Where is the best place to stay in Krabi

Krabi is one of the most popular beach destinations in all of Thailand. I’m going to cover the top three places to stay in Krabi. I’m not going to cover the province as a whole, so I’m not going to include Koh Phi Phi in this list. I’m simply going to stick to the area around Krabi on the mainland.

The three areas I’m going to talk about are Ao Nang, Railay Beach and Krabi Town, and I’ll help you decide which one of these places is the best one for you to stay at.

I’ve compiled this list because I have spent extensive time in Krabi. I’ve been to all of these places, and I’ve also helped people plan their trips there. This is the advice and feedback I give these people when they plan a trip through my company.

Krabi Town

I’m going to start with the least popular option, and that’s staying in Krabi Town.

I don’t really recommend this for the simple reason that there isn’t a beach nearby. If you’re going to come to Krabi, you’re probably here to go to the beach, so you may as well stay on the beach. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for most people to stay in Krabi Town. There are other things to do, but for the most part, Krabi is a beach destination, so you may as well be on the beach.

The advantages of staying in Krabi Town are that I think there’s a lot of street food available, and you’re also close to some places that are a bit more inland. For example, Emerald Pool is a cool place to visit, as is Tiger Cave Temple. However, these can easily be visited as a tour from Ao Nang, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend staying closer to them. It’s only going to save you maybe 20 minutes in the car.

Ao Nang Beach

Let’s talk about the most popular place to stay, and the one I would recommend for most people, and that’s Ao Nang Beach.

Ao Nang is the main tourist area in Krabi, and for good reason. There are lots of bars, lots of restaurants, and a great beach right there. This has the best options in terms of hotels. There are more hotels here, and there’s a good range of hotels. There are some cheap budget hostels and some higher-end ones. In my experience, the cheaper hostels are a bit further away from the beach, while the higher-end ones are towards the beach, especially towards the western side of Ao Nang.

So why do I think this is the best option for most people? I think it’s just the most convenient, and it has the most options available for things to do. I’ll talk about Railay in a minute, but one of the problems with Railay is that to access it, you actually have to come to Ao Nang first and then get a boat to Railay. This is going to be a problem if you have a lot of luggage, especially if you’re only staying there a few days, because you’re going to have to lug all your luggage onto a boat at the beach and then off the boat again to your next hotel. Whereas Ao Nang is about 45 minutes from the airport by car, so it’s easily accessible and taxis don’t cost a lot.

It’s got the most going on in terms of nightlife. There’s a strip of bars and restaurants along the beach, and these are always pretty lively at night. There’s a wide range of restaurants, with a lot of Western food and Thai food, so you can get whatever you want here. Ao Nang Beach itself is quite a nice beach. I don’t think it’s quite as nice as Railay, but Railay can be easily accessed from Ao Nang Beach anyway. There are longtail boats running every 20 minutes or so during the day, and they’ll easily take you to Railay Beach, so you can still explore Railay from Ao Nang.

In terms of nightlife, it also has a few more things going on. For example, there’s a Muay Thai Stadium if you want to go watch a Muay Thai fight, and there’s a cabaret show every night that plays three times a night. It’s quite famous. It’s called Blue Dragon Cabaret, and it’s a cabaret show. In terms of seeing the region of Krabi, it’s also easy to go to some of the tourist hotspots from here. I just mentioned that Railay is easily accessible, but if you want to do, for example, the Four Island Tour, which is a big tour where you go to some of the less explored islands, that’s very easy to do from Ao Nang. If you want to access some of the places on the mainland that I mentioned before, like Emerald Pool and Tiger Cave Temple, you can also do that as part of a tour from Ao Nang. It’s very easy to do from here, so Ao Nang, for me, kind of has the best of everything. You can do whatever you want from there. That’s why I say it’s best for most people.

Railay Beach

The final location that I want to talk about is Railay Beach. Like I just mentioned, to access Railay Beach, you need to catch a boat from Ao Nang. In my opinion, Railay Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the whole of Thailand, so you should definitely check this out while you’re here. But should you stay there?

I’ll start with the disadvantages. The disadvantages are that it closes down quite a lot at night, so don’t expect a lot in terms of bars and restaurants during the night time. There are a few open, so you can still have lots of fun, but nowhere near as many as there are in Ao Nang. In general, it’s a little bit pricey to stay over here, so if budget’s a thing, you might have to look harder to find a budget one. However, there are some very nice hotels, but way fewer hotels. This still might be the best option for some people because it has some very clear advantages.

Staying over in Railay Beach, you’re in a much more natural setting. If you want that kind of jungle setting, jungle beach setting, this is the place for it. The beach itself is absolutely stunning. A bit further inland, there’s mountains and caves, so you can wake up and you’re just surrounded by nature. I said this is one of my favorite beaches in Thailand. It’s also one of the most popular, so it does get busy during the day.

By far the main advantage of staying here is you get to see this place, this absolutely beautiful beach with no one around. If you stay here, I would recommend waking up early in the morning to go explore the beach. In the early morning, you’ll be able to see a lot more of the wildlife. There are a lot of monkeys that roam through here, and there are a lot of macaques roaming around. These are quite common in Thailand; they’re the most common type of monkey. Another type of monkey that I’ve noticed that lives on Railay Beach is the Dusky Leaf monkey. This is a much rarer monkey in Thailand. I’ve only ever seen it at Railay Beach, so you’ll hopefully be able to see them running around as well.

To summarize, I don’t really recommend staying in Krabi Town, especially if you want to be near the beach. For most people, Ao Nang is going to be the best option because it has the most stuff available and it’s the most easily accessible. However, for those who want maybe a quieter experience or to experience more nature and have a lot more beautiful scenery, Railay Beach might be the best option, even though it’s slightly trickier to get your stuff there and maybe not quite as convenient. Hopefully I’ve made your decision of where to stay a little bit easier.