The 7-Island Tour in Ao Nang, Krabi – What to Expect

One of the most popular tours from Ao Nang, Krabi, is the 7-island tour, also called the 4-island tour depending on the tour provider. In this article, we’ll share what this tour is like, what to expect, and our honest opinion, so that you can decide if it’s worth going or not.

Related article: Ao Nang Travel Guide for First Timers (Krabi, Thailand)

Recommended reading: One-Month Thailand Itinerary

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Table of Contents

• What is the 7-Island Tour in Ao Nang?
• Speed Boat or Long Tail Boat?
• Morning Tour or Sunset Tour?
• The 7-Island Tour (Krabi) – What to Expect
• The 7-Island Tour (Krabi) – Is it Worth it?
• Other Thailand Travel Guides

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What is the 7-Island Tour in Ao Nang?

The 7-island or 4-island tour is one of the most popular tours from Ao Nang, Krabi. This tour includes visiting a nearby group of islands in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Krabi province. Usually, it includes the following places, but might vary slightly depending on the operator:

• Tup Island (Koh Tup): connected by a sandbar to nearby islands that you can see during low tide;
• Poda Island (Koh Poda): known for its white sand beach with crystal clear blue water;
• Chicken island (Koh Gai): known for its unique rock formation resembling a chicken’s head;
• Railay beach: beautiful beach with beautiful limestone cliffs landscape;
• Phra Nang Cave: sacred cave associated with fertility.

If you like to have everything planned and figured out or if you have limited time in Thailand, you can book your trips in advance using apps like GetYourGuide, for example. Please note that many packages don’t include the National Park fees.

Alternatively, we recommend buying the tour from local tour operators. You’ll usually get better prices if you’re wiling to negotiate. We got our tour for 1100 baht per person, with the National Park fees included for the sunset tour.

Speed Boat or Long Tail Boat?

Most tours will have the option of either going by long-tail boat or speedboat. The long-tail boats are the traditional wooden Thai boats. While these are great for pictures, they are very noisy and slow, but usually cheaper than taking a speedboat. The speedboat is usually more comfortable and faster, but bumpier than the long-tail boats. These are also more expensive than the long-tail boat option.

We did this tour by long-tail boat, which was a bit uncomfortable since we spent a considerable amount of time on the boat. If you’re willing to pay a bit more for a speedboat, you’ll have a more comfortable journey.

Morning Tour or Sunset Tour?

You can choose to do this tour in the morning or in the afternoon with a sunset option. We chose the sunset tour because it included seeing and swimming with the bioluminescent plankton at night. And we did see it! So, if that’s on your bucket list, choose the sunset tour (make sure it includes seeing the bioluminescent plankton).

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The 7-Island Tour (Krabi) – What to Expect

We’ll describe what our tour looked like. Most tours with a similar name will follow a similar itinerary, even though it may change slightly depending on the tour provider and weather conditions.

Most tours offer pickup from the hotel, so you don’t have to worry about transportation to the starting point. In our case, from the pickup-up time to the start of the tour, it took approximately one hour.

If your tour has a stop for snorkeling, they’ll usually provide snorkeling gear: mask and tube.

Koh Tup and Koh Thap

The first stop of the tour was on Tup Island. This is a very small island with crystal-clear blue water. When the tide is low, it reveals a sandbar that connects the island to the nearby Koh Thap Island. This sandbar that divides the sea is called Thale Waek. If you’re lucky enough to experience a super low tide, these two islands will connect by a larger sandbar to the nearby Chicken Island.

The water on this island is very shallow, so it’s not a great place to swim. But, it’s nice to dip your feet in the water.

Tip: make sure to bring water shoes or sandals that you can use on the water, otherwise you may cut your feet on the shells and corals.

Due to the small size of the island and the many boats stopping there at the same time, this was the place on the tour where it felt most crowded.

Chicken Island

The next stop was next to the Chicken island. This island has this name because it has a rock that resembles a chicken head.

The boat stopped next to the island for some snorkeling. Unfortunately, the snorkeling was not very interesting as the corals were mostly dead, and there wasn’t much variety of fish. So, don’t expect much from the snorkeling here.

