Honeymooning in Krabi, Thailand

“I love the welcome drinks! Welcome drinks everywhere!” I said to Cam excitedly, after we had been handed a drink while checking into resort #2 in Krabi. We had also received a welcome drink at our first resort– a butterfly pea flower tea (Thailand is known for this purple-blue tea) that tasted amazing following a long morning traveling. 

“Not at our hostels, no,” Cam said. 

“Oh yeah, definitely not,” I replied, laughing. 

“Enjoy them while we can."

$145 a day. That’s roughly how much we budgeted for our four months of travel. Believe it or not, this is on the higher end for daily backpacker budgets for the Banana Pancake Trail – the famous backpacking route throughout Southeast Asia – because we had to factor in the more expensive destinations at the start (Singapore and Krabi) and end (Australia) of our trip, as well as our desire to have our own room and/or bathroom for accommodations when possible. We had decided during our planning that we didn’t necessarily want to be ultra-hardcore backpackers but also didn’t want to splurge the whole time (there’s a reason we picked SE Asia in the first place). $145 put us somewhere in the middle tier of backpackers. It would be easy enough to achieve that for most of our trip by staying in hostels, being reasonable on how much we spent on activities, etc., but we would definitely be going over budget on some days, like our “honeymoon” in Krabi. 

About a month or so before our wedding, Cam suggested we treat the beginning of our Thailand stint as our honeymoon. We had already planned on going to Southern Thailand – known for its beautiful beaches and islands – after Singapore, so we booked flights to Krabi and agreed to “ball out” a little bit on accommodations, which ended up being a couple pretty nice resorts for around $135 a night. We opted for Krabi instead of Phuket, because we wanted something a bit quieter and slightly less touristy. Krabi has a few areas/beaches you can stay in, which made booking ahead of time a little confusing. We ended up trying to decide between two locations: Ao Nang and Railay. From what we could tell, Ao Nang was typically recommended for first-time visitors to Krabi, while Railay fell under a kind of ambiguous “cool place to stay” category, as it’s only accessible by boat, so a bit more secluded. 

Railay Beach is only accessible by boat. You'll see longtail boats near the shore for people who are just coming on and off the beach for a day trip.

We ultimately landed on two nights in Railay and two nights in Ao Nang. Looking back, we didn’t totally factor in our travel days when booking– ideally we would have added maybe another night or two in each. We’re glad we spent time in both, but if we had to choose only one, it would probably be Railay, especially if you’re looking for a more quiet, private-island feel. Ao Nang is a lot more developed with restaurants and hotels, which makes for a fun vibe, just different. For the NC people reading this, Cam noted that Railay is like the Outer Banks of Krabi while Ao Nang is like Wilmington. For my West Coast people, I’d say Ao Nang is the Venice Beach to Railay’s Malibu. 

Ao Nang has a busy main street lined with tons of restaurants, accommodations, and shops.

Because Railay Beach is only accessible by boat, it makes it a little harder to get there and get off of it. That didn’t matter much to us, though, because we just wanted to spend our time on the beach, lying on the white sand and enjoying views of the surrounding limestone cliffs. 

Views of the limestone cliffs on Railay, which can be found on both sides of the beach.

Thailand decided to welcome us with aggressive sunburns in weirdly matching places on our first full day, and, as Cam accurately put it, it was “like three chilis hot” outside, but we powered through. We were just happy soaking it all in, sharing plenty of “wow, I can’t believe we’re here” moments. 

Railay is where I read the bulk of Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, passed on to me by Cam. Reading this book at this time was affirming in a lot of ways, particularly in the decision to do what we were doing. In the chapter “Earn Your Freedom,” Potts talks about how we can root ourselves to a home or career and use the future “as a kind of phony ritual that justifies the present. In this way, we end up spending (as Thoreau put it) ‘the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.’ We’d love to drop all and explore the world outside, we tell ourselves, but the time never seems right,” Potts says. “Thus, given an unlimited amount of choices, we make none. Settling into our lives, we get so obsessed with holding on to our domestic certainties that we forget why we desired them in the first place. Vagabonding is about gaining the courage to loosen your grip on the so-called certainties of this world. Vagabonding is about refusing to exile travel to some other, seemingly more appropriate time of your life.” 

Rolf Potts is a huge proponent of vagabonding, the act of leaving behind the orderly world to travel independently for an extended period of time.

