The Best Area to Stay in Krabi, Area by Area

Ao Nang is the working centre of Krabi tourism, a strip of hotels, dive shops, pharmacies and restaurants behind a beach where the longtail boats pull up. Almost every island trip leaves from here or from the pier next door, the airport bus stops along the strip, and it is the only place on this coast where you can eat somewhere different every night for a week without getting in a vehicle. The karst islands sitting offshore mean the view is spectacular even when the sand is not.

Good to know: The beach is the weakest thing about Ao Nang. It is narrow, the road runs close behind it, and the boat traffic keeps the water busy at the near end. People who want to swim tend to walk or take a boat somewhere else, and use Ao Nang for everything that happens out of the water.

Railay is a peninsula cut off from the mainland by limestone walls, so there is no road and no way in except by boat. What you get for that is the most dramatic landscape in southern Thailand, world-class rock climbing on the cliffs above the beach, and Phra Nang beach around the corner, which is one of the best-looking stretches of sand in the country. Evenings are quiet because most of the day-trippers have gone home on the last boats.

Good to know: Everything costs more because everything arrived by boat, including your luggage. Longtails from Ao Nang run about 100 baht per person in daylight and around 150 baht after about six in the evening, and they leave when roughly eight people have turned up rather than to a timetable. If you are arriving late, or with small children and a lot of bags, that wait is a real thing to plan for.

Krabi Town sits on the river a half hour inland from the beaches, and it is where Krabi actually lives. Rooms cost a fraction of Ao Nang, the night market is the best cheap eating in the province, and the bus station and boat piers make it the easiest place to base yourself if you plan to move around a lot. It is also the honest answer for anyone who finds resort strips depressing.

Good to know: There is no beach. None. Getting to the sand means a songthaew or a minibus to Ao Nang, which is fine once a day and tiresome twice. Stay here for the food, the prices and the transport links, not for a swim before breakfast.

A long, tree-backed beach immediately north of Ao Nang and inside the national park, which is why it never got built up the same way. It is a fifteen minute walk or a very short songthaew ride to all of Ao Nang's restaurants and boats, so you get the quiet without being cut off. The sunsets here are the ones people photograph, and the beach is wide enough that it never feels crowded.

Good to know: Two things. The tide goes a very long way out, so mid-afternoon can mean a long walk across flats rather than a swim. And Thailand's tourism authority lists Hat Nopparat Thara by name among the places where jellyfish, including box jellyfish, are found. That does not mean do not swim, it means read the signs and take a purple flag seriously.

Twenty-odd minutes north of Ao Nang, Klong Muang is a broad, calm, shallow bay lined with mid-size resorts and very little else. No boat noise, no strip, no scooters weaving past your dinner. For families with small children it is the easiest water on this coast to actually swim in, and for couples it is quiet in a way Ao Nang never is.

Good to know: You are committing to your hotel. There are only a handful of restaurants outside the resorts, and any evening that is not dinner where you are staying involves a taxi to Ao Nang and a taxi back. Price that in before booking a week.

Further north again, Tubkaek is a short strip of upmarket resorts facing the islands, with the Dragon Crest trail behind it for anyone who wants the best free view in the province. It is the closest thing Krabi has to seclusion without getting on a boat, and the sunsets across the offshore karsts are the reason people come back.

Good to know: This is the most isolated mainland base on this page. Independent restaurants are few, Ao Nang is a genuine drive rather than a hop, and without a scooter or a hire car you will be eating at your hotel most nights. It suits a honeymoon and punishes a curious traveller.

Ao Nam Mao is the pier east of Ao Nang where the shorter, cheaper and calmer boats to Railay leave from, and there is a thin scattering of small resorts along the road behind it. If your plan is to be on Railay and Phra Nang every day but not to pay Railay prices to sleep, this is the arithmetic that works, and the crossing is shorter and less bouncy than the Ao Nang one.

Good to know: There is essentially no village here. Dining is whatever your guesthouse cooks plus one or two roadside places, and the beach at Ao Nam Mao itself is muddy at low tide and not really for swimming. This is a base for people with a scooter and a plan, not a holiday destination in itself.