Krabi
A peninsula with no road in — you reach the beach by boat or not at all
- When to go
- October 26° · 27 rainy days
- Per day
- €€price 2 of 5
- How many days
- 4days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 9 km Krabi · 65 km Phuket
- Right now
Krabi is not a town but a province, and it comes down to three decisions: Ao Nang as a base, Railay as the car-free beach reachable only by boat, and the islands as a day out. Book before making that decision and you sleep in the wrong place.
Ao Nang is the base, with hotels, restaurants and connections to everything; Railay is quiet, car-free and lined with climbing cliffs; the islands of Ko Hong, Ko Poda and Ko Kai are a day out by boat. Krabi town itself is the administrative centre and there is no reason to sleep in it.
The longtail boat is public transport here and is paid per person, with a threshold — it leaves when enough passengers have gathered, or you make up the difference for the whole boat. Fares are fixed and posted on a board on the beach; haggling does not work and is not expected. For island trips take the boats that leave at eight, because after ten the ferries from Phuket arrive.
Maya Bay, the cove on Phi Phi Le made famous by The Beach, comes with rules that tour listings tend not to mention: it closes every year from 1 August to 30 September for reef recovery, and swimming in the bay itself has been banned since 2022 — you may only wade at the edge. Phi Phi tours still run during the closure; they simply do not enter the bay.
What to see in Krabi
Railay
A car-free beach reached only by boat. The west side is for swimming, the east for departures.
Ko Hong
An island with a lagoon inside it, entered through a narrow gap in the rock. Take an early boat, while the lagoon is still quiet.
Climbing at Railay
Limestone with several hundred bolted routes, from beginner upwards. Schools work on the beach and take people with no experience.
Tiger Cave Temple
1,237 steps to the top of a limestone tower above the plain. An hour up, started before dawn, and not for everyone.
Ko Phi Phi
Two hours by boat, and a full day. Phi Phi Don gets crowded in a way the listings never mention — arriving after ten means queueing at the pier.
Ao Thalane
Kayaking through mangroves between limestone walls, an hour north. The calm part of the province most tours skip.
Two things you probably did not know
The limestone towers rising straight out of the sea are the remains of a coral reef some 300 million years old. The sea undercuts them at the base, so many are narrower at the bottom than at the top.
Maya Bay on nearby Phi Phi Leh was made famous by the film The Beach in 2000. Tourism damaged it so badly that it was closed for four years from 2018 to let the coral recover.
Ready for Krabi?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Krabi — day trips or weekends.
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Vietnam
→A country sixteen hundred and fifty kilometres long, where north and south are never in season together
Japan
→A country where a train five minutes late hands the passenger a written delay certificate
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