Your Complete Travel Guide: Krabi 甲米, Thailand 5D4N Family Trip-Backpacking+Day Tours

Outlying islands of Krabi on the Andaman Sea is a gift from God as the view is really breathtaking. A lot of tourists flock to Krabi for the islands. It's a must visit place.

Before travel:-
1. Travel on high or peak season. Krabi is mostly about islands and the seas are rough during low season.

2. Travel with more people to get lower price for day tours.

3. We are fortunate enough to have bought zero fare from AirAsia from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur to Krabi. So, it only costs rm1000+ for all return flights（5 of us),including transit flights. So, look out for AirAsia 0 fare!

4. A lot of preparations needed before travel
a) Choose and book hotel. This consumes the most time. We booked Ascot Krabi Hotel in Aonang for the first 3 nights and NK Hometel in Krabi Town for the last night. (Both 2* hotels) The price at Ascot is around RM200, NK around RM150 per room per night.

Since Agoda has much info about Ascot but not for NK, I only described NK Hometel. I would strongly recommened NK Hometel as it is new, near to Vogue Supermarket, Night Market, Morning Market and very near to the famous Crab Statue. Transport to airport is provided at the cost of 450 baht.

Balcony, fridge, TV, toilet with hot shower, wardrobe are provided.

However, the shampoo is too little and there is no safety box.

b) Plan your itinerary which you can find from this guide.

c) Most people in Krabi speak simple English, so do not worry about language barrier.

22 Jan
Upon reaching Krabi, buy shuttle bus ticket to Aonang from the counters in arrival hall at 150 baht per person. If you are unlucky, you will be selected by the bus driver to 'hang out' at a tour agency which is walkable/very near to Aonang which they claim to be their bus station to buy their tours, but you don't have to buy. After around 30 minutes, they will send you to your hotel with a better van than the shuttle bus. Such a time waste!

Trust me! The driver wouldn't know all the hotels in Aonang. So, find your hotel on Google Map and open your eyes to spot your hotel on the way.

We checked in Ascot Krabi hotel and to our dismay, our rooms were on level 4 and there is no escalator. I regretted not leaving request while booking through Agoda in case there is extra charge. Ascot is not very near to the beach and the staffs must be too busy not to be friendly enough. Water pressure is just marginally ok. Besides that, everything is just ok. Breakfast at 150 baht includes bacon,2 toasts, fried/scramble egg, orange juice and tea. Quite nice!

Then, we began our tour hunt along Aonang Street.
Island tours are organized by Andaman/Barracudas Tour. From what I researched and heard from the tour agency, Barracudas brings more passenger in a boat so Andaman is better.
Finally, we bought PhiPhi island by Speedboat(Andaman) from Ploy Andaman Tour at 1000 baht per person-the best price we could get after asking so many agencies. This price varies according to your group size and season. Must ask for lower price once/twice.
For 4Islands by longtail boat(Andaman), we bought at 400 baht per person from Jeseao Tour which is located in a shoplot facing the beach. We also bought the city tour (Tiger Cave Temple, Emerald Pool, Hot Spring Waterfall) from Jeseao at originally 700 baht per person but increased to 800 baht because we were changing hotel and will need to put our luggage in the van while on the day tour.

Our program is T3

We also visited Aonang Beach.

We had our dinner somewhere near the Jeseao Tour but I have forgetten the name. We ordered Green Curry, Tomyam, Fish etc.

23 Jan-Phi Phi Island

Transport to the Noppharat Thara Beach-The Pier will be provided as shown in the picture. They will call out your hotel room number to customers waiting at the hotel lobby. Our shuttle isn't so full. This is just a random picture taken while waiting-quite dangerous I think.
At this beach, you will need to wait around 30 minutes to 1 hour for more customers to fill a speedboat.

The speedboat is quite new.

Tips: Water bottles will be provided in icebox. At the end of trip, they will give you complimentary watermelon and pineapple. This is a custom in Krabi and is provided in restaurants too.

I can only mentioned a few islands as the tour guides replace some islands due to the waves and I can't hear clearly the names of those replaced islands.

This should be Bamboo Island. We took a picture with the wreckage of a building due to tsunami in 2004.

Phi Phi Don where you will have buffet lunch. We had a sumptuous lunch beside the beach and it's a real buffet!

We went to Maya where 'The Beach' is filmed.

'The Beach' production team even travel so far to Maya, it must be a nice place.

We also went to Monkey Bay, Viki Island, Viking Cave etc. At somewhere, we also snorkeled in the sea. Snorkeling equipment is provided.

The tour guide saw a sea creature. I think it will cause some pain on the palm but he is so eager to show us.

Then, we went back to our gathering point at Noppharat Thara Beach for our transport back to hotel. The day tour starts from 8am till around 4pm. We slept till dinner time as it's really tiring.

We had our dinner at Aonang Boat Noodle Restaurant. Daebak! It's a lot nicer than last night dinner and inexpensive too!

Some must try food-Pineapple Fried Rice! The juice is cheap and nice too. The orange juice is made using fresh orange pulp! All the juices are 40 baht each if I didn't remember wrongly.

24 Jan- 4 Islands tour

We used longtail boat for this tour-water bottles and fruits are provided too! However, I don't really advise using longtail boat although it is around 400 baht cheaper than speedboat. Water may splash inside the boat and it's slower. 4 Islands are nearer than Phi Phi so it's alright too.

A wise man once said 'You get what you pay' :)

4 Islands refer to :-

1. Tup Island

2. Chicken Island

We also do snorkeling near Chicken Island. Equipment is provided as well.

3. Poda Island

We had our lunch here.The lunch is very simple. I had seasickness that time so didn't take picture. It's just another beach. :)

4. Phra Nang Beach

Another beach....

There are a lot of longtail boats here where the people sell food and drinks. Try the pancake on one of the boats. I'm not sure if it's the boat shown above. It's very crispy! Other pancakes we tried are soft.

We had our dinner at a seafood restaurant. Again, I didn't record the name of the restaurant. We tried mud crab. It doesn't have lots of meat. The pineapple fried rice here is nicer than Boat Noodle. The restaurant has bamboo tables and chairs, so it will be easy for you to find.

After dinner, my family except me went to massage. Again, the more people, the cheaper the price is.

25 Jan-City Tour

No more beach. Yay!

1.We went to Tiger Cave Temple and had to climb 1272 steps to the top. Some steps are really steep.

We climbed to the top just to see this... Hahaha...

2. Next, we went for lunch around the Emerald Pool. Emerald Pool is very muddy and you can feel and see A LOT OF green fungus. Eww... I wonder why so many people come here. Instead of the risk of fungal infection, walk to Blue Pool (quite far). The water is blue due to earth crust which I don't really understand.

3. Lastly, we went to Hot Spring Waterfall. The water here is cleaner.

Then, we checked in NK Hometel. Again, the driver did not know where it is. Luckily, I saw from Google Maps that it's facing the river and the driver just passby without knowing it.

Picture taken from the hotel balcony. You can see that the crab statue and Khao Kanab Nam mountain viewpoint is so near the hotel.

Then, we went to night market which is just 2 blocks in front of the hotel. I tried Chocolate Milk Oreo Shake-20 baht only. Later, we hunt for food. We had dinner at a roadstall.

A simple map for easy reference.

I thought we will never had chance to visit this amazing Wat Kaew Temple as I found that it is closed after 5pm from the Internet, but no! It's still open when we were there at 7.02pm.