Tip: if you’re looking for great snorkeling trips, we recommend the trips from Koh Lanta or Koh Lipe. We had the time of our lives snorkeling there (read about our snorkeling tour in Koh Lanta here).

Related article: Koh Lanta Travel Guide: 3-Day Itinerary and 10 Best Things to Do

Koh Poda

The next island was Koh Poda. I really liked this island. It was my favorite place on the whole tour. Here, you can enjoy a beautiful beach with white sand and crystal-clear blue water.

There’s also a beautiful view from this island of the nearby limestone rocks and cliffs. Unfortunately, our time there was very rushed.

Tip: instead of doing this tour, you might consider catching a boat from Ao Nang to Koh Poda and spend an afternoon or morning there. For more things to do in Ao Nang, Krabi, make sure to take a look at our guide: Ao Nang Travel Guide for First Timers (Krabi, Thailand).

Sunset at the Railay Beach

Finally, we stopped at Railay Beach to watch the sunset and have dinner. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late for the sunset, but it was worth it just for the landscape.

This beach is really beautiful, with interesting caves and rock formations with stalactites. Due to the shape of its rock formations, this is quite a popular place for rock climbing.

Phra Nang Cave

Next to Railay Beach is the famous Phra Nang Cave, also known as the Princess Cave. Inside, you’ll find wooden carvings shaped like phalluses. Local people visit this sacred place to ask for help with fertility problems or seek blessings for fertility and safe childbirth.

Dinner Next to the Railay Beach

Our dinner at a nearby restaurant (a 10-minute walk from Railay Beach) was buffet-style and included a variety of dishes. The food was not the best, but it was actually pretty good considering it was buffet-style. Don’t eat too much because you’ll be snorkeling again right after dinner to see the bioluminescent plankton.

Watching the Bioluminescent Plankton in Krabi

Finally, after dinner, the boat stopped at the “middle” of the sea in an area with less light pollution so that we could see the bioluminescence.

You have to go snorkeling to see the bioluminescence. Just splash the water with your hands and feet, and you’ll start seeing it shining like stars in the sky—it’s not bright blue like you see in some photoshopped pictures, but it’s quite a magical and unique experience.

For those not brave enough to go snorkeling in the dark, our guides threw some buckets of water inside the boat so you can also see the bioluminescence without going into the water. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of the plankton because you can’t catch its light on camera.

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The 7-Island Tour (Krabi) – Is it Worth it?

Overall, I would say yes, but it depends on what you’re expecting. For example, here are some things to take into account before going on the 7-island tour:

• Because this is one of the most popular tours, most places of interest will be inevitably crowded.
• Even though it’s called the 7-island tour, we only stopped at two islands and at the Railay beach. The other islands, you only see from afar and sometimes are not even mentioned by the tour guides.
• The English of most tour guides is very limited. They know some basic sentences, but if you want to ask something more specific, usually they are not able to answer it.
• The snorkeling included in the trip was not the best. We did much better snorkeling on tours in Koh Lipe and Koh Lanta.

But, there are also great positive points about going on this tour. First of all, it’s quite an affordable tour and it includes water, snacks, and lunch or dinner.

If you have limited time in Krabi, this is a great way to explore several places in just half a day. However, if you have a little bit more time, I think it’s better to focus on just one island, for example, Koh Poda. You can easily arrange transportation from Ao Nang Beach to Koh Poda or to Railay Beach.

Seeing the bioluminescent plankton was a great experience and is on many people’s bucket lists. We also saw bioluminescent plankton on another tour we did on the Phi Phi Islands.

Related article: Koh Phi Phi: Things to Do and Tips for First-Timers

Finally, a great alternative to the 7-island tour is the Hong Islands Tour. We didn’t do that tour, but I’ve heard very good feedback about it, and many mention that it’s usually not so crowded.

Other Thailand Travel Guides

We hope our review about the 7-island tour from Ao Nang, Krabi, helps you plan your time in Thailand. We have other guides you may find useful:

Finally, you can use our links to book accommodation and activities and find cheap flights. You won’t pay more for it and you’ll be supporting our work.

Thanks for reading.