Krabi Thailand Travel Tips

So you think you want to visit Thailand and take those perfect shots on the beautiful beaches in Krabi? Stop thinking, and start deciding.

What’s the most challenging aspect for people these days when it comes to traveling? Budgets. Not everyone can afford flashy trips that are gloated on social media, and not everyone can get that glamorous time off from their day job to get these opportunities.

If you want to take a trip, let me tell you that you most certainly can.

But, you want to go somewhere exotic. How can you afford going to Krabi Thailand, halfway around the world to one of the most picturesque places on Earth? What most people don’t know is how easy it is to travel frequently and exotically. No matter your age or size of your wallet. The trick is just plain research, but I’ll do the heavy lifting for you.

Researching can be very extensive and very overwhelming. Not too mention discouraging, especially when you are scrolling through pages and pages of resorts, hotels, and excursions that you can’t reasonable afford.

Here I will list 5 steps on budget traveling that can work with almost any location. All prices will be with real information that are current with the time of this post.

5 Budget Traveling Tips/Tricks

Tip #1 Keeping Plane Tickets Low

Okay so plane tickets, are honestly going to be the most expensive part of your time traveling to Thailand. It makes sense though, it’s halfway around the world for Americans. But with some simple tricks you can save tons of money!

Trick #1 – When searching for plane tickets, you might be familiar with using one of the numerous travel tools found on the internet. Trivago, Expedia, Travelocity, etc. Here’s a rule of thumb. If you’re going to use those resources use an “incognito” web browser. This protects you from the constant price changing algorithm that used when the website saves cookies to your computer.

What this means is that when you open a website like Expedia.com, it saves a cookie on your computer that identifies that web browser. So let’s say you found a great price for plane tickets and a hotel, but you have to wait until tomorrow to make the purchase, or even next week. What most of you probably do is leave that tab open for extended amounts of time so that you don’t need to lose you offer. Here’s what happens, if the offer is open for a certain amount of time a popup will appear saying the price had to be increase for some reason. Now your sad, because even if it’s just a few dollars you have to pay more than what you could have the first time you clicked on it.

There’s no way around this either, the websites are constantly refreshing themselves and every click refreshes the page too, even when you click check out. Which is the most annoying when you go to buy a package and right before confirming the price changes.

Trick #2 – Plan your vacations at least 6 months out. This is when most flights are in the cheapest price range. Some flights are still cheap within 3 months, but you will want to have plenty of time searching  for options. Waiting last minute can result in expensive tickets. However, you can avoid this sometimes by vacationing during the off season. Typically not during the summer months and holiday weeks.

Trick #3 – Flights by Google. Personally this is what I like to use, because it works the same as everything else and shows you the prices on the calendar when choosing your travel dates. Not to mention, its usually ad free so you don’t get annoyed by popups and distracting ads.

Trick #4 – Again, plane tickets are going to be the biggest cost for most vacations. Try searching for flights all around your destination, rather than directly to your destination. If you fly to Bangkok city 6 months out instead of straight to Krabi, the price is almost $500 bucks cheaper. Now you get a to see an additional city if you want, and just buy a separate ticket to Krabi from Bangkok, which will cost under $50.

Here is the breakdown:

• From the time of this post, planning a vacation 3 months out (March – end of tourist season)
• Expedia offers cheapest flight Boston to Krabi for $1,585
  • Boston to Bangkok $820
  • Bangkok to Krabi $75
  • $1,585 vs. $895
  • That’s saving $690!
• Google Flights Boston to Krabi $1,225
  • Boston to Bangkok $796
  • Bangkok to Krabi is $36
  • $832 vs. $1,225
  • That’s saving $400!
• Google $832 vs. Expedia $895
• There’s always a negotiation!

Tip #2 Choosing your Sleeping Accommodations

Okay, so most of us know that the second most expensive portion of vacation is spent on the sleeping accommodation. This is generally what sets people apart from their vacations. Everyone can spend money take a plane and enjoy the beach, mountains, or whatever. Only few can enjoy luxurious beds with great views at these desired locations.

Okay so Googling hotels in Krabi, will bring a whole bundle of different places to stay. Once the results pop up, you might find it eerie to find the prices lower than expected. To many this can be frightening, because you would normally expect a beautiful destination to have expensive accommodations. Don’t be concerned this is only due to the economic difference between America and Thailand.

Okay so you found a ton of places in Krabi, but they show oddly low prices. That now scares you, and under normal conditions it should. Especially if you were finding these in other high tourist locations, like France or Italy. I can’t get a personal experience reference for all places in the area, however the internet can. So taking time to read a place’s reviews from multiple locations can come a long way.

What I can tell you is, for around $50 a night you can stay at the Ao Nang Cliff View, Krabi. For this price what you can expect is an entire Bungalow immersed in the jungle of Thailand. But wait I want the beach. Cliff View Resort has a free shuttle to and from the beach every hour of the day and its only a 5 minute ride. Also, for the nights you stay you can expect a complimentary breakfast! I’m not done yet either, the staff there are exquisite. Sometimes there might a minor language barrier, but they do everything to help their guests and make it a wonderful experience.

Conclusion — don’t be frightened by some of the prices you may find at the location. If it’s too good to be true, look at the reviews. Or you can stay at the Ao Nang Cliff View Resort and have a wonderful experience! The choice is yours!

P.S. I’m not being paid to say that, Rain and I truly enjoyed the Cliff View Resort and the staff there were awesome!

