We stayed on Railay Beach during our trip to Thailand. I'll be honest by saying this was the one location I was most tentative about. It was where we booked our cheapest hotel and what we thought as the most complicating to get to. We prepaid for our rooms with no refund, or we likely would have ended up elsewhere. I actually considered losing the money we paid on the room - luckily for us, that wasn't the case.
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| Railay West Beach |
Railay Beach is a large peninsula between the city of Krabi and Ao Nang in Thailand. It is accessible only by boat due to high limestone cliffs cutting off mainland access. We came from Phuket and could have taken a Ferry directly to Railay Beach, instead we went by car (big mistake,
read about it here at the end of the post). Our van dropped off at the Ao Nang pier, where we purchased a ticket for a longtail boat to take us to Railay West. The cost for this is 100 baht a person but they will only leave the pier when you have 8 or more people in the boat. We didn't want to wait for four additional people and we were able to pay double.
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| Railay West Beach |
The boat ride is short, about 10 minutes. Railay West does not have a pier so you will likely get wet getting out of the boat. Railay East has a pier and it is easy to walk from there to West. Not only did we get soaked, but our luggage also got wet. You can bring trash bags to keep your stuff from getting wet.
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| Railay West Walking Street |
Once we arrived at Railay West, we snagged a few pictures of the sunset (amazing!) and walked through the walking street where the restaurants, bars and shops were located. Both Railay West and Railay East have a walking street but there are more things to do on West. Railay West has a beach, where Railay East has mangroves.
We stayed at
Railay Phutawan Resort. Gabe and I paid $60 USD a night for a deluxe double room with sea view. It was a huge room with a stunning view over their infinity pool. The staff met us at the end of walking street to get our luggage. It is a uphill walk to the resort but we had no issues with it (except when it rained, the street flooded a bit).
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| Railay Phutawan Resort |
Overall, I was very impressed with Railay Phutawan Resort and would recommend staying there. You can also send your clothes off to be washed for 60 baht per kilo. The food was decent and we enjoyed many frozen drinks by the pool. However beware - if you have a balcony room, the warning about monkeys breaking into rooms for the mini-bar are not a joke! We witnessed it (and luckily locked our doors)!
Railay has something for everyone. You can go rock climbing, cliff diving, kayaking, SUP, take a private longtail to the Krabi 4 Islands, visit Phi Phi islands and much more. It's very easy to rent any of the non-motorized watersports. There are vendors on the beach and they will negotiate pricing so be sure to ask!
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| Maya Bay, Phi Phi Islands |
On our first day in Railay, we did an organized early bird Phi Phi Islands tour. It was magical and the top highlight of our entire trip.
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| Longtail Boat or Uber Eats? |
On our second day in Railay, we took a longtail boat over to Ao Nang and had lunch. We planned on buying beer and wine while over there to bring back to Railay but unfortunately were there during the no sale of alcohol time frame (1pm-5pm). The prices for buy beer and wine in Railay are higher than the mainland (and the mainland had a much better selection). After we took the longtail back to Railay, we decided to go stand up paddle boarding. We went over to Phra Nang Beach which was on the other side of the Railay West cliff. Here you will find more vendors, but nothing like Railay West. They even had a longtail food truck!
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| Phra Nang Cave |
Phra Nang Beach has a cave (AKA Princess Cave) where fishermen, before going out to sea, have made offerings to the symbolic Phallus of Shiva (known as the Siwaleung or Palad Khik in Thai). The fishermen believed the cave is the home of a mythical sea princess and that their offerings will bring them success and protect from danger. Well......... that gift is a wooden carved - yeah those carvings are what is looks like.
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| Railay Beach |
Our third day in Railay, we rented Kayaks for 2 hours. We easily could have had them for the whole day. We went back over to Phra Nang Beach and explored various cliffs and islands. It was very relaxing and we had a great time.
That night, we did the
Railay Cooking Class. Each couple selected our own starters, side, main and desert. This was a neat experience and we all took home skills. The only negative I have on this night was that they allowed another group to jump in (after we pre-paid for our reservations the day before which was a requirement) - it was supposed to be reservation only and this caused our cooking lesson to last nearly 3 hours.
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| Railay Cooking Class |
We learned to make the following dishes:
Tom Ka Gai (chicken coconut soup)
Som Tum (Green Papaya Salad)
Yum Woon Sen (Glass Noodle Salad)
Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings
Massaman Curry
Pad See Ew
Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice
If I were to plan another trip to Thailand, I would surely allow for more nights in Railay. I loved the relaxed vyb to the island and it was magically beautiful. If you are planning a trip to Thailand, I strongly suggest spending a few nights here.
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