The Phi Phi Islands: Thailand’s Party Hotspot

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way a partier. I rarely drink alcohol, I try to be in bed long before the strike of midnight and loud noise makes my head hurt. Despite all these things, there was a part of me that was completely intrigued by the Phi Phi island’s famous beach parties.

I just had to see for myself.

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How to Get to the Phi Phi Islands

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Leaving the tranquility (in comparison to the Phi Phi Islands) of Ao Nang beach,  Hamey and I headed straight to the beach side in search of the best priced ferry tickets over to the Phi Phi Islands. The tickets cost 800 THB (about $25) per person. This included the bus transfer from Ao Nang to the the Krabi Town ferry terminal and the 1.5 hour journey on the ferry. Arriving at the terminal we showed our tickets and joined the line with everyone else heading to the same place. Docking at the Phi Phi Island Ao Tonsai Pier, we collected our bags and disembarked. A small entrance fee is required to enter the Island which seems questionable. However, you aren’t getting in if you don’t pay so you don’t have much of a choice.

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The Best Things to Do on Koh Phi Phi

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We arrived to the island later in the day, missing out on signing up for that day’s excursions. So instead we spent our afternoon exploring the small island, wandering along the crowded streets and popping in and out of tourist shops.

Our first stop was at The Mango Garden for some of their homemade waffles and deliciously fresh mangos.

Koh Phi Phi has tons of options for excursions, from party boats to scuba diving, there is no shortage of things to get out and do during the day. Since I was the only one actually scuba certified (Hamey free-dives and can go deeper than the “discover dive” that was offered) we didn’t feel it was worth it to pay for the short dive. So instead we got talked into the Pirate Party Boat for the following day. It sounded really fun so it didn’t take that much convincing!

At night the small island of Koh Phi Phi literally turns into a wild party scene. The beaches are filled with young backpackers dancing, jump roping and just being young, wild and free. To be honest, the real highlight of these beach parties is watching the fire dancers. It’s truly impressive and you really just have to see it for yourself. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the parties. Just long enough to get the experience and enjoy the show (both the fire dancers and the people watching!)

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Hike Up the Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint

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Do not skip this!

Seriously, this viewpoint offers such an incredible overview of the island. Making it  totally worth the relatively easy climb up. I say relatively because it is pretty hot and most of it is in direct sunlight.

Be sure to bring some water and apply sunscreen. There is a small cafe up at the top where you can purchase drinks and snacks but it’s better to bring your own. To get to the viewpoint just follow the signs starting from the center of town. Once you’ve reached the entrance you have to pay a small fee. I can’t remember the exact cost but it’s not a lot. There are two viewpoints, each offer the same island view. However, the second one is much higher making it undeniably the better spot.

The first viewpoint is immediately after you’ve paid your entrance fee and there are some fruit shaped benches and other funny shaped objects. Follow along the path to climb higher for the cafe and second viewpoint. Then continue down a different path to make your way back down to the bottom.

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Take a Tour on the Phi Phi Pirate Boat

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We signed up for this 5.5 hour island hopping tour the day before. The day of the tour we all met up at the Irish Pub in town and headed out to the spacious double decker ship (complete with a rooftop designed for jumping off of!)

The Pirate boat has everything you need: drinks, snacks, snorkeling equipment, kayaks and a private smaller boat for getting to some of those harder to reach spots.

After departing from Koh Phi Phi our first stop was to Monkey Beach. If you read my post about the beaches in Bali you’ll already know that monkeys kind of scare the shit out of me. So… I braved it enough on the smaller boat to get closer. But I definitely didn’t dare climb into the thigh deep water and wade towards those sneaky little creatures.

There is no beach here so the name is a bit misleading and in my opinion we probably could’ve spent less time at this stop. Leaving Monkey Beach we continued on towards Koh Phi Phi Lee passing by the Viking Cave.

The Viking Cave is not a stop but just a sight to see along the way. The limestone cave is filled with prehistoric cave drawings of fishing boats and is home to a specific type of bird whose nest is harvested for bird’s nest soup in Chinese cooking.

Next stop was to Pileh Lagoon.

A beautiful lagoon surrounded by limestone cliffs where we had the option of snorkeling or kayaking.

We’d heard that the snorkeling in Thailand was amazing so we went to see what all the fuss was about. Okay, to be fair we did come from the Maldives so it’s pretty hard to even compare. But, the snorkeling in Thailand left us a tad underwhelmed. Maybe it was the visibility? Or possibly the fact that every time I surfaced I had a new piece of trash in my hair? Either way, once we let go of our underwater expectations we had a lot of fun just being in the sea and swimming around.

Hamey did get a pretty great picture of some clown fish (free diver, remember?!) but don’t expect to see these little cuties from the surface.

After spending a significant amount of time at the Pileh Lagoon we hit the open seas again and sailed our way to Koh Samah Bay. Here we parked the boat and could either swim around this area or take the private boat over to Maya Bay. Maya Bay is the famous beach in Thailand from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach”. It’s a protected bay surrounded by three sides of towering limestone cliffs and boasts white sandy beaches. It also costs extra money to enter. So instead we chose to stay on the boat and fly the drone to see it instead.

Leaving Maya Bay we sailed back in the direction of Koh Phi Phi and were out on the open seas just in time for sunset.

Also, I should probably note that this is absolutely a party boat. We may have been the only two not ingesting alcoholic beverages but it was still a lot of fun. The atmosphere on the boat was awesome. The food was delicious, upbeat music was playing throughout the entire trip and everyone was super friendly. I’d do it again should I ever find myself back in the Phi Phi Islands.

We returned from the excursion as the sun was setting. We went to find dinner and the boat partiers no doubt went to find the next beach party. The Phi Phi islands was a lot of fun and the parties definitely lived up to the hype. But really, I’m just here for all the fresh mangos and Thai pancakes!