Lina Forrestal

We are not beach people. This is ironic because John and I both grew going to the beach on family vacations and our house in America is in a beach town . Thailand is known for it’s beautiful beaches, so we couldn’t live here for a year and not go to the beach. Luckily, one of my best friends, Beth, was coming to visit and she wanted to see the beaches, so we had the perfect excuse to go check it out! We decided to go to Railay Beach in Krabi after some recommendations from our friends Sven and Alix!

Quick Helpful Guide to Krabi

I’ll admit I was super confused about Krabi’s layout before I got there so I’m going to do you a solid and break it down for you.

If you’re planning a trip to Krabi, the first thing you’ll want to decide is whether you want to stay on Ao Nang or Railay Beach.

Here’s my quick and dirty pros and cons list of Railay Beach versus Ao Nang:

Railay Beach

You can walk to Phra Nang Beach (also known as “the Princess Cave”)
Only accessible by boat and you can only travel from Ao Nang to Railay Beach during the day. You can travel between at night, but it’s more difficult and more expensive because it’s too dark on the water
100 times more beautiful than Ao Nang
Railay Beach is pretty quiet at night with limited food options
There is a walking street on Railay that has restaurants and bars
More romantic
Hotels are more expensive

Ao Nang Beach

More affordable places to stay, lots of hostels
More restaurant and shopping options
Closer to the Tiger Cave Temple, Emerald Pools, and Krabi Hot Springs
More party options
More of a backpacker hub

We opted to stay on Railay Beach, and were happy with our decision. We figured that if we traveled all that way, we might as well stay on the beach. Although it was a little inconvenient having to take a boat taxi from Railay to Ao Nang for some things, the boat taxi itself was affordable at about 100 baht ($3 USD) per person. If you’re a honeymooner and planning to visit Krabi, I would recommend staying on Railay Beach!

We stayed at Railay Village Resort because it had good reviews on TripAdvisor and it did not disappoint! It was clean, with gorgeous pools, great service, air conditioning, and was right on the beach. We paid about $260 a night and it was well worth it! The price also includes free breakfast.

If you want an affordable stay but quieter than Ao Nang Beach, I heard that you can stay on Ton Sai Beach! No matter where you stay, getting to and from excursions is very simple. Most tour companies provide hotel pickup free of charge.

Here’s a helpful map of Krabi:

Here are a list of things to do in Krabi and a brutally honest review of each!

Climb The 1237 Steps Up To the Tiger Cave Temple

If you’re staying on Railay Beach, you’ll have the take a boat taxi back over to Ao Nang because the Tiger Cave Temple is back towards the airport.

PRO TIP: Take a taxi instead of a tour I would recommend just taking a taxi instead of taking a tour – we ran into a lot of other tourists that were on tours and they had a limited time to climb up and down, and you don’t want that. Trust me. We found a taxi for 1,200 baht ($36 USD) to take us there and back. Initially his price was 1,500 baht, but we negotiated down to 1,200—the same price that we found on Grab. Our driver was great, he waiting for us at the bottom until we were done!

The Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea) is a Buddhist temple known for its tiger paw prints in the cave. There are a few legends surrounding the naming of the temple, one legend states that monk went to meditate in the cave and during his meditation, he witnessed tigers roaming around the cave. Another legend says that an actual huge tiger used to live and roam the cave. Today, there are no tigers, just monkeys, stray dogs, and sweaty tourists!

PRO TIP: Wear sneakers and bring water To get to the temple itself, you’ll have to climb the infamous 1237 steps. There is only one way up and one way down. This climb was surprisingly treacherous, the stairs were really steep at points and some of hand railings were rusted and broken (make sure you have your Tetanus shots!). There is one bathroom on the way up if you get desperate, although I would have to be really desperate if I were to use it.

It takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour to get to the top, and about 30 minutes to get back down.

WORTH IT? It depends. If you’re just looking for a good workout and have a lot of time to spare in Krabi it could be a fun thing to do. Otherwise, I would say stick to the beach. It was dirty, dangerous (steep, broken, and uneven stairs and sharp, rusted handrails), and we didn’t think the view was that great. The views at the beach are way prettier! Not to mention that the Tiger Cave Temple is a 45 minute drive from Ao Nang Beach. Once we got to the top, we found it mobbed with tourists, including some loudly playing the Rocky theme song. Overall, I would say that you’re better off finding another excursion.

