Planning a trip from Phuket to Krabi and don’t know where to start? Here are the easiest, quickest and most affordable routes to Krabi from Phuket.
How to Get From Phuket to Krabi - The Ultimate Guide to Save You Time, Effort and Money!
- We did the leg work so you don't have to.
Planning a trip to Thailand can be daunting for first time travellers experiencing the country for the first time. It’s hard to plan and organise travel and transport via the internet. Trusting other travellers opinions and advice on the best way to book and plan your route.
The first thing we learnt about travelling was to expect the unexpected and to go with the flow. We never pre-book our trips or organise any transport in advance except for flights or unless we have to.
Understandably, for a lot of people this option isn’t viable. On an open ended trip, you can afford to get to a country and take a few extra hours or days exploring the location and slowly moving around the country hopping from town to city and everywhere in-between.
But if you’re lucky enough to escape the western world and experience Thailand for just two weeks or a month planning your trip and booking transport in advance is the only option to ensure you see everything and get the most of this amazing country.
We arrived in Phuket and wanted to get to Krabi, but how?
Flying into Phuket, Covid was still a thing and we arrived on the Sandbox scheme.
Most of you are probably thinking ‘what the hell is the Sandbox scheme?’.
The Sandbox scheme in short meant that in order tot enter the country we had to stay in the entry city we arrived in for 2 weeks before we could freely move around and travel the rest of the country.
We stayed in Patong (Phuket) for 2 weeks before we travelled to Krabi. This gave us a lot of time to plan and organise the best travel option to get us to Ao Nang in Krabi.
We knew we wanted to go to Krabi but just weren’t sure how to get there from Phuket. Asking around around and researching the best ways to get to Krabi from Phuket, we found out so many ways to get there based on budget, time and ease.
Here are the top 3 ways to get to Krabi from Phuket:
1. Bus
Cost: £
Time: *****
Difficulty: ++++
This is the route that we took. After researching, we saw that Phuket and Krabi are land tied. We thought maybe we could rent a scooter and drive there and back to Phuket for an adventure. But this ran into difficulties as most bike rentals don’t like you to take the bikes outside of the Phuket province.
Journeying to the Bus terminal and asked what time the bus leaves the station to Krabi and the very helpful Thai lady gave us a timetable. The bus timetable is online, however isn’t very reliable and doesn’t get updated frequently. Subsequently, the best option is to go the day/night before and just ask what time the bus will be leaving the next day.
We got to the bus terminal at 7:30am and the were on the bus and on our way by 8:15am.
The bus only cost us £2.70 each! The total journey time from Phuket to Krabi Town by bus was 2 hrs 45 mins. Then it was an extra 40 mins on the same bus to Ao Nang – The more popular beach town of Krabi.
This was the best option for us, as we were travelling slow, budget backpacking and didn’t mind travelling off the beaten track. The bus was full of local Thai people, we were the only tourists. Don’t let this put you off as it was super easy and so affordable. The bus was comfortable, had air conditioning and the time flew by and we arrived in Krabi by lunchtime.
This may not be the best option for people on a short break or who aren’t well travelled and may get lost or confused using a public transport system like this. But we would recommend the bus to all travellers making the journey from Phuket to Krabi. The Bus leaves from Phuket Bus Terminal 2 so make sure that you go to the correct one!
2. Speed Boat / Ferry
Cost: £££
Time: ***
Difficulty: +++
Not for the faint hearted. This crossing can be very rocky and dangerous even on a good day so travel with caution, the Andaman Sea can be unpredictable.
Direct boat from Phuket to Krabi takes around 2.5 hours. The boat can be unreliable and gets booked up fast. Ferries, aren’t as frequent as the buses and can get cancelled or moved easily without prior warning. However, it is a direct link from Phuket to Ao Nang so a shortened journey time then the bus route from Phuket to Ao Nang.
The boat leaves from Rassada Pier in Phuket Town. We personally didn’t want to go on the boat due to sea sickness and the cost and efficiency for us didn’t make sense. On average the boat can cost you between £15 – £30 per person. A lot more than the £2.70 we paid for the bus!
3. Private Taxi or Car Hire
Cost: £££££
Time: *
Difficulty: +
The next option is to pay for a private Taxi or to hire a car at the airport and drive yourself.
This option is great if you arrive to Phuket late at night and want to go straight to Krabi. But we would suggest if that were the case to book a few nights in Phuket and explore Phuket first before travelling to Krabi via one of the earlier mentioned transport options a few days later.
A taxi to Krabi only takes roughly 1hr 45 mins. It is quicker than the bus because it doesn’t have to follow a set route, therefore a shortened journey time. The taxis in Thailand are very comfortable and you can rest assured that your luggage is safe with you and you will arrive right outside your hotel lobby.
The only downside to this is that taxis for this route will cost you anywhere from £80 to £150. This isn’t the best option for budget backpackers. But if you’re on a time limit or short break it may be worth the splash of cash for the ease and timeframe travelling in a taxi provides.
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