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Krabi Itinerary Suggestions Please


TCA

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We're flying to Krabi at the end of January for a week and looking for some ideas as to how to make best use of our limited time there. If this was low season I'd maybe turn up in Krabi Town and play it by ear but I'm thinking I might be better to make some decisions beforehand and maybe even pre-book accomodation.

Don't have a huge budget and not overly fussed about fancy accomodation as long as clean and reasonably comfortable (would rather spend more money on excursions, eating out, drinking etc..), so thinking maybe to base us in Krabi Town. Having never been to the area before, my first thoughts from reading are to visit Railay, Ko Phi Phi Don, perhaps Ko Lanta and maybe do a "5 island tour" that I've seen advertised.

So my questions are:

1) How practical is it to base ourselves in one place and do day trips to most of the above? I believe Krabi Town is much cheaper to stay in than say Railay or Ko Phi Phi but it seems that ferries are about 500 baht per person each way to nearly all locations, so maybe better value to stay in these places and spend more time there?

2) If baseing in one place, in people's opinions, would the likes of Krabi Town be better than Ao Nang? Or anywhere better? I'm thinking here about spending nicer evenings and ease of transportation between the various locations.

3) Can anyone recommended some places/islands to visit and suggest how long for each place? Would like to see a few islands, do some snorkelling but not overly interested in spending days on end on the same beach, although some R&R time of this nature is planned. Not into climbing.

4) Given all of the above, should we be calling the cheaper guesthouses in advance to secure a place to stay?

Apologies for all the questions but I'm going round in circles reading everything on the internet. Your help is appreciated.

TCA

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I would suggest to stay in Ao Nang....Krabi town is ok but you will have more choices of hotels, restaurants, bars etc in Ao Nang.You can always get a taxi to Krabi town to have a look around /visit the night market etc.

Plus you have the beaches in Ao Nang. All trips can be arranged the day before, and it is unlikely that they will all be full. If they are, you can arrange your own longtail boat and visit the islands like that.

Railay beach for example is 5 mins away on a longtail boat.

I would advise to stay off the main beach strip when it comes to eating. There are a lot of good food places, and the beach front seems to be more pricey and not so great food. Have a good all look around.

There are some excellent places to eat at the end of the beach road, with the restaurants on stilts overlooking the ocean.

Hope you have a great time here.

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Thanks nattymatt. Some sound advice there. Ao Nang might just be the place to base ourselves then. I didn't realise Railay was only 5 minutes away on a longtail boat from there. I'll start looking at some Ao Nang guesthouse reviews and see what I can turn up.

With regard to seeing some of the main islands, such as Ko Phi Phi, would anybody recommend staying there for a couple of nights as opposed to taking a day tour? The tours I've read about seem to grant limited time on the island, one review said about an hour and it was for shopping! But there may be other better tours I don't know about. Anybody in the know?

It seems from my internet searching like the ferry price is 500 baht per person one-way to almost any of the islands, so you're looking at 1,000 baht per person before you've even thought about accomodation and food. Anybody know if this is correct as this would be a factor in comparing for day trips.

Would anyone recommend Ko Lanta for a couple of days within my week's stay in the province?

Apologies for the questions, I'd normally suss things out better when I get there but a bit wary of doing this given it's high season and my choice of accomodation may be limited to the very expensive.

Thanks again for any info.

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If you are only here for 1 week, i would choose phi phi or lanta and have a couple of nights at either. Koh Jum is a good little place and is closer than Lanta.

Phi Phi will be more of a back packer party vibe, where as Lanta more quiet and relaxed.

It takes a couple of hours drive and ferry to get to Koh Lanta, so a bit of a trek, Phi Phi only a short boat ride. 1 hr ...maybe a bit more.

If you are not too fussy about walking and looking for a place to stay, then i wouldn't bother booking anywhere. Just walk around and you will certainly find a place in Ao Nang and Lanta.

Not sure about Phi Phi, better to book there.

The small islands are a simple day trip as there's little or no accomodation on them.

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I loved the boat trips (2) to Koh Poda and Koh Kai and to Koh Hong and nearby islets.

Beautiful (with good weather)!

One week will go fast.

Stay in Ao Nang at J Hotel, inexpensive and nice people run it, big bathrooms and rooms with views of the water. Book early.

Spend three days, do the islands mentioned above by Anguid, plus a day at Railay and then decide on Koh Phi Phi or Lanta. As mentioned by another poster Phi Phi Don village is younger party backpacker type atmosphere, DON"T take a bungalow up on the hill as in the past poison gasses out of the water treatment up there have actually killed people. How about that to bum your holiday?

