One Week in Phuket and Krabi

Planning a trip to the Thai Islands can be challenging because you have so many options! If you are considering Phuket or Krabi, read on to find out more about our experiences; the good, the bad, and the rainy.

Phuket

We arrived at the Phuket International Airport in the evening. The airport is about 1-hour away from many of the main beaches. Our first bad experience was purchasing a shared minibus ticket.

Tip #1 – Take a Private Taxi from the Airport

By purchasing minibus tickets we only saved about $14 and after our experience I would have paid double for a private taxi. We had to wait until the minibus was full before it would depart. I did not realize how FULL they wanted the minibus to be. They were trying to cram 12 of us into this minibus (essentially a large van), plus everyone’s massive luggage. 10 out of the 12 passengers ended up being male and not small men at that (sorry Chris). I ended up sitting in the front, not in a seat, but essentially in the center console of the van with no seatbelt and no room for my legs. Chris ended up in the passenger seat next to me, but we had to sit with my backpack on our laps, further reducing the blood circulation to my legs. The poor guys in the first row of the van had to sit with Chris’s backpack on their laps. Halfway through the ride the van stopped at a travel agency. They forced everyone out of the van; I hobbled out, walking off the pins and needles in my legs. We were ushered into the travel agency and we are asked the names of our hotels. They put a list of hotels together for the driver to drop us off at, which was great (especially since our hotel ended up last on the list). Then they try to sell you overpriced tours to the islands surrounding Phuket. Chris quickly googled the travel agency on his phone and the reviews could not be worse; “Scam”, “Ripoff”, and other horror stories were listed. We said we weren’t interested and waited outside until it was time to climb back into the clown car. I did mention that we were the last to be dropped off at our hotel, right? Well, the cherry on top of this ice cream sundae was being dropped off at the wrong hotel. Some ladyboy masseuses tried to help us out, but after a 10-minute walk we finally made it to our hotel.

Tip #2 – Do Not Stay in Patong Beach

We stayed in Patong Beach and were stuck in the land of tattoo shops, massage parlors, overpriced food, and tourist goods vendors. The beach was nice, if you don’t mind being hassled to buy a watch, go parasailing, or get a henna tattoo.

We had three days of solid rain during our visit, so I can’t hold that against Phuket. We tried to make the best of it, but the rain didn’t help bring out the best side of Patong Beach.

There are less touristy/party focused beaches in Phuket and I would recommend seeking them out before landing yourself in the center of a tourist shit storm. I would also look into staying in Phuket Town, we have heard good things!

Tip #3 Stay at Least One Night on Phi Phi Island

I was so excited to leave Phuket that I didn’t mind the ferry ride from Phuket to Phi Phi (pronounced “pee pee”) over unusually rough seas where the staff was passing out free sea sick bags. We had a 5-hour layover on Phi Phi Island and this was only enough to scratch the surface of what this island has to offer. Since we had to catch the afternoon ferry to Ao Nang, we paid 50 baht ($1.50) per bag to leave our luggage at the ferry dock and then had to pay another 20 baht ($0.60) to enter the island. This was after the 800 ($25) baht ferry tickets, everything is more expensive in the islands! With such a short time on the island, we hiked to viewpoint #1 & #2, paid our 30 baht ($1) entry fee (even viewpoints have a fee!) and enjoyed the view until the next rain shower started.

We had an awesome lunch at Efe Mediterranean (we have been cautious with our thai food since Chris’ food poisoning episode) and then it was time to take our last ferry ride to Ao Nang beach in Krabi. This ferry ride was much calmer and less crowded. We had enough space to take a nap, however I was able to wake up in time to see large limestone formations coming out of the water. I knew from that moment on that I would enjoy our next few days in Krabi!

Krabi

Tip #4 – See the Beach and the Town

We stayed in Ao Nang Beach during our stay in Krabi and we do not regret this at all. We loved being able to walk to the beach and to have so many restaurant options within walking distance. We did not get to see Krabi Town, however if we had more time I would have tried to stay a few nights at both the beach and Krabi Town. There is supposedly supposed to be a nice night market in Krabi Town and it can be accessed by tuk tuk or taxi. We will have to catch that next time!

Tip #5 – Make Friends at the Longtail Boat Ticket Counter

One of the main things we wanted to do in Krabi was hire a longtail boat to take us island hopping. The good news is that the prices of the boats are regulated. The bad news is that the prices are quite steep. A full day private boat costs 2,200 baht ($68), plus each person must pay a 400 baht ($13) entry fee to the national park. The full day boat has a maximum of six people per boat, so our plan was to arrive early at the ticket counter and try to track down four other people that would also like to share the cost of a boat. The next morning we arrived, we had found two girls from Poland at the ticket counter. They actually had the same idea as us and asked to share a ride before I had the opportunity to ask. We waited awhile to see if we could find two more people to share a boat with and at the last minute we met a German couple (Chris was thrilled) who had already booked and paid for their full day tour. They were willing to share with us and we agreed to pay them directly for the ticket they already purchased. It worked out perfectly and we were able to spend a beautiful day on the islands. A bonus for the day was that the sun finally came out and we had good weather until about 2pm. Then the rain and thunder started, but it was still a great day being out on the water.

Even though we visited during dry season, it is still possible to get rain and having a full week of rain was a surprise! We didn’t get to do everything on our list, but we were able to enjoy some beautiful views and relax during our 7th week of travel! We are on to our next destination and the last week of our 8-weeks in Asia!