Where to stay on the coast of Thailand | Krabi or Phuket |
The beaches in Thailand, with the deep blue oceans, white sands and warm weather seem like a true paradise. They were definitely our pull to Thailand and we simply fell in love with it! We have left our hearts on the Islands and would love to go back someday.
We spent about a week by the beaches and split our time between Phuket and Ao Nang in Krabi. Phuket is jam packed with tourists, has a lot of sight seeing locations and is the place to be if you want to be partying the evenings. On the other hand, Ao Nang is much more relaxed, bursting with halal food options and best of all, super close to the islands we wanted to visit.
You need to take into account the weather before going to the coastal areas of Thailand. The best time to visit would be during the dry season, between November and early April. Even in early December there was a lot of rain near the beaches so I imagine it would be a mess trying to explore Thailand's coast during the rainy season!
We started off the week in Ao Nang, a town in Southern Krabi. We stayed here for 4 days!
Pros of staying in Krabi
- High muslim population = easily find halal food
- Lots of beautiful mosques in the area
- The best place to access long tail boat tours
- Many little islands surrounding this area such as Ko Poda, Chicken Island, Monkey Island
- The islands are about a 20 minute boat ride away
- Popular Railay beach can also be accessed easily
- Not as populated with tourists as Phuket
- Can find a lot of empty space at the beaches and Islands
- Spas & massages (on the beach) cheaper than anywhere else we saw
- STUNNING beaches all around
- Easy to get around by cheap Tuk Tuk or Taxi
- Amazing experience with the locals and the staff everywhere, they were so kind, welcoming and accomodating
Cons
- Not much else to do other than relax and island hop
- Limited cuisines available, mostly just Thai food
- Most hotels/resorts aren't actually on the beach, they are a walk away. Only the super pricy ones are
- As with most popular destinations, lots of scamming going on
Then we went off to the uber popular Karon beach in Phuket and stayed there for 3 days.
Pros of staying in Phuket
- Lots of tourist attractions nearby such as Wat Karon Temple, Big Buddha Temple and viewpoint
- Check out Phuket town, the capital of Phuket Province, has beautiful, unique, colourful buildings in the centre to shop at and is a hipsters paradise
- Khao Rang Museum
- Phuket is just popping with tourists, its never a dull moment and theres always something going on!
- The best thing about our time in Phuket was definitely the resort we stayed at, Movenpick Karon Beach offered so much that we hardly had to leave the resort!
Cons
- The beautiful beaches are getting overly populated, almost no place to sit sometimes
- Lots of scammers, everywhere!!
- Overpopulation = lots of traffic
- Every place we went to was usually busy so we didn't always get the quality of service we were used to in other places around Thailand
We spent about a week by the beaches and split our time between Phuket and Ao Nang in Krabi. Phuket is jam packed with tourists, has a lot of sight seeing locations and is the place to be if you want to be partying the evenings. On the other hand, Ao Nang is much more relaxed, bursting with halal food options and best of all, super close to the islands we wanted to visit.
You need to take into account the weather before going to the coastal areas of Thailand. The best time to visit would be during the dry season, between November and early April. Even in early December there was a lot of rain near the beaches so I imagine it would be a mess trying to explore Thailand's coast during the rainy season!
We started off the week in Ao Nang, a town in Southern Krabi. We stayed here for 4 days!
Pros of staying in Krabi
- High muslim population = easily find halal food
- Lots of beautiful mosques in the area
- The best place to access long tail boat tours
- Many little islands surrounding this area such as Ko Poda, Chicken Island, Monkey Island
- The islands are about a 20 minute boat ride away
- Popular Railay beach can also be accessed easily
- Not as populated with tourists as Phuket
- Can find a lot of empty space at the beaches and Islands
- Spas & massages (on the beach) cheaper than anywhere else we saw
- STUNNING beaches all around
- Easy to get around by cheap Tuk Tuk or Taxi
- Amazing experience with the locals and the staff everywhere, they were so kind, welcoming and accomodating
Cons
- Not much else to do other than relax and island hop
- Limited cuisines available, mostly just Thai food
- Most hotels/resorts aren't actually on the beach, they are a walk away. Only the super pricy ones are
- As with most popular destinations, lots of scamming going on
Then we went off to the uber popular Karon beach in Phuket and stayed there for 3 days.
Pros of staying in Phuket
- Lots of tourist attractions nearby such as Wat Karon Temple, Big Buddha Temple and viewpoint
- Check out Phuket town, the capital of Phuket Province, has beautiful, unique, colourful buildings in the centre to shop at and is a hipsters paradise
- Khao Rang Museum
- Phuket is just popping with tourists, its never a dull moment and theres always something going on!
- The best thing about our time in Phuket was definitely the resort we stayed at, Movenpick Karon Beach offered so much that we hardly had to leave the resort!
Cons
- The beautiful beaches are getting overly populated, almost no place to sit sometimes
- Lots of scammers, everywhere!!
- Overpopulation = lots of traffic
- Every place we went to was usually busy so we didn't always get the quality of service we were used to in other places around Thailand
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