast anchorages the sun sets over the hills of Phuket itself; from Chalong the classic is the return past Promthep Cape with the sun dropping into the Andaman Sea.

A sailing catamaran at sunset is the quiet version: engines off on the way back when the evening breeze allows, the trampolines forward as the best seats on the boat, and the widest deck per guest. The motor yachts on the list trade that for speed and air conditioning — a 45 to 55 ft motor yacht reaches a further anchorage in the same three hours and has a saloon for the hour the light goes — and a power catamaran sits between the two. All 8 boats are crewed; none is a bareboat, and the captain decides the anchorage on the day by the wind.

The boats on this page leave from Royal Phuket Marina, Boat Lagoon Marina, Chalong Pier, Ao Po Grand Marina. From Ao Po and the east-coast marinas the sunset anchorages are Koh Yao Yai and the Naka islands, twenty to thirty minutes out, in the shelter of Phang Nga Bay — calm in every month of the year, which is why these are the boats to choose from May to October. From Chalong the run is to Coral Island or around the south coast, and the return passes Promthep Cape, the headland the whole island drives to for the same sunset; from the water it is the headland and the Racha islands on the horizon, with no crowd.

The sunset itself is at its most dependable from December to March, when the sky is clear and the sea on both coasts is flat; the evening light in the green season, from May to October, is often the more dramatic — cloud stacks over Phang Nga Bay, a rainbow over Koh Yao — but a squall at 17:00 is possible and the east-coast anchorages are the safe choice. Low-season columns of the rate tables apply from May to October, peak columns around Christmas and New Year, when the sunset charters on the small motor yachts are booked first.