Ao Nang or Railay Beach Thailand? (& How To Get From Ao Nang to Railay)

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If you’re wondering if you should stay in Ao Nang or Railay Beach, in this post I give you all of my tips and opinions about the two locations. I will also share the best way on how to get from Ao Nang to Railay Beach!

Ao Nang or Railay Beach?

🏝️Railay Beach | 🚤How To Get From Ao Nang to Railay | 🐒Ao Nang

Railay Beach

Honestly, I’m going to start with Railay Beach because it was one of my favourite places that I visited in Thailand! Along with its pros, it does have a couple of cons though! Technically Railay is part of Ao Nang, however, it is only accessible by boat.

✔️Pros

The Beaches

Railay is beautiful and has some of the nicest beaches in Ao Nang. Railay West Beach is lovely, surrounded by limestone cliffs and the traditional long tail boats anchored up along the beach.

A short walk away, on the tip of the peninsula is Phra Nang Beach. I loved this beach and it was definitely my favourite of the Ao Nang beaches. The sand is soft and white, the sea is clear and blue and is great for swimming.

It does attract crowds, especially at the end of the beach nearest Phra Nang Cave. But if you walk further along, it does quieten out a bit. I also felt safe leaving my belongings on the beach while I swam alone. (I always keep one eye on them though!)

Hikes & Climbing

Railay is a great spot if you enjoy climbing. Personally, I LOVED the East Railay Viewpoint hike. The first 90m of the hike is more like a climb, you do need to use your hands. The plus is that you don’t need a guide and it is free to do!

The viewpoint climb was one of my favourite hikes I did while in Thailand. Even though the first section was quite challenging, it was so much fun. You then have the added bonus of the views across the peninsula. You can see both Railay West and East Beach from above!

There’s also a small trail through Diamond Cave, but this has an entrance fee.

Shopping

Railay has a central walking street that is lined with: shops, massage spas, cafes, restaurants, and bars. Even though Ao Nang is larger and has more shops, I actually ended up buying more in Railay. I thought the shops generally had some more better quality items.

Before going to Thailand I had planned on buying a new lightweight top of some sort. You could buy endless elephant pants, shorts, dresses, and regular t-shirts, but I couldn’t find ANYTHING in Koh Lanta and Ao Nang. Railay pulled it out of the bag though and had a nice range of options!

Relaxed Feel

There are no roads/vehicles in Railay. It is very small, but you’ll need to walk everywhere. Keep this in mind if you are travelling with luggage.

❌Cons

Only Reached By Boat

Railay is only reached by boat. They do have a floating pier on the east. If you’re travelling from Koh Lanta to Ao Nang, the passenger ferry actually makes a stop in Railay first before continuing on to Ao Nang.

Other than that, the most convenient and frequent way to get to Railay is from Ao Nang Beach is by longtail boat.

They will instruct you to wait on the slope down to Ao Nang Beach. When there are about 8 people, they will take you down to one of the boats. When visiting in November, I never had to wait more than around 5 minutes.

There’s no floating dock on Ao Nang Beach. You’ll need to walk out into the water and then climb up a ladder that they put on the side of the boat. (It’s the same once you reach Railay Beach).

It’s also best to get one of the earlier boats. This way you can avoid the crowds that flock to Railay as the day goes on and see it while it’s more peaceful!

The journey from Ao Nang to Railay Beach takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

To get back to Ao Nang, head to Railay West and look out for the guys wearing long-sleeved navy rash guards that say ‘Ao Nang Longtail Boat Service Club‘, you can’t miss them. Similar to the journey to Railay, they will wait for 8 people before heading back to Ao Nang.

If you want to get to and from Railay Beach ‘out of hours’, you’ll need to negotiate a price directly from on the beaches. These often then operate on a ‘private’ basis, so they are more expensive than the shared boats.

Tour Pick Ups

For these reasons, it’s harder to arrange pick-ups for day tours, transfers etc. If you’re staying in Railay, you’ll often have to make your way to Ao Nang for collection. Some of the day tours do start early, so it would most likely mean travelling before the 8am regular service.

Ao Nang

I was based in Ao Nang for 6 nights during my stay in Krabi Province.

✔️Pros

More To Do

Of course with Ao Nang being the bigger location, there is a lot more to do within walking distance. Some things include: hiking Monkey Trail to Pai Plong Beach, a wide range of shops, massage spas, restaurants, and bars, walking to Mountain Buddha Temple and lots of fire shows on the beach.

Night Market

One of the best things about Ao Nang is the Ao Nang Night Market. It’s located opposite Hat Noppharat Thara Beach. As well as clothing and souvenir stalls, and entertainment, you’ll find a large selection of food and drink vendors with lots of budget-friendly options.

The Night Market takes place every day between 4pm until 11pm. Most of the food stalls don’t really open until closer to 6pm. So if relying on the regular long tail operating hours, it means you’ll miss the last boat back to Railay.

Convenient

Ao Nang is also a convenient place to be located for transport options. It’s connected by buses, taxis and of course boats. If staying in Ao Nang, many companies offer hotel/hostel pick-ups and drop-offs. As well as the ‘mainland’ things to do, I did the Phi Phi Islands day tour and then got the boat to Railay.

It’s also handy if you plan on travelling via Krabi Airport, as it’s around 30 minutes by taxi.

❌Cons

Beaches Aren’t As Nice

Out of the three main beaches within walking distance from Ao Nang, I personally didn’t really like two of them. The sand and water wasn’t very nice and I didn’t trust leaving my belongings unattended on the beach as a solo traveller.

Out of the three, Pai Plong Beach is the nicest in my option, but you will need to scale Monkey Trail and there are no public facilities once you reach the beach.

Not Relaxed

Ao Nang was very busy. I started my Thailand trip in Koh Lanta and after coming from the quiet island, I was very overwhelmed at first! There are lots of people everywhere and you will need to chicken run across the roads! People will also try to get you into their restaurants or shops more than what they do in Koh Lanta. (There’s also a McDonald’s.)

Everything is also quite spread out. When I looked into where to stay in Ao Nang, I decided to pick hotels that were between Ao Nang Beach and Hat Noppharat Thara Beach. It was a 10-minute walk to the Night Market, but a 20-30 minute walk from Ao Nang Beach/Monkey Trail.

Final Words, So Which Is Better?

For convenience when deciding between Ao Nang or Railay Beach, I am still happy with my choice of basing myself in Ao Nang. I liked being centrally located and it was nice not to have to worry about getting boats from the beach, in the dark, by myself.

However, I still stand by Railay being my favourite out of the two locations though (and the whole of Krabi). If you were just planning on relaxing, just having beach or pool time, hanging out in the resort, Railay is great for that. If you wanted to do more exploring, Ao Nang is a good base.

Looking back, if I was to have changed my Krabi itinerary to STAY in Railay, this could have been an option:

• 🛥️Passenger ferry direct from Koh Lanta to Railay East (I took a shared minibus from Koh Lanta to Ao Nang)
• 🛏️2 nights in Railay
• 🚤Longtail boat to Ao Nang during the regular service hours
• 🛏️4 nights in Ao Nang (to do Phi Phi Islands day tour/another boat trip, Monkey Trail, Mountain Buddha Temple, Night Market etc)
• 🚐Taxi to Krabi Airport for my 11pm flight.

Other Krabi Posts You May Enjoy

• 🌧️A Guide to Visiting Krabi in November: The Back End of Rainy Season! Thailand
• 🏝️A Guide To Klong Dao Beach & Saladan Koh Lanta | Thailand
• 🚤4 Islands Tour Koh Lanta Thailand | Is It Worth It?

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