We visited Thailand back in December, during the mourning period for the late king. During our two week trip we saw Phuket, Krabi and Bangkok. Phuket was beautiful but crawling with drunken tourists. Bangkok was exciting but really hot without a possibility to cool off in the ocean. Then there was Krabi, which was basically paradise on earth!
To get to our accommodation on Tonsai beach, we took a ferry from Phuket. It was inexpensive, quick and extremely scenic. They also sold cheap beers on the boat! We booked the Chillout Bungalows through Airbnb. The cozy wooden huts had no hot water, electricity for just half of the day and our bathroom was full of frogs. It was the perfect getaway!
Tonsai beach is a small beach with only a few hotels and shops. It’s located in between two of the most popular beaches in Krabi: Ao Nang and Railay. Both of these are easy to get to and Ao Nang even has a McDonald’s! Tonsai, on the other hand, can only be reached by boat or via a rocky rain forest path (sometimes requiring some swimming) from Railay beach.
Traveling by long-tail boat is a lot of fun if you don’t mind getting a little wet. The boats run from as early as 6 AM to as late as 10 PM. You either have to pay for the entire boat or wait for others to join you on the journey. We never waited more than 15 minutes.
Whether or not you’re staying on Tonsai beach, I recommend that you visit it. You will be greeted on the walkway by monkeys that will grab your bags in search for food. These monkeys will also wake you up by jumping on the roof of your bungalow and will ransack through anything you leave on the beach.
Tonsai is also one of the most popular destinations for rock-climbers. The beach doesn’t get professionally cleaned like Ao Nang and Railay, so you can spend hours shell-hunting. Just avoid collecting starfish, they are illegal to travel with!
Since the beach is so inaccessible, everything there is more expensive than it would be on the adjacent beaches. However even these inflated prices are cheap when compared to prices in Western countries. The only ridiculously priced item is anti-itch medicine. If you’re a mosquito magnet like I am, these pills are your dream come true!
Finally, it’s not just cool, isolated, full of monkeys, shells and everything that is cool and awesome about Thailand. It’s also the most beautiful beach in the world! See for yourself…
