Once you have settled on the Phi Phi Islands, the planning gets surprisingly fiddly. There is no airport, no road, no taxi rank, and the beach everyone came for has rules that changed while most travel articles were not looking. This guide is the practical version: which of the islands you actually set foot on, where to sleep so you get the trip you wanted rather than the one next door, how the boats work, what Maya Bay is really like now, and how long the place is worth staying.
Short version. You sleep on Phi Phi Don. You visit Phi Phi Leh by boat. Everything else is a detail, and the details are where people get it wrong.
What are the Phi Phi Islands, and which ones matter
Koh Phi Phi is a group of six islands in the Andaman Sea, sitting between Phuket and Krabi and protected inside Hat Noppharat Thara and Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. The six are Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Leh, Koh Yung, Koh Mai Phai, Bida Nok and Bida Nai.
Phi Phi Don is the only inhabited one. All the hotels, restaurants, dive shops and bars are here, along with the pier you arrive at. It is shaped a bit like a dumbbell, with two bays pinching in at the middle and a mountainous tail running north.
Phi Phi Leh is the tall, uninhabited one to the south with the sheer cliffs. It holds Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon and the Viking Cave. You can visit it, but you cannot stay on it. There are no hotels and no camping, so every trip there is a day trip.
The other four are small and mostly for snorkeling and diving. Koh Yung is often sold as Mosquito Island and has a stony shore rather than a real beach. Koh Mai Phai is Bamboo Island, the flat sandy one at the north of the group. Bida Nok and Bida Nai are two limestone rocks off the southern tip that almost nobody lands on, because they exist for divers.
Where to stay on Phi Phi Don
This is the single decision that shapes your trip, and the areas are genuinely different from one another. They are all on the same small island, but a fifteen minute walk changes the volume completely.
| Where | What it is | Best for | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tonsai Village | The arrival pier and the dense warren of shops, dive schools and restaurants behind it | First timers, short stays, anyone who wants everything on foot | Busy and noisy, and the water right at the pier is not for swimming |
| Loh Dalum Bay | The wide bay on the north side of the village, a few minutes walk across the neck of the island | Nightlife, young travelers, meeting people | The tide goes a long way out, and this is where the beach bars are |
| Long Beach (Hat Yao) | A long stretch of sand southeast of the village, reached by longtail or a rough jungle path | Couples and swimmers who still want the village within reach | Best snorkeling straight off the sand of any easy beach on the island |
| Loh Bagao | A quiet resort bay on the eastern side, well away from the center | Families who want space and calm water | You will rely on longtail boats to get anywhere else |
| Laem Tong | The far northern tip, a few resorts and a small sea gypsy village | Honeymooners and anyone who wants to see nobody | Roughly forty five minutes by boat from the pier, so plan to stay put |
| Phi Phi Leh | Uninhabited cliffs, Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Viking Cave | Day trips only | No accommodation and no overnight stays or camping are permitted |
The honest summary: Tonsai and Loh Dalum are loud, and that is the whole point of them. Long Beach is the compromise most people should take. Loh Bagao and Laem Tong are properly quiet, but quiet on Phi Phi means boat rides for everything, so budget the time. If you are still weighing this against other options, our comparison of how Phi Phi stacks up against Thailand's other islands is a useful sanity check before you book.
How to get to Phi Phi, and what happens when you land
Ferries run from Phuket's Rassada Pier and from Krabi's Klong Jilad Pier, with seasonal services from Ao Nang and Nopparat Thara, and from Saladan on Koh Lanta. Large ferries take roughly ninety minutes to two hours from either Phuket or Krabi. Speedboats cut that to under an hour but bounce badly in any swell. Railay has no direct ferry of its own, so you connect through Ao Nang or Krabi.
Everything arrives at Tonsai Pier. There is a national park and pier fee collected on arrival, paid in cash.
There are no cars on Phi Phi Don. No roads either, in the normal sense. You walk, or you take a longtail boat. That has a real consequence at the pier: your luggage goes on a hand cart pushed by a porter, or on your own back, down narrow lanes full of people. Bring a bag you can carry. Hard shell suitcases with small wheels are miserable here, and if your hotel is on Long Beach or further north you will be transferring to a boat with that bag anyway.
From May to October the sea gets rough and services get cut or cancelled at short notice. Do not book a same day international flight out of Phuket or Krabi off the back of a monsoon season ferry. Give yourself a night on the mainland.
Maya Bay: what the rules actually are now
Maya Bay reopened after a long closure, but it reopened as a managed site, and most of what you read online still describes the old free for all. Here is the current shape of it.
- Swimming is not allowed. You can wade to about knee depth and that is it. Rangers enforce this.
- Boats no longer land on the beach. They come in at Loh Samah on the back of the island, tie up at a floating pier, and you walk a short wooden boardwalk through the trees to reach the sand.
- Visits are timed and capped. Groups get a fixed slot of roughly an hour, and the number of people allowed in the bay at any moment is limited. The bay is full by mid morning in high season.
- It closes every year through the worst of the monsoon, from the start of August to the end of September, along with Loh Samah and Loh Kor.
- No overnight stays, no drones, no standing on coral, no shell collecting, and reef safe sunscreen only.
The bay is also a nursery for blacktip reef sharks, which is a large part of why the swimming ban exists. Rules do shift, so check the current announcements from Thailand's Department of National Parks or the Tourism Authority of Thailand before you lock in a date.
The way to enjoy Maya Bay is to be in the first slot of the day. Book a small boat leaving Phi Phi Don at first light rather than a big Phuket day tour that arrives at eleven. You will get the same beach with a fraction of the people.
