Hey, fellow Steemians!
Krabi is a province in southern Thailand boasting an abundance of picturesque white sand beaches and national parks. It’s no secret that we are huge beach lovers, so we explored as many chunks of Krabi’s sand that we could and decided to put together a short guide for everyone who’s planning on visiting. And if you weren’t planning, we hope this post piques your curiosity and opens your eyes to this beautiful region in Thailand.
We will focus on the central part of Krabi that is close to the main town (also called Krabi) which has the most scenic sights and is packed with beaches that make your jaw drop. However, the important thing to know about this area is that cars and motorbikes won’t help you much. As far as the beaches go, nearly all of them (or at least the best ones) require you to take a boat to get to them.
Ao Nang Beach
Ao Nang is actually a small village/town built to accommodate tourists acting as a perfect base for exploring the rest of Krabi. You won’t find many fancy 5-star resorts here, though. If you’re ok with guesthouses and boutique hotels, this place will suit you just fine. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, bars and street food stalls to cater for all tastes. To top it all, a nice long stretch of golden sand beach lies just next to the main street.
While this beach is not as beautiful as the rest of which we plan to show you, it still is good enough for a swim or two. If you’re feeling tired of exploring Krabi or you just don’t feel like going anywhere you can relax and enjoy your time on this uncrowded beach. To be fair, you’ll have to listen to the longtail boat engines all day long, but that is the case with the majority of beaches in Thailand.
Railay Beach
If you’ve seen some pictures of coastal Thailand in brochures or on the internet, there’s a big chance you’ve taken a glance at this almost iconic landscape. Railay was the first beach we got to visit after Ao Nang and you can only imagine what our first impression was. “This is a true paradise!”, but it felt like an understatement. The surrounding scenery is nothing short of epic. Being the early birds, we had the beach almost to ourselves making the effect even greater.
Railay is located on the mainland and is actually pretty close to Ao Nang, but the reason you have to take a boat there is because it is cut off from the rest of the land by the high rugged stone cliffs making it inaccessible except from the sea. And that’s a good thing. It’s not much developed and there are only a dozen or so huts and a couple of hotels next to the beach. However, it’s slowly getting more popular, especially with the backpackers, so who knows how it’ll look in 5-10 years…
For adventurous people, a fun activity to take is to go rock-climbing. The huge limestone rocks offer a great challenge for experienced climbers and a rewarding view from the top.
Phra Nang Beach
This is another mainland beach, situated within a walking distance from Railay. It tends to get really crowded around noon and in the afternoon when the boat trippers start to arrive but if you get here early in the morning, it’s a whole different story.
There’s plenty of possible activities besides swimming and sunbathing. If you never tried rock-climbing and you feel like it may be fun - there’s a part of the limestone cliff for beginners to try out with the help of instructors.
Be sure to check out the caves inside the limestone rocks. One of them has a “phallus shrine” which is basically a place with hundreds of phallus-shaped figures randomly scattered around. The inspiration came from one of the limestone hills nearby that sort of has the same shape. Can you guess which one?
And finally, what is a trip to South-East Asia without the monkeys?
Phra Nang beach is where you’ll most likely get to see the annoying (yet kinda cute) little fellows. They’ll try to snatch your food and drinks, so be careful or you’ll end up without your mid-day snack!
Koh Tub
There’s a popular boat trip you can take from Ao Nang that lets you see 4 beautiful islands not far off the coast. This trip is (unsurprisingly) called - “Four Islands” and you’ll have no problems finding booths around the town selling tickets (you can go on a group tour or a private tour with the latter being more expensive, of course).
Our recommendation is not to miss this trip if you’re in Krabi for several days. Yes, as almost any place in Thailand, it tends to get crowded but the islands are very beautiful and so tiny it almost feels unreal.
Koh Tub, one of those islands, is no more than 50 meters wide! It also has a sandbank connecting it to the neighboring islet of Koh Mor. You can walk between them when the tide is low!
Koh Poda
Another island from the “Four Islands” tour. Slightly bigger than the others, it has a long beach where you can take a walk or a swim.
From the beach you can see a big limestone rock, jutting from the sea. With the longtail boats parked in front you can get your perfect postcard photo of Thailand.
Nearby is also a nice place for snorkeling and the boat drivers will usually stop for 15-20 minutes for you to put your masks on and explore the waterbed where you can see plenty of colorful fish and corals.
Koh Hong
One of our favorite beaches in Krabi! Koh Hong is actually an island a little farther away from Ao Nang but definitely worth the trip. It has a perfect beach with white sands and turquoise water.
You can take a swim or snorkel around. If you’re lucky you may even find Nemo (we managed to find a small shoal of clownfish hiding in seaweed)!
The island also has an amazing lagoon on the other side. The only trick is to get there when it’s high tide, so you may want to discuss this beforehand with your boat driver. We didn’t know about this lagoon but our driver was kind enough to bring us there. With the low tide, he couldn’t pull the boat inside the lagoon so we had to continue through the shallow water on foot. The path was full of rocks and sea urchins so we had to be very careful not to hurt ourselves.
We wouldn’t recommend you follow in our footsteps (much more convenient on a boat when the water is deeper).
Useful Tips
We want to list some useful info for you guys if you happen to visit Krabi. We know it would’ve saved us much effort and time when we visited.
To get to all the beaches, except the Ao Nang beach, you’ll need to take a boat. You’ll find a booth that sells tickets right next to the beach (most of the boats are parked on the beach close to the booth so you can find it easily).
There’s no umbrellas or sunbeds on any of the beaches. You’ll either have to hunt for shade or sit down in a bar or restaurant if you want to escape the sun when it starts to roast.
Ao Nang
Trip cost: None.
Other Info: The beach is pretty long and located within walking distance or right across the street from most accommodations.
Railay Beach
Trip cost: 200 baht ($6.50/€5) per person (return boat ticket)
Trip duration: 10 minutes
Other Info: A couple of bars and restaurants nearby. There are also several hotels around if you feel like this is more of a place for you than Ao Nang, but there’s fewer things to do at night.
Phra Nang Beach
Trip cost: 200 baht ($6.50/€5) per person (return boat ticket)
Trip duration: 15 minutes
Other Info: Fewer amenities than on Railay. There are boats selling food in case you get hungry and it’s probably doable to get a meal in one of the few hotels near the beach but we hadn’t tried it.
Four Islands
Trip cost: around 400 baht ($13/€10) per person - we took a group tour which is much more of a hassle than a private tour but paid significantly less. If you’re a larger group (6-10 people) or you want to pay more to visit the islands at your own pace you can try booking a private tour. You also need to pay 400 baht per person for environment taxes.
Trip duration: About 6 hours total.
Other Info: The islands are a part of the national park so you won't find any accommodations here. Restaurants and bars are scarce so if your operator does not provide food and water, you should consider bringing your own. Phra Nang is often included in the tour, either as the first or the last stop.
Koh Hong
Trip cost: around 500 ($16/€13) baht per person. You also need to buy a national park ticket for 300 baht ($9.50/€8).
Trip duration: About 1 hour in one direction.
Other Info: Bring your own food and drinks for the day since there are no restaurants or bars on the island. We visited Koh Hong by longtail boat and we had to wait for 4 more passengers to join us because the driver wouldn’t go until there were at least 6 people on board. Usually, you’d return to Ao Nang with the same guy. There are also other tours where you’d go on a bigger boat as a part of larger group, but you’d only stop by this island for a short time.