Renowned for some of the most beautiful and exquisite beaches and islands in Thailand, Krabi boasts a selection of over 200 islands. Each island offers its own unique character and natural beauty, featuring pristine, untouched white sandy beaches, and crystal-clear waters. It makes perfect sense that one of the most popular activities in the area is to embark on a 4 island tour from Krabi for the day.
Among the myriad of tropical paradises off the coast of Krabi are the stunning “fab-four”. These are: Poda Island, Tup Island, Chicken Island, and Phra Nang Beach. All are accessible from Ao Nang beach, no more than a 30-minute boat ride away, making them ideal for a day of exploring.
Island hopping the ‘fab-four’ islands from Krabi
You can visit any of these islands individually by paying for a longtail boat from Ao Nang Beach. A return trip will cost around 300 BHT. The boat however won’t be private, so you’ll need to wait for others to turn up before you can head off. The islands are part of a protected National Park, requiring an additional fee of roughly 200 BHT upon arrival. While booking a longtail boat directly gives you flexibility to spend your day how you like, it will be a challenge to visit all 4 islands in a day, unless you charter a longtail privately.
The best way to see each of these islands is via an organised 4 island tour from Krabi. We booked with Thalassa Tours and highly recommend them for this day trip. Many other companies offer this island hopping day, but we found Thalassa exceptional. If helpful, we have added further details about Thalassa Tours and the 4 island tour from Krabi at the bottom of this post.
Poda Island (“Ko Poda”)
Whether you have booked a longtail boat to explore these islands yourself, or if you’ve booked with a company, your first visit will likely be to the tropical paradise of Poda Island (“Ko Poda”, in Thai). Known for its powdery white beaches and turquoise waters, the island has stunning scenery and views. From here you can look to the dramatic limestone cliffs of Krabi and karsts which dot the horizon.
After a short boat ride across the Andaman Sea, we were in awe of this tropical paradise. Thalassa Tours timed our visit to avoid the crowds, allowing us to enjoy the island peacefully. The beach is fringed with soft leafy trees, providing natural shade from the sun. The waters are calm and shallow, ideal for swimming, paddling, or some snorkeling to watch the vibrant marine life.
We had ample time on Poda Island, enjoying the beach, the views, and playing in the ocean. Our guides cooked us an incredible Thai buffet, consisting of vegetable spring rolls and a light Thai curry. There was more than enough food for all of us, and they catered to everyone’s dietary requests, whether veggie or meat eaters.
As part of the tour, you can comfortably spend an hour here, sunbathing or strolling along the beach. If you come here independently you can spend the day here before the longtails head back around 3pm – 4pm.
Chicken Island (“Koh Gai/Kai”) & Tup Island (“Koh Tap / Koh Thap”)
Next, we hopped back on the longtail to nearby Chicken Island, named for its unusual rock formation that looks like a chicken’s head (of course). If you are visiting on a different day to Ko Poda, you will have to pay the entrance fee to the National Park again.
Once you’ve arrived, you can swim in the clear waters, or sunbathe along the soft sandy beach. Taking some much needed downtime on these islands allows you to truly take in and appreciate the dreamy scenery around you. During low-tide, a sandbank, called “Tha-le Waek” (separated sea), connects Chicken Island to Tup Island. You can’t cross during high-tide because the currents are too strong. National Park employees will stop people from trying to cross at this time. However it’s perfectly safe to do so at low-tide.
There are also some lovely leafy spots on the beach, so you can relax in the shade. It’s not possible to walk to the chicken-shaped formation (this is only viewable by boat). You can however walk to a beautiful viewpoint, looking over Tup Island, and towards Ko Poda and Krabi.
We made the short crossing over to Tup Island, which has its own small sandbank which splits Tup Island in two. If the tide is out you can spend the day sunbathing on this sandy strip or swimming in the turquoise waters. If you time it right, this can be another serene slice of paradise. However during the peak of the day, it is highly popular with tourists and you can expect this tiny slice of beach to be busy.
Beware also of mischievous monkeys on Tup Island! We witnessed a monkey rifling through a couple’s bag while they swam. Keep your belongings secure and your wits even closer to you – monkeys can bite and be dangerous. Someone made a lunge at the monkey to scare it away from the bag only for the monkey to lunge back!
Snorkelling at Koh Sii
We didn’t spend loads of time at Tup Island as it is the smallest of the 4 islands and the busiest. We boarded our longtail again and towards Koh Sii, a renowned diving and snorkeling spot. The translucent water, excellent visibility and variety of colourful fish and coral make this an ideal snorkeling destination. Many tour companies include snorkeling as an activity when you book the 4 island tour from Krabi. Due to the distance from Krabi, I’m not aware of any independent longtails that offer Koh Sii as an option.
We arrived at Koh Sii and were handed our snorkeling gear each. We hadn’t done any “proper” snorkeling before where you could see marine life and we were excited to get going. Koh Sii is 15-18 meters at its deepest, providing optimum conditions for marine life. From hard & soft corals, to seahorses, starfish and clownfish. The time flew by as we spent about an hour snorkeling and admiring the marine activity.
The day was sadly drawing to a close. We sat and admired the evening sun as we set sail back to Krabi. However, we still had one more island to visit as part of the tour!
Phra Nang Beach
Although attached to mainland Krabi, Phra Nang beach is only accessible by boat. Known for its striking natural beauty, the beach is framed by cliffs and caves. One such cave, “Princess Cave”, is filled with phallic symbols in honour of the goddess of fertility. We sat on the golden beach, enjoying dinner prepared by our guide, and admired uninterrupted views of the sunset.
Even if you don’t come here as part of the 4 island tour from Krabi, Phra Nang beach should definitely be on your visit list. It was our favourite out of all the islands and beaches we visited. If you’re visiting alone, you can grab a longtail from Ao Nang Beach for 100BHT each way. The trip should take no more than 15/20 minutes, as Phra Nang can be found just further up from Railay Beach.
If you’re on the beach during the evening you’ll also be able to watch the bats flying from the limestone cliffs, fluttering amongst the jungle fauna. It’s an incredible spectacle and although purely coincidental timing, it was a massive highlight of the day for us!
The final part of the day involved some night snorkeling to witness the natural phenomenon that is bioluminescent plankton! Until booking this trip we had no idea this was a thing, but what an amazing thing to witness! This type of plankton produce their own light from chemical reactions that happen when moving. As we bathed in the sea, moving our hands in front of us, the water would react and light up in front of us. We absolutely loved it!
This sadly concluded our relaxing but somewhat action-packed day. The 4 island tour from Krabi really does allow you to experience the diversity of landscape and the underwater wonders that make Krabi such a paradise for nature and travel lovers.
About Thalassa Tours
We came across Thalassa Tours on TripAdvisor when searching for tours in the area. We booked this 4 island tour from Krabi with them through Viator. The cost was really reasonable (£135 for us both in 2018) which included the full-day tour, National Park entrance fees, bottles of water, a lunch buffet, dinner, and snorkeling gear.
The team were fun and knowledgeable, talking about the natural surroundings and local history. They also offer other private and small-group tours, such as a day trip to Phi Phi Islands or Hong Island.
If you’re looking to book a 4 island tour from Krabi, we highly recommend Thalassa! We had an unforgettable time!
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