Tip #3 Transportation and Getting Around

So now you’re in the country and you have a place to stay! Awesome, now how do you get from the airport to the beach, or Cliff View. Taking a taxi might sound like an expensive idea, because it’s roughly 30 minutes to Aonang Beach from the airport. Remember things are cheaper in Thailand. It will only cost around $15, from a flat rate at least. The drivers will try to negotiate with you and sell you their cheaper option by using a flat rate. However, you should get in the habit of routinely asking to use the meter only. You could save up to half the cost sometimes. Remember, they know the area better than you do, so they know what it costs to get somewhere.

When it comes to getting around, you have four options. You can take a taxi, a shuttle truck, a tuk-tuk, or a boat. Depending on the itinerary you have the free shuttle from Cliff View might be the only needed thing. The taxi’s don’t necessarily go around the beach area only because it’s over crowded with other transportation methods. It might just be me, but tuk-tuks are definitely the way to go! They are cheap and they can get you somewhere pretty quickly, usually for a more reasonable price too. The prices for these are strictly negotiable, no meters are used and can only carry four average sized adults. (Unless you’re a local family of 7 and somehow fit everyone into a three person tuk-tuk — because we saw that a few times).

Boats are going to be the best part of this trip, because you can get a chance to explore the islands around the coast line. Not too mention Phi Phi Islands, rated one of the most beautiful places on Earth. To find prices for these, look for the little office at the corner of the street where the guys are yelling destinations. This office has all the prices and locations and a little extra information too.

Tip #4 Where to Eat, or What to Eat

So after spending a whole 30 minutes you probably want food and drinks. Lucky for you, food is cheap in Thailand along with the drinks too! Now, in the touristy areas the prices will still be cheap but not as cheap as you would find them in local areas. I could name a few places to eat, but most is food preference. If you’re visiting Thailand, you’re probably fairly open-minded when it comes to your palette. Even if you are a little picky with food you don’t need to worry. Due to being a high tourist location, the food options have a wide range. They have options for local Thai food, other Eastern food (Chinese, Japanese, etc.), and Western cuisine too. So when you “need” that good ol’ cheeseburger, you will be able to get it.

During our stay there we found two places that we would recommend going to, the first one being the Beach View Resort restaurant; the other being the Boogie Bar. The Beach View Resort Restaurant is open to the public and it’s right on the beach. Naturally, that is why we chose to eat there. After spending time on the beach we wandered up and down the boardwalk area and found this to have the best options for everyone at the time. It was a rather large menu, but that was what we were going for. Prices for this were fairly cheap still too, for a cheeseburger and a small pizza with 2 two drinks you’re looking at about $20. Not bad at all. We ate there twice too haha. Next would be the Boogie Bar, which was an awesome little place we stumbled into to get out of the rain. It was getting late and most people were off the streets. As we went to get cover under the extended roof we found a little menu for an assortment of food, Thai food and American food, really it was comfort food (fried food). Which we absolutely deserved. That’s not even the best part, as we were waiting for the food, it was an open mic night. Along with good food we got to sit back enjoy the music being delivered by a rather unique individual. By unique I mean we saw a Thai hippie, with the longest dreadlocks I’ve ever seen. Playing mostly American songs, it was safe to say he still killed it. His weapon of choice was an acoustic guitar with some food peddles for alternate beats.

Boogie Bar and Beach View Resort are definitely places to visit if you’re having an indecisive time searching for food. Both are right on the beach and easy to find.

Tip #5 Excursions and all the Fun Stuff

Lastly, the fun stuff! This could be anything really, but I figured I give a little information about some of the stuff you can do. So first off are boat rides, which can take you to a wide variety of places. Whether it be to Chicken Island (that’s where we went), no there are not chickens on it, just monkeys (real evil monkeys), or Railay Beach. Railay beach is a really cool spot to visit too, it’s on the other side of a small mountain/cliff that separates it from Ao Nang. This beach has it’s own resort there too, so if you really want to splurge your money in Krabi, maybe staying at the resort there is right for you! Other destinations include Hong Island and the Phi Phi Islands (Phi Phi is rated one of the most beautiful places on Earth by the way!).

Each destination also has restrictions for departures too. Phi Phi Islands can only be visited before 9:30am, the boats leave once for the whole day and return around 4:45pm. This is because it takes a fair amount of time to drive there with the boats. If you miss the opportunity to see the Islands don’t be upset, because each of the other Islands offer many unique experiences too! If you’re interested in water activities you can find one of the many offers for scuba diving or snorkeling. This is really cool, especially for those who have never snorkeled in clear blue water before! Many tropical fish are around the beaches and they rarely stay away from humans! You could also just enjoy getting some sun and laying on the beach or swimming near the shore. After all the water is perfect temperature, warm enough to keep you in and cold enough to be refreshing!

If you don’t prefer water activities, there are plenty of shops and little stores to explore along the entire stretch of the beach! Most carrying the same style souvenirs, others carrying handmade items. Rain and I found this amazing little store where the woman has her personally drawn images pressed on different size bags. Rain needed one, and I figured it would be a great gift too! Sadly we didn’t have enough time to visit every store, because we really wanted too, but there was simply too many! You definitely have options if you’re looking for the perfect gift to bring home too!

Don’t go too crazy with gifts though, remember this is budget traveling!

I hope after reading this, I was able to help some of you make better traveling plans or inspire you to visit this beautiful country! If you liked this type of post, let us know and we can do one for each other places we visited, or each trip we take. We love helping others find better ways to travel, so if we can help let us know!

Until next time!