Phi Phi Islands Tour – What to Expect

The Phi Phi Islands are one of the most beautiful places in Thailand. The best way to see the most iconic places in this amazing archipelago is to go on an organized tour. While most tours will visit the same places, some might be better than others depending on your preferences. In this article, we’ll provide you with useful information, a detailed overview of what our tour looked like, what to expect, and our honest opinion so that you know how to choose the best Phi Phi islands tour for you.

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

Recommended reading: One-Month Thailand Itinerary

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What is Included in This Guide?

Besides giving you an overview of what our tour looked like, we also provide useful information about tours to Koh Phi Phi. You can use the links below to quickly navigate to the sections that interest you the most.

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How to Choose a Phi Phi Islands Tour?

Choosing a tour to the Phi Phi islands might be overwhelming, specially if this is your first time in Thailand. We’ll analyze some important aspects you must take into consideration before buying your tour. Here are 9 things you should know before choosing a Phi Phi Islands Tour.

1. What are the Phi Phi Islands (Koh Phi Phi)?

Before getting to the Phi Phi islands tour, let’s just make a quick introduction about this beautiful place in Thailand.

The Phi Phi islands are a group of six islands in the Andaman sea. The main islands in the group are Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh.

Phi Phi Don is the only inhabited island and the only island of the Phi Phi group where you can stay overnight. It is well developed with several hotels, restaurants, bars, and much more.

Phi Phi Leh, the second largest island of the archipelago, is a stunning island famous for the Maya Bay featured on the movie “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

There are other smaller islands, like the Bamboo and Mosquitto islands, usually included in the Phi Phi islands tour.

To learn more about the Phi Phi islands, take a look at our Koh Phi Phi travel guide: Koh Phi Phi: Things to Do and Tips for First-Timers.

2. Where to Start the Phi Phi Islands Tour From?

We recommend staying a couple of nights in Phi Phi Don and start the tour from there. If you won’t stay at Phi Phi Don, tours to the Phi Phi islands are available from nearby places like Krabi (Ao Nang), Phuket, and Koh Lanta.

If you’re not staying at Phi Phi Don, take into account that you’ll spend more time on the journey and less time exploring the places.

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

3. What Islands to Include

If you’re departing from Phi Phi Don, it’s best if the tour focuses more in Phi Phi Leh, which is where the most beautiful places are located. It should also include the Bamboo island, that is also stunning.

If you’re departing from other places, some tours will focus on the two main islands: Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. Some give you time in Phi Phi Don to walk to the viewpoints and explore the Tonsai village. In my opinion Phi Phi Don is not as beautiful as Phi Phi Leh, so I don’t think it’s worth the extra time to hike to the viewpoints and see the shops in the village. It’s better if you spend more time in Phi Phi Leh and Bamboo island.

4. Morning Tour or Sunset Tour

Different tour providers will start their tours on different schedules. Supposedly, the early bird tours will beat the crowds—the only problem is that there are many tours that will go early in the morning. That might go well in low season, but I think it will be difficult to beat the crowds in high season, regardless of the schedule.

It’s a bit difficult to beat the crowds in such popular places. But, if you want to have Maya Bay just for yourself, it’s better to arrange a private tour or a boat taxi driver to arrive at Maya Bay around sunrise time.

Our tour departed around 11AM from Tonsai pier. We arrived at Maya Bay around lunch time, and there were much less people than I expected. We watched the sunset from the boat and went snorkeling with the bioluminescent plankton. For these reasons, I think you’ll go well with a sunset tour, but that will greatly depend on your preferences.

5. Speedboat 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.

On this tour you’ll spend a considerable amount of time in the boat, so I recommend going with a speedboat. We chose the speedboat option and it was very comfortable.

6. Snorkeling

Most tours will include two or three stops for snorkeling. If you don’t like snorkeling, it’s probably better to search for a tour that doesn’t include snorkeling. If you’re not a good swimmer, but you don’t want to miss the opportunity to see vibrant marine life, don’t worry. With the life jacket on you can go snorkeling safely even if you don’t know how to swim.

