Krabi and Ao Nang: the quieter side of the Andaman.

Where Krabi is and how you reach it

Krabi province sits on the eastern shore of Phang Nga Bay, directly across the water from Phuket. By road it is two and a half to three hours around the head of the bay; by boat it is well under two hours straight across, which is why families splitting a trip between the two usually go by sea. Krabi International Airport handles domestic flights from Bangkok and a range of regional international services, and it is a far gentler arrival than Phuket: smaller terminal, shorter queues, and twenty five minutes to Ao Nang. For a household with elderly parents and a wheelchair, that difference is worth a great deal more than it looks on paper.

The province divides into a few distinct places. Krabi town is the administrative and commercial centre, inland on the river, with the markets and the hospital and very few tourists staying in it. Ao Nang is the main beach town, twenty five minutes west. Nopparat Thara runs north from Ao Nang as a longer, quieter beach. Klong Muang and Tubkaek lie further north again, and hold most of the province's better resorts. Railay and Tonsai are the famous cliff bound beaches, reachable only by boat. Offshore lie Phi Phi, the Hong islands and a scatter of limestone stacks, and south of the mainland lies Koh Lanta, two hours by road and bridge.

Ao Nang and Nopparat Thara

Ao Nang is a compact beach town rather than a resort strip: one main road along the sand, a walking street behind it, boats drawn up at the eastern end, and a hillside of small hotels above. It is busy in the season without being overwhelming, and it has no nightlife district of the sort that shapes advice about Patong. There are restaurants along the front in every register, a good many of them locally owned and alcohol free, several serving explicitly halal menus, and a handful of Middle Eastern kitchens that have opened as Gulf traffic has grown. Prices sit below Phuket's across the board.

Nopparat Thara, immediately north, is the longer and much quieter beach, backed by casuarinas and part of a national park, with a pier at its northern end used by the ferries and the day boats. It suits families who want to walk on sand in the early morning without meeting anybody. The main practical caution for both beaches is the tide, which in this bay is large: at low water the sea can retreat a very long way and expose flats and rock, and a family that plans an eleven o'clock swim without checking the tide table will occasionally find no sea to swim in. Local tide tables are published and every hotel front desk has one.

Klong Muang, Tubkaek and the northern coast

Twenty to thirty minutes north of Ao Nang, past the headland, Klong Muang and Tubkaek face west across the bay towards the Hong islands. This is where the province's better resorts sit, low rise and set in gardens, with quiet beaches and almost no passing traffic. There is very little to do here beyond the resort, which is exactly the point: families who want an enclosed, calm, green base with a beach in front of it and a driver for excursions should be here rather than in Ao Nang. Banyan Tree operates in Krabi and is the name most Gulf clients recognise. Villa stock in the province is thinner than Phuket's and skews smaller, so a party of sixteen will more often take a block of resort suites or two adjacent houses than one large estate.

Railay, and the beaches you can only reach by boat

Railay is a peninsula cut off from the road by limestone cliffs, so everything arrives by longtail boat from Ao Nang or Krabi town, a ten to fifteen minute crossing. It has a handful of resorts, spectacular scenery, and a completely different atmosphere from the mainland: no cars, no traffic, and beaches that empty in the late afternoon once the day trippers leave. Families with small children and a lot of luggage should think carefully about the boat transfer, which involves wading to and from a longtail at some tide states, and should ask their property whether a pier landing is available at their arrival time. For a couple, or for a family with older children, it is one of the most memorable places in the country.

A strongly Muslim province

Krabi has one of the larger Muslim populations of the Andaman provinces, and the effect is visible immediately: mosques in most villages, women in hijab working in shops and hotels, and a substantial share of restaurants that serve no alcohol simply because their owners do not sell it. For an observant family this removes several daily frictions at once. Friday prayer is available within a few minutes of any of the bases above. Halal food is normal rather than sought out, though the national rule still holds and certification is per establishment, so look for the mark of the Central Islamic Council of Thailand at the door and ask the Krabi provincial Islamic committee where a particular kitchen matters. Modest swimwear on the beach at Ao Nang or Klong Muang draws no attention at all.

Krabi against Phuket

The short version we give clients: choose Krabi if the priority is calm, scenery, ease of observance and value, and if the party can be housed in resort suites or a modest villa. Choose Phuket if the priority is a very large private house, a wide choice of restaurants, direct wide bodied flights or proximity to the better hospitals. Families staying three weeks or more often do both, taking a fortnight in a Phuket villa and a week in Krabi, crossing the bay by private boat with the luggage sent round by road. That crossing is one of the better mornings of the trip in the dry season and should not be attempted casually in the monsoon.

Practicalities worth settling early

• Season: the province runs on the Andaman calendar, best from November to April, wet and windy from June to September.
• Cars: distances are short but taxis are limited outside Ao Nang, so a car and driver for the stay is close to essential.
• Tides: large in this bay, so check tide tables before planning a swim, a boat trip or a walk to Railay's viewpoints.
• Medical: routine care is available locally, but anything serious will be moved to Phuket or Bangkok, so confirm what your insurance covers.
• Boats: everything offshore departs from Ao Nang, Nopparat Thara pier or Krabi town, and departures are weather dependent.

One further point about how families use the province. Krabi rewards a slower trip than Phuket does. The pleasures here are early mornings on an empty beach, a boat into the bay before the fleet, a drive inland through rubber and palm to the hot springs and the river, and long evenings with nothing scheduled. Families who arrive with a list of six excursions tend to conclude that there is not enough to do, and they are right; families who arrive intending to rest conclude that this is the better half of the Andaman coast, and they are right too. We set expectations accordingly at the planning stage, and for larger parties we usually pair a week in Krabi with a fortnight in a Phuket villa rather than asking the province to carry a month on its own. For a household travelling with elderly parents, that week in Krabi is very often the part they remember.

Confirm halal certification per outlet with the Central Islamic Council of Thailand at halal.or.th or the Krabi provincial Islamic committee, check national park entry fees and any island closures with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation before booking day trips, and confirm sea conditions and small craft warnings with the Thai Meteorological Department at tmd.go.th.

This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.