Phuket Sea Shell Museum

The Phuket Sea Shell Museum in Rawai is a nice place to visit and see a lot of sea shells – some of which you should be able to find on the beaches of Phuket during your vacation. It’s a good place to go if you’re bored on a rainy day.

The outside of the Phuket Sea Shell Museum is modern and makes it look like it’s a bigger deal than it probably is. There is a small admission charge, to help them keep the shop up. Inside you will find an amazing assortment of shells of all kinds of animals from the waters around Phuket. Each shell is carefully displayed and most have numbers corresponding to charts where you can look up the exact name of the animal which inhabited the shell at one time.

Some of the shells are so highly polished that they look like pieces of fine art. It’s probably worth it to visit just for the ‘wow’ factor. There are very small, intricately shaped seashells, and there are massive clam shells that could grab your leg if you were unlucky enough to step inside the crack while diving, snorkeling or swimming.

Along with shells, there are ancient fossils of some incredible shells found in the area. There are hundreds and probably a thousand or more shells to be seen in this little museum. Though it would be a good place for adults or teens to visit to gain some knowledge about the world of seashells here in Phuket, small children will be bored immediately.

Over one-hundred TripAdvisor customers of this museum rated it 4 out of 5, and 81% chose ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ as rating. Only 3% called the attraction ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’. Whether you’ll like this Sea Shell Museum or not depends greatly on your interest in the topic, and you might spend ten minutes here or ninety minutes, as some customers did.

Located in Rawai Beach in the southeast corner of Phuket Island, this is a thirty-minute drive from Patong Beach and half that long from Phuket Town. If you have a special interest in marine life, zoology or biology of any kind, you might enjoy a short visit here. After you’re done with the exhibits, there is a small shop where you can buy shells and crafts made with shells.