After spending several beautiful days on Railay Beach, we headed for the Phi Phi Islands! I couldn’t wait to explore these islands that I had heard so much about. To get to the Phi Phi Islands, we decided to take the ferry. I was able to book the ferry tickets the day before from the same boat stand that is on Railay Beach. The ferry from Railay to Phi Phi was 400 bhat per person and leaves at 9:45 am. It is a little tricky to get to the ferry. The hotel will bring your luggage down to the long tail boats and then the long tail boat will dock right up next to the big ferry for you to climb aboard. Once again, I do not recommend bringing nice luggage as it will be in the sand and can get wet from the water.
The ferry ride from Railay to Phi Phi took about 1 hour 45 minutes. The ferry was nice and big enough to rest on the way to the Phi Phi Islands. The ferry docked at Tonsai Pier, and our hotel was there waiting to pick us up. We had to take another long tail boat to reach the hotel. The Pier was nice and there were several little shops and restaurants lining the street. In 2004, a Tsunami completely destroyed the Phi Phi Islands. Everything is now rebuilt and looks amazing. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like when the Tsunami hit. We knew we would be taking the ferry back to Phuket when we left so we went ahead and bought our tickets before we left the pier. The tickets for the ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket were 350 bhat each.
We stayed at the Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, and I highly recommend this hotel. It was my favorite of all the places we visited. From the minute we checked in to the minute we left the service was absolutely amazing. As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted with the most amazing pineapple drinks and cookies while we waited to get checked in.
We stayed in the two bedroom villa with a private pool. This was the highlight of the trip for Colt because he could swim all day! The resort was so beautiful and smelled so good with all the flowers along the paths of the hotel. Our villa was up on the hillside and there was a cart that would come and pick us up and take us anywhere we needed to go in the resort.
After swimming in the pool, we decided to check out the little village right outside the hotel. There is just a single street lined with a few souvenir shops and restaurants. It started to rain that evening so we decided to just order room service.
That night it rained and the wind picked up and I was so afraid we would not be able to take a long tail boat tour around the Phi Phi Islands. However, after breakfast the rain started to slow down and we were able to hire a long tail boat through the hotel. It was about $70 to book a private long tail boat that would take us on a tour around Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley. It turned out to be the most amazing day! Our first stop was to Pileh Lagoon, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The boys snorkeled and jumped on and off the boat.
Our next stop was to the famous Maya Bay. This beach was made famous because the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed here. However, the beach has been closed for tourism since June of 2018. It will remain closed until the natural resources return to normal. Maya Bay is a stunningly beautiful bay with high cliffs on three sides. The whole bay is one big reef. We were able to drive by the beach and to snorkel in the bay. It was so beautiful and filled with little colorful fish.
Our last stop was to Monkey Beach. This beach had the most beautiful turquoise water. The monkeys on this beach can be aggressive so you are not suppose to get too close to them. They will bite and if you get bit you have to get rounds of rabies shots. I warned the boys to not even think about getting too close to these monkeys. We watched as one man bent down to get a picture with a monkey and it jumped on his arm and bit him. I couldn’t believe it.
We had the most amazing day touring the Phi Phi Islands! If you ever come to Thailand you must visit these islands.