Lanta has some really nice beaches, good restaurants (i.e Red Snapper) inexpensive bungalows (Bee Garden, no pool but on a beach at night where you can just wander up and down have drinks and food on the beach), Kantiang Bay Resort also has some good values, and Kantiang Bay is a great beach to hang on.

Enjoy, GOM

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Thanks again, some great advice there. The J Hotel looks perfect GOM - plenty good reviews on the net and well located, so I think I'll stay there for sure. Or the sister hotel J Mansion, if anyone's tried that? Loads of tours to do and can easily do Railay by ourselves for a day and perhaps another day to see the Tiger Cave Temple, Emerald Pool and Hot Springs. For organised stuff I'm thinking Ko Phi Phi/Bamboo Island (not convinced that I want to stay on Phi Phi so think a tour maybe better), Hong Island plus kayaking and the 4 islands tour.

So that would be another 3 days, 5 days in total already, so I'm just thinking whether or not it's too much to squeeze in a visit to Ko Lanta or not? We could maybe get the ferry straight to Railay from Ko Lanta and combine them that way. But it would only be a day and a half (2 nights) in Lanta unless we sacrificed a day of our own touring around Ao Nang or dropped one of the tours.

Decisions, decisions.....

Edited by TCA
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Just had another thought. Looking at Khlong Tom hot springs and emerald/crystal pool etc..., these are 40km out of Krabi and only 30km from Ko Lanta. So I'm almost thinking we could hire a motorbike in Krabi/Ao Nang (which we'd do for Khlong Tom and on Lanta anyway) and just drive all the way to Ko Lanta after Khlong Tom. There's also the added possibility of doing the Phi Phi tour from Ko Lanta and swapping a day in Ao Nang for that.

Anybody done this journey by road before? Or can offer a comparison of a Phi Phi tour from Lanta versus from Ao Nang? Maybe a shorter boat ride but any other differences?

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Hello RCA, I would go with nattymatts recommendations and stay in Ao Nang. There is a wide range of accommodation from budget to high end resorts. I actually live in Ao Nang. Koh Phi-Phi is not as nice as it used to be and I did the day trip 2 weeks ago as I had friends visiting me from the UK. I also lived on Koh Jum for two and a half years. My school friend Ray has a resort there but again there is a wide range of resorts to choose from 300- 6000 baht per night. It is very unspoilt so go there before it gets overdeveloped.You can get there by songtel but its a nice trip on the Krabi- Koh Jum if the weather is kind. I would not recommend you take the motorcycle to Hot Spring / Emerald pool unles you are a very experienced motorcyclist. The standard of driving in Thailand is nothing like the Uk. Hope this information is a help. Kind regards johncfarrow.

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Hello RCA, I would go with nattymatts recommendations and stay in Ao Nang. There is a wide range of accommodation from budget to high end resorts. I actually live in Ao Nang. Koh Phi-Phi is not as nice as it used to be and I did the day trip 2 weeks ago as I had friends visiting me from the UK. I also lived on Koh Jum for two and a half years. My school friend Ray has a resort there but again there is a wide range of resorts to choose from 300- 6000 baht per night. It is very unspoilt so go there before it gets overdeveloped.You can get there by songtel but its a nice trip on the Krabi- Koh Jum if the weather is kind. I would not recommend you take the motorcycle to Hot Spring / Emerald pool unles you are a very experienced motorcyclist. The standard of driving in Thailand is nothing like the Uk. Hope this information is a help. Kind regards johncfarrow.

Love the Freudian slip there johncfarrow, gave me a good chuckle.

RCA is the girlie/katoey bar section of Ao Nang.

OP-no way riding a motorbike to the hot springs and Lanta, gonna get yourself killed. Whats the lure of the hotsprings anyway, already hot here and you want to jump into even hotter water?

Do the islands from Ao nang, do a daytrip to Railei from Ao Nang, then jump a van share to Lanta morningtime and chill in Lanta.

Be sure to find some relax time, you're on vacation. Constant running around, boats-cars-airplanes will make your vacation go even faster.

Cheers, GOM

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Thanks guys. That's probably enough to put me off driving. Although I've lived in Thailand for 3 years and driven motorbikes for most of that time, so well used to the madness. Maybe not such a great idea for a relaxing time though. And probably good advice from GOM on not trying to cram too much in. A slight rethink required perhaps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you are based in Ao Nang, chill on the Ralley beach, take longtail boats out for snorkelling/swimming, you can do rock climbing if you're into that, explore Ralley beach, etc. Plently to do in 3 days.

Recommended day trip via speed boat would be to Phi Phi for more swimming and snorkelling. There is probably a slower boat to Emerald cave, another day trip. Lanta might be worth exploring though I've never been there so can't say one thing or another about it.

That should just about eat up a week? If not then I'm sure you can get more suggestions from your hotel concierge.

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