Koh Phi Phi is two main islands in Krabi province. Phi Phi Don is the inhabited one, shaped like a dumbbell, with a village built on the low sand bar between two bays and limestone rising at either end. Phi Phi Leh is smaller, uninhabited and holds Maya Bay, which the 2000 film The Beach made into one of the most photographed places on earth.
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That fame nearly destroyed it. By 2018 Maya Bay was taking thousands of visitors and hundreds of boats a day and the reef inside it was largely dead, so Thailand closed the bay completely. It reopened in 2022 under strict rules: boats moor at a pier on the far side, visitor numbers and times are capped, and swimming in the bay is restricted or prohibited depending on the season. The reef and the blacktip reef sharks have come back. It is one of the few genuine conservation successes in mass tourism, and the rules are the reason.
What Makes Koh Phi Phi Different to Pack For
There are no cars, and no roads for them
Phi Phi Don has no vehicles beyond a few service carts. Everything moves on foot, by bicycle or by longtail boat, and your luggage moves the same way, often along narrow sandy lanes and sometimes a long walk from the pier.
Pack something you can carry. A wheeled suitcase on soft sand at thirty three degrees is the standard arrival mistake.
The sunscreen ban is enforced
Thailand banned sunscreens containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and butylparaben from all marine national parks in 2021, with substantial fines. That covers Maya Bay and the waters around Phi Phi Leh.
Check the bottle before you fly. Reef safe sunscreen here is a legal requirement rather than a preference.
Wet landings, constantly
Getting to the island, to Maya Bay, to Bamboo Island and to most beaches involves stepping off a boat into knee deep water. A dry bag is essential rather than sensible, and so is footwear that copes with salt water.
Tsunami geography
The village sits on a low sand bar between two bays, which is exactly the shape that the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami exploited: the waves came into both bays and met in the middle. Around two thousand people died here. The island is now signed with evacuation routes and has a warning system.
Know where the high ground is. It is a five minute walk and it is marked.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Koh Phi Phi Packing List
Footwear
Reef shoes or sturdy water sandals for the wet landings and the rocky entries, which is most of them. Flip flops for the village.
Closed shoes with grip for the viewpoint climb, which is a long flight of steep uneven steps, and for the walk over to Long Beach. Waterproof hiking shoes are worth it if you intend to do the viewpoints properly or walk to Phak Nam bay.
Clothing
Light, loose, quick drying, and more changes than a similar trip elsewhere because you will be wet daily. A rash vest or long sleeved swim top, which is the best protection for a full day on a boat and reduces how much sunscreen goes in the water.
A cover up for the village, which is a working Thai community as well as a party strip. Shoulders and knees covered at the temple and when passing through residential lanes.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat with a chin strap, reef safe sunscreen as a legal matter, and sunglasses. Boat days at eight degrees north with reflection off the water are the fastest burn in Thailand.
For rain
A packable rain jacket for May to October, and a dry bag in every month.
Health and insects
Repellent with DEET or picaridin for dengue, which bites in daylight. Antiseptic and waterproof plasters, because coral cuts are the commonest injury here and they infect quickly in this heat. Rehydration salts. Seasickness tablets for the crossing, which is open water and can be rough.
Practical
Cash in baht, brought with you. ATMs on the island are few and charge heavily and prices are noticeably higher than the mainland because everything arrives by boat. A power bank and a torch, since the lanes are unlit. A reusable bottle. Earplugs, genuinely, if you are staying anywhere near Tonsai.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Maya Bay
A small bay on Phi Phi Leh enclosed by limestone cliffs, closed from 2018 to 2022 and reopened under management.
Practically: boats no longer enter the bay. They moor at a pier on the opposite side of the island and you walk through to the beach. Numbers and visiting hours are capped, swimming in the bay is restricted or prohibited depending on the season and the shark pupping cycle, and the rules change, so check current conditions with your operator. Blacktip reef sharks have returned and are harmless. Go on the earliest boat; by ten it is full.
The viewpoint
A climb from the village to a platform above the sand bar, with the classic view of the two bays meeting.
Practically: several hundred steep steps in full heat, with a small entry fee at the top. Go at sunrise or an hour before sunset. Take water. The steps are uneven and there are three viewpoints at increasing heights.
Tonsai village
The settlement on the sand bar, a dense grid of lanes with dive shops, restaurants, bars and guesthouses, plus a resident Thai community.
Practically: this is the party centre of the island and the bars on the beach run buckets and fire shows late. It is also where people live. The lanes flood in heavy rain. If you want quiet, stay at Long Beach, Laem Tong or on one of the outer bays and take a longtail in.
Diving and snorkelling
Bida Nok and Bida Noi, the King Cruiser wreck, and sites that see leopard sharks and turtles. Phi Phi is one of the cheapest places in the world to learn to dive.
