Things to do in Krabi

Krabi is mainland, not an island, and that is the point of it. The province is a coast of limestone towers standing in shallow water. Boats, not roads, connect the good parts.

Bases on shore

• Ao Nang — the main strip, where the longtails load and most people stay.
• Railay and Tonsai — a peninsula walled off by headlands, ten minutes by boat and unreachable by road. Sport climbers come for the overhanging limestone.
• Phra Nang — the beach under the cliff, with a cave shrine full of carved wooden offerings.
• Krabi Town — the river, the night market and the mangroves, twenty minutes inland.
• Wat Tham Suea — the Tiger Cave temple, and more than twelve hundred steps to the summit shrine.
• Khlong Thom — the Emerald Pool and the hot-stream waterfall, an hour east through rubber plantations.

Choosing the boat day

Every visitor makes the same decision twice. First which islands, then which hull.

• The Four Islands — Poda, Chicken, Tup and the beach at Phra Nang. At low tide a sandbar surfaces and joins Tup to Mor and Chicken.
• Hong Island — an inner lagoon that fills and empties with the tide, and a viewpoint above it.
• Phi Phi and Maya Bay — further out, an hour by speedboat, and a long day.
• Ao Thalane — kayaking between mangrove roots and through tidal channels, at dawn or at sunset.
• Night snorkelling — plankton that lights up when the water is disturbed, on the late version of the four-island run.

A longtail is slow, open and cheap. A speedboat halves the travel time, costs more and slams in any chop. In flat water the longtail wins on everything except distance.

Practical

• Season. The Andaman calendar: dry from November to April, monsoon from May to October. Outer-island trips are cancelled in bad weather and refund rules vary by operator, so ask before you pay.
• Tides run the itinerary. The four-island sandbar only exists at low water, so departure times move through the month with the tide table.
• Railay. No road, so the last boats back matter. Longtails often wait to fill before they leave.
• Tiger Cave. Over twelve hundred steep steps, roughly an hour up, and no shade. Go at first light and keep bags shut against the macaques.
• Emerald Pool. A national park fee applies, and the hot stream downhill from it is genuinely hot rather than warm.
• Airport. Fifteen kilometres from Krabi Town, about forty minutes to Ao Nang by shuttle.
• On the water. Long sleeves beat more sunscreen, and reef-safe cream is required inside the national parks.