Traveling to a small Thai island in the off season

I’m not a big island person. Living in Thailand, I always like the idea of heading down to the Thai islands. They’re so close! And beautiful! And a relatively affordable beach holiday! On a longtail boat going around the island In reality, while they are close and beautiful, it always seems to take longer to actually get onto the island itself (and often involves more modes of transportation and costs than you plan for), all the prices on the island are, naturally, jacked up and th…