Take a Kayaking Tour with Sea Kayak Krabi

When I was planning our trip to Krabi, I was looking for fun and active things for us to do. This kayak tour was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! Sea Kayak Krabi had excellent reviews on TripAdvisor which is why I decided to go with them. If you can request a tour guide, I would request Mr. A if you can: He was personable, funny, patient, and went above and beyond to share interesting facts and history with us along our journey. Mr. A told us stories of how he grew up kayaking with his dad, and how his dad was such an adventurer. Now he is also a dad, and he said his daughter has been on a kayak since she was 3 months old. He looks forward to weekends where she comes out on the water with him, now that she is in school.

We specifically booked the Full Day Ao Thalane and Hong Island tour. We kayaked for 2 hours through the mangroves in the morning and then went back for lunch. They served a great lunch and were very accommodating towards vegetarians. In the afternoon, it was too windy and the waves were too rough for us to kayak to Hong Island, so they chartered a private boat to the island where we did some snorkeling and relaxing on the beach.

Hong Island was meh. It was so crowded that it wasn’t very enjoyable. We had fun snorkeling and relaxing on the beach for a bit, but the crowds of people were really overwhelming and detracted from the beauty of it.

WORTH IT? This excursion was a 10/10! I would absolutely recommend taking this tour if you like being active! Sea Kayak Krabi offers several different types of tours on their website. The Ao Thalane tour was great, but you could probably skip Hong Island. The cost of this excursion was 2,500 baht ($76 USD) per person.

Explore the Phra Nang Princess Cave on Railay Beach

That’s no Princess Cave…it’s a penis cave. In the past, fishermen believed that this cave was home to a mythical sea princess, and believed their offerings will bring them success in their fishing and protect them from danger. Today it’s just filled with penis carvings, offerings and other objects believed to help with fertility.

The cave itself is small and bizarre, and there’s not really much to see other than a ton of penises. It’s located on Phra Nang beach on Railay, and the beach itself is more interesting than the Princess Cave. We thought that Phra Nang beach was much nicer than Railay Beach East, so I would plan to spend some time relaxing and swimming in the water there!

WORTH IT? The Penis Cave…erm, I mean the Princess Cave itself is a wash. However, the walk to the cave is beautiful and the beach itself is gorgeous! It’s also perfect for pictures, so if you’re on that Instagram hustle I would say this is one of the more Instagrammable places in Krabi! If you’re staying on Railay, it’s a nice way to spend a morning or an afternoon hanging out.

Eat Roti

Be forewarned: Krabi is not a foodie destination – especially if you’re vegetarian. I set my standards for food super low for this trip so that I was able to emotionally survive the food situation. I survived off of bad tortilla pizza and piña coladas for 4 days . However, if you’re going to eat anything, try the roti! Roti is similar to India’s flatbread, and is served very thin, pan-fried, and often topped with something delicious such as sweetened condensed milk. I personally love my roti with just honey, but my husband loves it with peanut butter and sweetened condensed milk.

WORTH IT? Yes. Worth every calorie.

Check out Tham Pranangnai Cave on Railay Beach

This cave is about a 10-minute walk from Railay Beach East or West. The cave is located within a national park station and you’ll have to pay to get in. The price used to be 40 baht, but it has since increased to 200 baht per person. I would inquire and offer 100 instead, we did that and they took it.

Upon entering the cave, dim lamps illuminate the walkway. The walkway itself is slightly decrepit, some of the steps were broken. For the price, I’m surprised that the walkway wasn’t in better condition.

WORTH IT? I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. If you’ve never been in a cave before, it’s fun to poke your head in and take a peek. We didn’t spend much time in there, only about 10-15 minutes.

Watch the Sunset On the Beach

This one is kind of obvious, but I’m going to put it in here anyway because if you’re a planner (like me!) you should pencil it in. On Railay Beach East there are tons of hotels with beach side restaurants. If you’re planning on trying to get a table on the beach for sunset, I would make a reservation for it in advance! Otherwise, you can just set up a beach towel and relax on the beach and watch the sunset.

WORTH IT? Yes! You flew half-way around the globe to a beach in Thailand, it’s worth seeing what the sunset is like over the ocean on this side of the world!