Even though we did much better snorkeling on tours from Koh Lipe and Koh Lanta, I still recommend including snorkeling on the Phi Phi tour itinerary.

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

7. Food

Usually, most tours will include lunch, drinks, and snacks (usually pineapple and watermelon).

8. National Park Fees

The Phi Phi islands are part of the Phi Phi National Park. You’ll need to pay the national park fee when going on the tour. The price of the tour might include the national park fee or not.

9. Where to Buy a Phi Phi Islands Tour?

You have several options. You can buy from local tour providers in Phi Phi Don, Krabi, Phuket, etc. There is no shortage of agencies in Thailand selling tours. Usually, you can get better prices when buying locally. Many times you can negotiate to include the National Park fees in the price and even get an additional discount.

Another alternative is to arrange a taxi boat to take you to the places that interest you the most. This is a great option if you want to follow a specific itinerary and schedule and if you’re travelling with a group of friends because you’ll have a boat just for yourselves. Additionally, when splitting the cost, it will be cheaper than going on a tour.

Alternatively, if you are short on time and you want to have everything arranged for your trip, you can buy your tour in advance on apps like Get Your Guide, for example. Each tour option has its itinerary well described and you can read the reviews of other costumers.

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Phi Phi Islands Tour – What to Expect

We’ll describe what our tour looked like. We were hosted at Phi Phi Don, so our tour departed from the Tonsai pier. We went with Phi Phi Brazuca that organizes tours for Portuguese-speaking people. We departed around 11AM.

Most Phi Phi Islands Tours usually include the same places, but might visit them on a different order and different schedule. If your tour is departing from a different place, like Krabi, or Phuket, it will probably follow a different itinerary, but will visit the same places.

Monkey Beach

Approximately 20minutes after leaving the Tonsai pier, we arrived at the Monkey Beach. There are two Monkey Beaches in Phi Phi Don. One on the northern part and another in the southern part. Our tour stopped at the Monkey beach in the south. This was just a quick stop to look at the monkeys and take some pictures.

Tip: If your tour also goes to this Monkey beach, you can easily visit the other one on a different day on a kayak.

Don’t get too close to the monkeys, they might feel threatened and might attack you. That’s their natural habitat, so make sure you are not bothering them. Additionally, take care of your stuff so you don’t get stolen. They love to rob plastic bags and things hanging out of the backpacks.

Viking Cave

We continued our journey, and approximately after 15 minutes, we arrived at the most northern part of Phi Phi Leh, the second largest island of the group. The first point of interest was the Viking Cave.

The Viking Cave is currently closed to visitors because it’s being explored to harvest swiflet bird’s nests. These nests, made entirely of the saliva of the birds, are edible and used as a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.

Here you can see that the water starts getting a much bluer color, even more beautiful than the color of the water in Phi Phi Don.

Pileh Lagoon

The next stop was the Pileh Lagoon. It is a secluded bay surrounded by green lush limestone cliffs. As the boat goes through the bay, it seems that you’re arriving at paradise. The nature here is truly beautiful, and you’ll find the most blue and crystal clear water you’ve ever seen.

This place really took my breath away. We spent approximately 40 minutes swimming and taking pictures at the Pileh Lagoon.

However, this place is no secret for anyone, and all boats of the Phi Phi island tours will enter the bay. It will get super crowded and noisy taking away the serenity of this place.

Maya Bay

Finally, we arrived at the most expected place in the tour, the famous Maya Bay featured in the movie, “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Currently, boats are not allowed at the Maya Bay. So, they stop at a pier at an opposite part of the island. Then, you need to walk approximately 5 minutes on a wooden platform until reaching the bay. We arrived at Maya Bay around 1PM.

This is the most famous place in the Phi Phi islands. So, it will be inevitably crowded, unless you come before sunrise. As we made our way to the bay, there were so many people on the wooden platforms, that we though the beach would be crowded.

However, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not the case. Apart from a few people at the entrance of the beach, there were much less people than I expected. And as we walked away from the entrance, we found a great stretch of sand with very little people, where we took a lot of pictures. We even saw some baby sharks!

It seems that this visit around lunch time was a great idea. We spent approximately one hour soaking up those beautiful views, which is the maximum amount of time allowed per person at the Maya Bay at the moment.

Unfortunately, due to its popularity, Maya Bay suffered environmental damage due to excessive tourism. Swimming is banned to protect marine life and coral. Additionally, authorities closed it temporarily and limited visitors to aid recovery. Make sure you check online if Maya Bay is open for visitors at the time of your visit.

Many people say that Maya Bay is overrated. But, in my opinion, it is really up to the hype. Pictures can’t capture how paradise this place is and I couldn’t stop thinking “This is what paradise should look like”.

Stops for Snorkeling

Most tours will include two or three stops for snorkeling. I really love snorkeling, and it always amazes me how time flies so fast while we’re in the water. If you don’t like snorkeling, it’s probably better to search for a tour that doesn’t include snorkeling. If you don’t know how to swim, but you don’t want to miss the opportunity to see vibrant marine life, don’t worry. With the life jacket on you can go snorkeling safely even if you don’t know how to swim. Additionally, I saw in many other tours, people that didn’t know how to swim, snorkeling with the help of the tour guide.

Even though the snorkeling we did in this tour was not the most spectacular we did in Thailand, it was fun and I recommend it (it was better than the snorkeling in Krabi, but not as good as snorkeling in Koh Lanta and Koh Lipe). We saw many yellow/black striped fishes (seargeant major), trumpetfish, moorish idol, giant clams, black sea urchins, and much more.

After snorkeling, we had our late lunch at the boat, a delicious chicken fried rice with fried egg on top.

Bamboo Island

The Bamboo island (Koh Pai) is a smaller island of the Phi Phi islands group. Most Phi Phi tours, usually include a stop at this island. Here, you’ll find paradise-like beaches with white soft sand and crystal clear blue waters. There are some facilities like a small bar and bathrooms—ideal if you want to come here and spend a morning or afternoon.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, the sun wasn’t shining anymore, and the colors of our pictures are not the best, but trust me, the beach here is amazing.

We spend approximately 45 minutes at this island, which I think is a short time, but the sunset was approaching, and we needed to head to the next place.

Sunset at Nui Bay

Our last stop was at Nui Bay, at the Phi Phi Don island, to watch the sunset. Even though it was a bit cloudy in the horizon around sunset time, it was really spectacular with the silhuette of a long-tail boat adding a great touch to the scenario.

Swimming with the Bioluminescent Plankton

After sunset, we waited until it was pitch dark to go swim with the bioluminescent plankton. Here, everyone needs to go with the life jacket on for safety reasons.

Once on the water, you just need to splash it with your hands and feet to see the bioluminescent plankton—it’s like tiny little stars in a dark sky. It’s not bright blue like you see in some photoshopped pictures, but it’s quite a magical and unique experience.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of the plankton because you can’t catch its light on camera.

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The Phi Phi Islands Tour — Is it Worth it?

Is the Phi Phi Islands Tour worth it? Yes, one hundred per cent yes! The Phi Phi islands are really beautiful, and all stops of the tour are breathtaking places, specially the Maya Bay and Pileh lagoon.

We went on an organized tour with Phi Phi Brazuca that organizes tours for Portuguese-speaking people. For my fellow Portuguese followers, I really recommend their tour.

Most Phi Phi island tours will have a similar itinerary but on different schedules. Check and inquire if there’s a particular place you want to see or something particular you want to do like snorkeling with the bioluminescent plankton.

There are also early bird tours for those that want to beat the crowds. However, in my opinion, the best way to beat the crowds is to arrange a private driver to take you there around sunrise time. You can easily arrange a private tour with a custom itinerary by inquiring on the beach next to the Tonsai pier or at the Loh Dalum beach.

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