Of course it was on my “when in Thailand”-bucket list 🙂 The Phi Phi Islands, a paradise on earth! The Phi Phi Island are an island group and it belongs to the province Krabi. Phi Phi Islands is so famous because of the hollywood movie “The Beach”, a must do for Thailand travellers!
Ive been there with my brother and my hubby during a guided tour. During our vacation in Thailand we stayed in Kamala. As Phi Phi Islands is kinda far from Phuket, I didn’t want to travel to Phi Phi Islands with a longtail boat. Hell yeah, it was so freaking hot and it would be very exhausting with a longtail boat. So I decided to book a guided tour with a private speedboat. A very big advantage is, that riding with a speedboat it was only one hour ride till we reached the first island of Phi Phi from Marina Port Phuket. I don’t wanna know how long it would take to ride with a longtail boat from Marina Port in Phuket till Phi Phi Island. On the other side a disadvantage is, that renting a private speedboat is pretty expensive. Especially if you are only a small group it is more expensive, but what you can do is to share a private speedboat with people you may meet in your resort, thats what we did! So at the end, we only paid 2300,00 Thai Baht per head for a whole day trip.
We booked our trip at Siam Adventure World and it is a first class service. They picked us up from our resort around 06:00 am with an air-conditioned van. From our resort in Kamala we drove like about 30-40 Minutes to Marina Port. When we arrived in Marina Port they welcomed us with a great breakfast. About 07:15 am our boat left Marina Port. During the whole day trip we had different drinks on board, a lot of foods and we can eat and drink as much as we want to. It was all included! We even had a photographer on board for the whole day trip 🙂 It was awesome!
What we’ve visited are Phi Phi Don (Nui Bay, Yongkasem Bay, Monkeys, Loh Dalam Bay, Phi Phi Viallage, Phi Phi View Point), Phi Phi Ley (Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Viking Cave, Loh Samah Bay) and Bamboo Island.
As we travel very early it wasn’t crowded at all. And one of a disadvantage travelling too early is, that we didn’t see some monkeys on the monkey beach 😦 But in the afternoon it was really crowded! I expected that because first of all Phi Phi Island is so famous for tourists and it was peek season. Since we travel so early, we had the chance to enjoy the islands with less tourists and less boats. I would really recommend to travel to Phi Phi Islands as earlier es you can!
This was my absolute favourite beach in Phi Phi and in my opinition the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been in Thailand. I loved it! The water is so clear, no waves, white sand and such a stunning view! We also had our lunch here and it was also so relaxing. What I loved the most is that there were nothing, no cottages, no resorts, no buildings, no houses, nothing but the turquoise water and powdery white sand! Unfortunately and of course we were’nt alone in this island, but it was sooo relaxing and i loved it so much! I could stay here the whole day doing nothing, nothing but relaxing. Have a look here:
The Viking Cave is also stunning! Its water is dark turqouise and it is an absolutely great snorkeling spot. When we snorkel here, we saw some blacktip reef shark. They were like 1 meter long and the babies were like a half meter long. It was great! Unfortunately I must say, when we arrived at the Viking Cave it was already in the afternoon, it was already crowded. It wasn’t a lot of tourist there as you can see in my picture, there is only a few people in the water, but we were surrounded by a few speedboat. On this picture you can’t see it, but because of all the coming boats it was a bit wavey. But still we enjoyed it so much! And the underwater world was great, amazing!
Unfortunately I couldn’t take a better picture of the Pileh Lagoon, but I still want to post it here 🙂 Also the Pileh Lagoon is on my top three of Phi Phi Island. The blue lagoon of Phi Phi. But because it is a lagoon it was surrounded of a big high rocks. And the water was sooo relaxed. No wave, windless and the water was so clean. We jumped out of our boat it was so great! The scenery was just amazing and I was speechless. And we were so lucky, it wasn’t crowded when we were there. I never saw anything like it. And I was sooo amazed that I even forgot to take more pictures. I enjoyed the scenery so much, really!
Not but not least, the Maya Bay. Maya Bay became so famous because of the hollywood movie “The Beach” from Leonardo Dicaprio. Even though Maya Bay is so beautiful, it didn’t make it on my top three of Phi Phi Islands. When we were there it was so crowded. Really crowded. Too much people, too much boats. We couldn’t even swim because in front of the beach it was full of different motorboats or longtail boats. I even found it also stressful and not relaxing because of the whole tourists and boats. And I found it a real shame that the government doesn’t even protect Maya Bay. No hate, just my personal opinion. There were no cottages, or buildings or resorts or hotels at Maya Bay, an untouched paradise but too much tourist. Also I found it dirty! I must say that I was so impressed that everywhere where I’ve been in Thailand was so clean, beach were clean, the parks even in the city was clean. But in Maya Bay was so full of garbage. Garbage everywhere, bottles, plastic and trash! I found it so pity because it is a really beautiful place but unfortunately they didn’t keep it clean.
And this is Phi Phi Village. It is a very cosy place. Tiny streets and some lovely bars in Thai Styles. In Phi Phi Village there is also some few hotels and resorts. I found it still traditional and in Thai style because it wasn’t this kind of resorts or hotels with like 500 rooms and big high ugly buildings 🙂 And there is a view point on the top of Phi Phi Village where you can see the whole Phi Phi Village. But it is a real struggle to get up there. It was like 400 stairs or steps, biiiig huuuuuge steps! And it was like over 36 degrees, alsmost no shadow! But the view is worth it, really!
All things considered, Phi Phi Islands is a paradise on earth. And a must do for Thailand travellers. I hope to visit it again. Since Thailand is the most famous tourist spot in south-east Asia, I think it wouldn’t make a difference between off-season and peak-season regarding to how busy and crowded the island is.What I really loved so much and appreciated in this country is, that even though it became so famous for the tourists, they didn’t build those typical huuuuge high ugly hotel buildings in Phi Phi Island. And only Phi Phi Village has some accomodation! And even though Phi Phi Village has already some resorts, it is still so cosy and you can still enjoy the typical Thai-feeling. And I loved that so much in this place. I also recommend to stay like one till two nights in Phi Phi Village so you can explore Phi Phi Island in more relaxing ways. Because we travell from Phuket to Phi Phi Island we could only stay like 1 – maximum of two hours per stop. How I wish we could stay a bit longer. Next time I will definitely bring more time for Phi Phi Island. You need to see this place and feel the Thai athmosphere!
xoxo K.Dacian
kdacian.com 