A Boat Trip in Phi Phi Islands: Worth to Try?

If you had enough time in Koh Phi Phi (Koh means island), then I would recommend you to do a boat trip around the surrounding islands. It might be the most touristy thing to do, but believe me… you’d enjoy it :). You can either rent a boat for yourself or join the others. If you don’t want to spend that much money, then you can buy the ticket of the boat trip from any tour agents in the island. They will offer you a half-day trip or full day trip. Both trips include snorkeling in several spots and visiting some small islands nearby. I chose the full day one as I didn’t like to rush, not when I’m on holiday ;).

My boat was pretty full with around 12 people on the long-tail boat. Most of them were Italians, including a little girl named Isabella. She’s such a sweetheart! She has a long curly brunette hair and always got excited every time our boat hits the wave. Too bad my Italian friend has gone back to Singapore, otherwise he’ll enjoy meeting his fellows from his home country! As for me, I always feel happy if I traveled and bumped into another Indonesians during my trip. Too bad that doesn’t happen too often :(. I wonder why??

Anyway, our first stop was at Shark Point. This spot supposedly has a lot of black tip reef sharks, but none of us saw any that day. After spending around 45 minutes snorkeling, we left for Bamboo Island and Monkey Island to embrace the beauty of their white sand beaches. Both islands are breathtaking! Loved ‘em! A simple vegetarian Thai fried rice served in a stereo-foam box made my stomach happy, while my eyes were entertained with miles of turquoise water before me. Walking down to the other end of the beach, I was stunned with the different colors of the sea water. Turquoise, green, turquoise again, then dark blue… it looked like a glass of cocktail which comes in different layers of liquor! 😀
Several colorful long-tail boats parked on the beach, while a few numbers of young tourists were sitting under the shade of a tree, enjoying the beautiful view that the nature has offered to them that day…

On the way to Phi Phi Leh, we passed the Viking Cave, but I wasn’t too impressed with it. It would be more interesting if we could get in.. or maybe I was disappointed coz I had an imagination of me being on the boat in a dark cave with lots of bats flying around above me and their sounds echoing in a total darkness.
Phi Phi Leh easily made me forgot about the Viking Cave. The lagoon was amazing, surrounded with numbers of limestone cliffs, the view got even better in the afternoon with the sun shining the cliffs and giving them a golden touch. Very pretty. Snorkeling there was nice, too. I could even see schools of fish from the boat as the water was very clear! 🙂

As you might know, Phi Phi Islands got more popular after the Hollywood released the movie called “The Beach”, starring the handsome Leonardo Di Caprio. Nowadays, almost everyone wanted to see this beach when one has the chance to go to this island. As a result, the famous Maya Beach (Ao Maya) is always busy. A friend warned me, “Nila… you wouldn’t like the beach. It’s full of people. When I was there yesterday, there were around 200 hundreds people laying on the beach!”. I was prepared to see a bunch of tourists with their bikinis and shorts when my boat reached there. And.. guess what… I was sooooo lucky! There were only a few tourists there… yayyy!!! Probably because it was already in the afternoon…
Sitting there, I realized why the movie was taken place on this beach. It’s simply beautiful. The sand is white and as soft as powder, the water is crystal clear plus the view of limestone cliffs few hundreds meters away make the whole landscape a picture perfect! A breathtaking view, that is. I think it’s definitely the prettiest beach in Phi Phi Islands.

The Italians gang couldn’t wait a minute to run to the turquoise water. I bet they tried hard to forget that it would be winter time when this holiday ended. Even Isabelle, the cute Italian girl, swam happily. She then came to me and gave me a flower, “For you”, she said in Italian. Oowwhh… how cute!!! I got a flower from a little angel.. 🙂

After spending around 1.5 hours on Maya Beach, we had to head back to Phi Phi Don. On the way back, the sun started to set down… the sea was calm, the sea breeze whispered softly, we enjoyed the beautiful view of the sunset quietly. None of us spoke any word… we were all hypnotized by the sun and the sea!

Another beautiful day in Phi Phi Islands… I smiled.

11 Comments

  • hi nina, am visiting phuket in a month and already have my eyes set upon phi phi islands boat trip as well.
    so, out of curiosity, how much does it cost for a full day island-hopping trip? is it bargain-able?

    thanks and toodles!

  • i meant nila. sorry for the typo 🙂

    oh and congrats on you being on the shortlisted candidates. i envy you! voted for you already though. all the best. god speed.

  • Hello Nila,

    Nice blog there 🙂

    I'll be going to Thailand for our honeymoon this December.Phi Phi Islands is one place I want to visit since I read a lot of good things about its natural beauty.Reading you blog just strengthened the desire further!

    Anyways, I have decided to explore the place by staying there for 2 nights against taking a day trip from Phuket, mainly to dodge the huge flock of speed boats and day trippers who crowd the beaches..Would this be a wiser thing to do than being a part of day trip off Phuket myself ?

    Thanks,
    Sandeep

  • Hi Sandeep, congrats on your wedding! Staying in Phi Phi is definitely much nicer than staying in Phuket. Am not a big fan of Phuket, instead, I found it such a sleazy place!

    Phi Phi Island itself is very touristy, yet it's very pretty. It really depends on how you want to spend you honeymoon. If you just want to relax and stay in a quiet place, then Phi Phi might not be the best choice since the island itself is very touristy (a lot of backpackers).

    I would recommend you to go to Koh Nan Yuang for a quiet get away.. or to Koh Phangan and stay in Thong Nai Pan Noi beach on East of Koh Phangan. The beach is gorgeous and quiet there. Perfect for a honeymoon couple! 😉

    Anyway, enjoy your honeymoon! If you need more info, feel free to drop me a private email! 🙂

  • Hello Nila!

    I'm visiting Phuket next month! Just wanna check with you if you booked the phi phi island trip online or you did a walk-in purchase in Phuket? 😀 Thanks!!

  • Hello Nila!

    Your blog is really amazing!! I will be visiting phuket on the coming january. I would like to know more about the phi phi tour which you had booked! Did you book it online or at phuket itself? Thank you so much!! 😀

    Christina

  • Hi Christina,

    I didn't book the tour to Phi Phi nor Phuket in advance. I just went there without any tours booked. I didn't even join any tour. I loved exploring places by my own and have all the time flexibility 🙂

    However, you can easily book your tour to Phi Phi from Phuket. There are a lot of tour agencies offering a day tour to Phi Phi Island. I stayed about a week in Phi Phi, so I took a ferry to the island. Easy!

    Have fun in Thailand ya!

  • Woww!!! nice trip. If you can’t decide for your next trip…Phuket is the best choice for you!!
    I love here Surin Beach Hotel This hotel is very nice clean and the people are friendly. VERY nice hotel with helpful staff.
    And I really love white sand, crystal clear waters at Surin Beach too.
    Thank again.

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