Day trips around the islands, done properly
The standard loop covers Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Viking Cave, Monkey Beach and Bamboo Island. It is a good loop. It is also run backwards by half the operators, which is exactly what you want, because it puts you at each stop when everyone else has left.
Pileh Lagoon is the flooded chasm on the east side of Phi Phi Leh, walled in by cliffs. Swimming is allowed here, unlike Maya Bay, and early morning is glassy and near empty.
Monkey Beach deserves a plain warning. The crab eating macaques there are wild, habituated, and confident around people. They snatch bags, phones and food, and they bite. Feeding them makes it worse. Look from the boat, keep your hands empty if you land, and take the rabies risk seriously if anything breaks skin.
Bamboo Island is the best swimming stop of the day, a flat island with a genuine white sand beach and shallow water. Mosquito Island is a snorkeling stop rather than a beach stop. Both sit inside the national park, so access can be suspended in bad weather, and the tail of the monsoon in September is when trips get scrapped most often.
Longtail boats hired for a half day beat the big group tours for almost everyone. You choose the order, you leave when you want, and you can slot in beaches like Nui Bay and Wang Long that the schedules skip. For more on the wider region, see our guide to the best beaches in Thailand.
Diving and snorkeling by name
Phi Phi is one of the easier places in Thailand to learn to dive, and one of the better places to keep diving once you have. The sites are close, mostly sheltered, and reliably full of fish.
- Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Nai are the two headline sites, off the southern tip. Walls, soft coral, depths from around eight to twenty eight meters, and leopard sharks resting on the sand. Suitable across experience levels.
- Hin Bida, usually called Phi Phi Shark Point, is a submerged rock a few kilometers further out, at roughly eighteen to twenty two meters, known for leopard sharks and staghorn coral.
- Loh Samah Bay on Phi Phi Leh is shallow and coral heavy, and doubles as one of the region's better night dives.
- Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are the advanced day out, two open water pinnacles roughly ninety kilometers south. Strong currents, deep walls, and the best odds in the area of manta rays and whale sharks, with February to April the peak window. Trips run more often from Koh Lanta than from Phi Phi.
Snorkelers do well without a boat at all. The reef off Long Beach is reachable from the sand, and the blacktip reef sharks in the shallows there are small, shy and harmless. Go at high tide, early, before the day boats churn things up. Diving is best from November to April, when visibility holds and the sea is calm.
The viewpoint, and whether the party is still a thing
The Phi Phi Viewpoint is the picture that sells the island, and it is a real climb: a few hundred concrete steps up from Tonsai, about twenty minutes of steady work to the first platform, another ten or fifteen to the second, which is the good one. There is a small entry fee on the way up. Go early morning or late afternoon. Doing it at midday in the humidity is a genuinely unpleasant idea.
As for the nightlife, Loh Dalum is still loud, still fire shows and buckets and music until late. What has changed is that it is contained. Stay on Long Beach or further north and you will not hear a thing. Stay on Loh Dalum and you will hear all of it, which some people are there for.
When to go, and how many nights
November to April is the good season: calm sea, clear water, reliable boats. May to October brings rain, swell and cancellations, with September the worst of it and Maya Bay shut through August and September. Late October and early November are a decent gamble if you want fewer people.
Give Phi Phi three nights. One is not enough once you account for boat time at both ends. Three lets you do a Phi Phi Leh morning, a diving or snorkeling day, and one day of doing nothing on a beach. Four or five if you are staying up at Laem Tong or Loh Bagao, where getting anywhere eats an hour. Beyond that the island is small enough to feel small.
Phi Phi also pairs neatly with the mainland. Most people arrive from Phuket or Krabi and leave to the other, which is why it slots so cleanly into a Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi Tour. If you are still shaping the wider route, our overview of where to go in Thailand covers the regions, and you can see full Thailand tour packages if you would rather have the boats and transfers arranged for you.
One last thing worth knowing. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck Phi Phi Don hard across the low neck between Tonsai and Loh Dalum, and the island was rebuilt over the years that followed. There is a memorial park and marked evacuation routes on the island, and locals will point them out if you ask.
Frequently asked questions about the Phi Phi Islands
Can you swim at Maya Bay?
No. Swimming at Maya Bay is not permitted. Visitors may wade to roughly knee depth only. The restriction protects recovering coral and the blacktip reef shark nursery in the bay, and rangers enforce it on the beach.
Can you stay overnight on Phi Phi Leh?
No. Phi Phi Leh is uninhabited and has no accommodation. Overnight stays and camping are not allowed anywhere on the island, including Maya Bay, so all visits are day trips launched from Phi Phi Don, Phuket, Krabi or Koh Lanta.
How do you get to Phi Phi?
Ferries run from Phuket's Rassada Pier and Krabi's Klong Jilad Pier in about ninety minutes to two hours, with seasonal routes from Ao Nang and Koh Lanta. All boats dock at Tonsai Pier. Services are frequently cancelled during the May to October monsoon.
Where should you stay on Phi Phi Don?
Tonsai and Loh Dalum for nightlife and walkable convenience, Long Beach for a quieter shore with easy village access, and Loh Bagao or Laem Tong for genuine seclusion. The northern bays are calm but require longtail boats for every trip.
When is Maya Bay closed?
Maya Bay closes annually from the start of August to the end of September, alongside Loh Samah and Loh Kor, for monsoon safety and reef recovery. Dates are set each year by the national park authority, so confirm before booking travel.
Are there cars on Phi Phi Don?
No. Phi Phi Don has no cars and no proper roads. You move around on foot through narrow lanes or by longtail boat between bays. Pack a bag you can carry, because luggage travels by hand cart or on your shoulder from the pier.
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