If there’s such a thing as heaven, to me it’s the clear blue waters of Koh Phi Phi.

You might be familiar with this gorgeous landscape because yep, it’s straight out of The Beach. But sadly this sort of exposure has done what you would expect, it’s made the region seriously touristy and the local islands that have hotels pretty much party islands. As much as this would have been my jam ten years ago, it really isn’t anymore. For that reason, we chose for our last trip there to boat instead of stay on the island, meaning early access to all the most popular spots as well as a quiet evening vibe. I completely recommend!

Boating Around Koh Phi Phi

Honestly the prettiest spot I visited all last year.

Stay

For this trip, we stayed on a boat with all of our friends. It was an absolutely gorgeous junk boat called Ananta (more info here) that left from the Eastern side of Phuket, and we were able to charter it to wherever we wanted. Not knowing the best places to go, we decided to leave it up to the crew who did an amazing job of taking us over to Koh Phi Phi. You can also stay on the main island of Phi Phi Don, which has a bunch of hotels and other options.

See & Do

If you’re on a boat when you’re in this area, you’ll have access to lots of different places around the region.

Maya Bay, this is the bay that you’ll have seen on The Beach. Sadly it is so busy now that boats can’t even pull up.

Pileh Lagoon, which is around the back of Koh Phi Phi, was absolute heaven.

Visit the island of Phi Phi Don for a rowdy dinner or a shop at the trinkets store.

Good to know

No matter what you plan on doing in the area, make sure that you start out early, and if you do decide to stay in a hotel, see if you can book a private longboat so that you can do whatever you want and not have to be in a big group.