My sixth visit to Railay during the recent trip from Bangkok to the south of Thailand. What to do and how much cost, tips and how-tos, and a ton of fresh images from stunning Krabi Province.
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11 am on April 14, 2023, passengers are disembarking from the long-tail boat into the shallow waters of Railay West Beach. We were among them, with big plans to climb mountains and swim.
What is Railay If You Don't Know
There is a small piece of land in Krabi Province fenced from the rest of the world with sheer cliffs up to 280+ meters high. You can only reach this place by boat. It's called Railay Peninsula, and it's famous with beautiful beaches and giant limestone rocks.
Railay West Beach
One day, for sure, the peninsula was a hidden gem with few aware of its existence (would be good to time-travel there). Today, it's a busy place. Many boats arrive there daily, not only from the neighboring piers of Ao Nang, Ao Nam Mao, and Krabi Town, but also from Phukhet, Koh Lanta, Ko Phi Phi, etc.
Railay on the Google.Maps
But by some miracle, the place retains its natural charm. Perhaps because the relaxed resort lifestyle is close to the mentality of the local people so building bungalows and planting amazing gardens around them is their tropical "elven" philosophy and lifestyle, and this is what they know how to do.
And, secondly, most of the peninsula consists of rocks that simply cannot be disfigured. Railay is a natural fortress guarding the original beauty of this place. Because Thais aren't only able to grow amazing resort gardens but farms (of rice, oil palm, and the rubber tree), and this is how all the forest disappeared in the Thai plain.
East Railay Viewpoint
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Besides beaches, Railay has other type of travel attractions - viewpoints. East Railay Viewpoint is the most popular. We did it previously but decided to walk along its path again.
The breathtaking panorama of the Railay is well worth efforts and the shed sweat.
Geography of Railay
The peninsula consists of several zones.
The westmost beach is called Tonsai Beach. A one-way ticket for a long-tail boat from Ao Nang to Tonsai costs 100 baht (3 USD) for a person.
Tonsai Beach is where you can find the most budget accommodation: 10 USD for a place in a dormitory, or a double room for 20 USD. But there is no special reason to live on Railay because you can visit it from Ao Nang (with cheaper accommodation and food) for 200 baht (6 USD) for both-way boat trip.
Tonsai from Railay West Beach Viewpoint
Tonsai is a sort of isolated section, you must follow a jungle trail to reach the most lively area called Railay West.
Railay West Beach, this where most boats moor, this is where most tourist businesses are located including bars and shops selling weed.
An amazing beach with great views.
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Railay West Beach on April 14, 2023
Railay East Beach is where boats from Ao Nam Mao arrive. Nobody swims there, the water is shallow and muddy. Railay East, this is where you can potentially walk during the low tide from Ao Nam Mao. I personally didn't try it since I prefer staying in Ao Nang and you need to rent a scooter to reach Ao Nam Mao or pay for a songthaew.
Phra Nang Cave Beach, the gem of the peninsula. There are two sections you must visit there.
The first is the beach next to the bizzare cave:
Phra Nang Cave Beach, near the sacred cave filled with wooden phalluses
Sunbathers. This time, I decided to immediately join them and almost took no images at this location
and the second are is the beach with the view of the beautiful Ko Rang Nok rocky island - this time, we didn't visit it but we did it before - this is one of my images from there.
Beside beaches, there are other attractions there:
- East Railay Viewpoint 👍 which I showed above. A very popular trail and for a reason. A beautiful panorama of Railay as well as a trail to a lagoon.
- Diamond Cave 👎 They demand to pay a national park fee for the entrance, 200 baht for a foreigner. The cave doesn't look natural, it's equipped with a walkway podium, and colorful lights illuminate stalactites and stalagmites. Besides, the cave just doesn't look cool, it's just ok (at some point, I visited it for free when nobody was at its ticket office). To me, it's fake experience, and not worth spending time.
- There are also monkeys there, crab-eating macaques you can meet in many places in Thailand and dusky langurs ❤️ whom you'll spot if you are lucky since they aren't that often guests in the human part of Railay.
- Railay is also a rock-climbing destination. You can see a lot of guys there with ropes hanging on the rocks.
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Another Viewpoint
This was one of the goals of us this time. A pathway starts in the very south of Railay West Beach (the starting point on Google.maps). Eventually, it ends up on the path leading along the base of a sheer cliff, covered with bamboo thickets.
This is a panorama of Tonsai Beach as well as cliffs that fence it from Railay West. The boats run from Ao Nang to Railay and back.
We were just standing and admiring for a while.
I used a telephoto lens to take a picture of the sea route to Ao Nang, my favorite resort town in Thailand:
An hour later we found ourselves in one of these boats. The waves were shaking her wildly; passengers, young backpacker girls, showed confident smiles and relaxed postures proving that they were not afraid. As for me, I remembered how once our boat on the way from Railay to Aonang collided with a log, what a rumble there was and how the boatman scared for a moment. I also remembered the announcement in small letters at the ticket office: in the event of a boat crash, financial losses of passengers are not compensated. And I thought about my old, but yet stunning Nikon D750 and my heart sank...
More stories from Thailand are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal pinmapple map.
Two other publications from the same trip:
- Koh Lipe Travel Guide 2023. How-Tos, Prices, and Custom Map of the Best Island in Thailand
- Khao Phanom Bencha National Park in Krabi, Thailand. How-Tos, Prices, and Map
I took all the images in the post with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D and Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on April 14, 2023 in Railay, Krabi, Thailand.