I feel like Krabi is where it really hit us that we weren’t just on vacation for a few days. We didn’t really have domestic certainties we were holding on to back home. We dropped a lot of those to do this instead, and it felt freeing. We were really doing it. 

Another wow moment, or a few wow moments, came from the excursion we took on our second day in Ao Nang. Ao Nang is a jumping-off point for a number of incredible islands in Krabi; these are the kinds of islands that most are picturing when they say, “I’ve always wanted to go to Thailand.” We chose a half-day longtail boat excursion to Hong Island, the generally less crowded but still awe-inspiring alternative to the more popular Phi Phi Islands. And DAMN. It really delivered. 

We spent a couple hours on Hong Island, first taking the nature walk and then embarking on the steep climb up 427 stairs (Cam counted) to a one-of-a-kind lookout point in the area and arguably the best view in all of Krabi. Here, you can see a number of the other islets popping up like little thumbs out of the Andaman Sea, taller than they are wide. 

The climb to Hong Island's 360° View Point is 100% worth it for the incredible views.

We came back down to spend some time on the beach, which was starting to acquire a few more people. One Instagram vs. reality moment that I want to clear up– those beautiful photos you see people take of the white-sand beaches and turquoise waters where the island (in this case, Hong Island) looks empty are almost always a lie; I guarantee that there are more than a few people just outside of the shot enjoying that same beach. And, if it is in fact empty, then they woke up at the ass-crack of dawn to see it that way. 

Once you adopt the mindset of “everyone here is just trying to enjoy this beautiful place like I am,” then your attitude on crowds gets much better, and then it just becomes fun to take things in while also people watching. On the Hong Island beach, we observed a woman put on an extensive mermaid outfit, complete with a seashell bra and a waterproof tail; her father then proudly proceeded to take a number of photos of her– some in the ocean, a handful on the beach, a few on the rocks by the limestone cliffs, and a full photoshoot underwater. “I love it when people just do what they want,” I said at one point, admiring Hong Island’s new mermaid. “Ain’t got enough time to do anything else,” Cam replied. 

Hong Island is a great alternative to Phi Phi. If you can, try to get an earlier longtail boat departure to beat more of the crowds. Instead of leaving Ao Nang between 9-10, we left between 8-9 in the morning.

Following a picturesque ride around the lagoon side of Hong Island surrounded by seafoam green water, our longtail boat guides took us to a couple other islands in the area. The second, Laolading, is one island where we did actually only encounter a few people, and it was incredibly beautiful. I can’t do it justice with just a description, so I’ll include a photo for proof. 

The lagoon is a beautiful stop on the Hong Island longboat tour.

Not sure if it was luck or just timing, but we were some of the only people on Laolading Island. This is a common stop on most Hong Island day tours, but if you want to make sure you go, I'd recommend confirming it's in the itinerary.

I will say, it was nice to embrace a bit more of the “relaxer” mindset during this stretch of our time in Thailand. While we may not be enjoying any more welcome drinks from here on out, there’s a lot more to see and do in this country (hopefully within our budget lol) that we’re excited about. 

Additional Tips/Thoughts on Krabi:

• Look at Agoda to book resorts. You’ll find tons of reviews and information, but be wary of the photos; reality is always going to be a tad less picture-perfect. We stayed in Railay Bay Resort and Spa and Avani Ao Nang Cliff Krabi Resort and would recommend both. 

• Have plenty of Thai baht on you during your travels in Thailand (with some tucked away in a safe place). Most places require cash. 

• You can book all excursions, next-destination transportation, etc., on the streets of Ao Nang. You’ll find plenty of tourist stands that can give you a quote– I recommend stopping by a few to confirm the average pricing, and you can always negotiate a little to see if they’ll go down. 

• Dining recs: Kohinoor Indian Restaurant & Pizza in Railay (still thinking about the Indian food we had here) and Thai Me Up Pang in Ao Nang were two favorites. You’ll be surprised at the number of restaurants that have “Thai Food, Indian Food, Vegetarian Food, Pizza and Mexican” all in their description on signage outside. 

• Almost all restaurants are outside/open-air, so be prepared to enjoy that three-chilis-hot weather while eating. Most restaurants do have fans, though, that are surprisingly effective. 

• Sometimes you’ll take a wrong turn or two, often when you have both backpacks strapped to your front and back. Don’t panic– you’ll find your way, and often you’ll end up on a street or a corner you might not have seen otherwise, so try to enjoy the detour.