Dolphins Bay Phuket

Dolphins Bay Phuket — also marketed as Nemo Dolphins Bay — is a dolphinarium in Chalong, on Phuket’s east side, running live dolphin-and-seal shows plus paid swim and photo sessions. It’s been operating for years and, as of mid-2026, is still open most days of the week, with performances typically twice daily.

We don’t recommend dolphin shows or swim-with-dolphin venues, and this is one. Dolphins are wide-ranging, highly social marine mammals that in the wild travel dozens of kilometres a day and dive far beyond the depth of any show pool. Confining them to concrete tanks and training them to perform tricks on cue — for feeding rewards, several times daily, in front of applauding crowds — causes well-documented stress and health problems: unnatural swimming patterns, skin damage from chlorinated or over-treated water, and behavioural signs of chronic stress that don’t show up in a 45-minute show. The operator markets its animals as captive-bred rather than wild-caught, and describes “international standards of animal care.” Neither claim changes the basic problem: a marine mammal built for open water spending its life in a pool, timed to a show schedule.

If you want a genuine dolphin encounter in Thailand, look for wild, unconfined viewing instead. Boat trips heading out to Maiton Island and other outer islands off Phuket sometimes cross paths with wild pods in open water — there’s no guarantee of a sighting, which is the point: nobody is coaxing the animals into position for a show. Ask any operator whether they keep a respectful distance, don’t chase or corner pods, and don’t feed the animals. Elsewhere in the country, Thai Holiday Guide’s page on the Irrawaddy Dolphin Point at Laem Klat in Trat covers a free, land-based lookout where wild dolphins are seen without any facility involved at all.

We keep this page live so anyone searching for the venue finds an honest account of what it actually is, rather than a ticket sales pitch.