Practically: check certification and equipment rather than booking on price, and ask where the nearest recompression chamber is, because it is on Phuket. Do not touch or stand on coral, which is both the law inside the marine park and the reason Maya Bay had to close.
Monkey Beach
A small beach on Phi Phi Don with a resident troop of macaques, included on most boat tours.
Practically: these monkeys are aggressive, bold and habituated to being fed. They take bags and bite, and a macaque bite means a rabies risk and a trip to the mainland. Do not carry food, do not feed them, and keep everything zipped. The honest recommendation is to look from the boat.
The tsunami memorial
A memorial park at the north of the village remembers the 2004 dead, and the evacuation routes are signed throughout the settlement.
Practically: worth ten minutes. Note where the routes go from wherever you are staying.
What Not to Bring
Leave a wheeled suitcase, which the sand lanes will defeat. Leave non reef safe sunscreen, which is illegal in the marine park.
Leave any expectation of quiet if you stay in Tonsai. Leave food anywhere near the macaques. Leave the idea of standing on coral for a photograph. And leave illegal drugs entirely out of your planning, given Thai penalties and the amount of enforcement on a small island.
Essential Resources for Women in Koh Phi Phi
Emergency numbers in Thailand: 191 for police, 1669 for ambulance and emergency medical services, 199 for fire, and 1155 for the Tourist Police with English speaking operators. On Phi Phi, with no roads and no ambulances, your accommodation and the dive shops are the practical first responders.
Tourist support: there is a police post on the island and a fuller Tourist Police presence at Krabi and Phuket. The 1155 hotline operates nationally with interpretation. A police report is needed for insurance and before a consulate will replace a passport.
US Embassy: the embassy is in Bangkok at 95 Wireless Road, telephone +66 2 205 4000, at th.usembassy.gov. Phuket, about two hours by ferry, is the nearest place with an international airport. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: there is a small health centre and private clinics on the island for minor injuries only. Anything serious means a boat to Krabi or Phuket, which takes two hours in normal conditions and longer in bad weather, and there is no recompression chamber on the island. Travel insurance with evacuation cover is essential here, and divers should confirm it covers diving to their intended depth.
Official health authority: the Thai Ministry of Public Health at moph.go.th, with the US Centers for Disease Control destination page for Thailand the more practical source on dengue and rabies, the latter directly relevant because of the macaques.
US State Department travel advisory for Thailand: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Thailand: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the warnings on drink spiking and on methanol in adulterated spirits, both relevant on a small island with a concentrated bar strip. The far south advice covering Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla does not include Krabi province.
Official tourism authority: the Tourism Authority of Thailand at tourismthailand.org, with the Department of National Parks for Maya Bay access rules, which change by season and are the thing to check before booking a tour.
Solo women safety assessment: Koh Phi Phi is a safe island for a woman travelling alone in the ordinary sense, and it is extremely easy to be social here: the island runs on dive courses and boat tours and is full of solo travellers, so finding company takes about an hour. Violent crime against visitors is rare, and the absence of roads removes the single biggest danger on most Thai islands. Street harassment is uncommon. The complications are concentrated in the nightlife, which is dense, young and heavy drinking in a very small area. Drink spiking is reported here, buckets are mixed strong and sometimes with unlabelled spirits, and methanol poisoning from adulterated alcohol has caused deaths in the region, so watch your drink being poured, do not accept one from a stranger, and stay with people you came out with. Walking back through the unlit lanes alone late is where most reported hassle occurs, and it is usually drunken rather than predatory, but the lanes are genuinely dark. Theft from beaches and from rooms is routine, so use a safe and take nothing to the sand you would mind losing. Beyond that, the risks are environmental and medical. Medical isolation is the important one: there is no hospital, no ambulance, no recompression chamber, and two hours of open water between you and real care, which should make you more conservative about diving, about the viewpoint steps in heat and about anything else where an injury would normally be minor. Boats are the other: crossings can be rough, longtails sometimes carry no life jackets and you should ask, and wet landings on slippery boats cause falls. Macaques at Monkey Beach bite. And know where the tsunami evacuation route runs from your accommodation, which takes one minute to check and is the reason the signs are there.
Reading On
Koh Phi Phi is worth two or three nights rather than the day trip most people make, because the island empties in the late afternoon when the tour boats leave and that is when it is best. The Thailand travel guide for women is the parent for the country and the Thailand packing list for women covers a trip across it. The boats come from the Phuket travel guide for women and from the Ao Nang packing list for women on the Krabi mainland. South along the same coast, the Koh Lanta packing list for women and the Koh Lipe packing list for women are quieter alternatives. Across the peninsula, the Koh Samui travel guide for women and the Koh Phangan packing list for women cover the gulf, whose seasons run opposite. Inland, the Khao Sok packing list for women covers the rainforest. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino works in humidity where nothing dries, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
