sriceali

We're staying at the Amari Vogue in Krabi before heading to the Phi Phi Island Village resort. The Phi Phi Island resort has offered land/sea transfer service from the hotel in Krabi to the resort for 1,500 Baht per adult. It appears that this includes pick up from our hotel to the Krabi Pier to catch the public ferry and then transfer to the resort once on Phi Phi.

Is this reasonable? If this is taking the public ferry anyway, I'm not sure it makes sense. I guess the advantage is they would help with our luggage. It seems to be twice as much money to have the hotel arrange and not sure what the advantages are. If we make our own arrangements, the hotel charges 200 THB per person from Tonsai Bay to the resort. I need help deciding. Should we wait and coordinate ourselves once in Krabi? Is there any advantage to buying ferry tickets ahead of time if we decide to make our own arrangements?

Kathie

There are also private speed boat transfers available. I wonder if the price you have been quoted is for a private transfer.

sriceali

No, that's with the ferry.

I had emailed the resort for a quote for a private speed boat transfer and they sent this:

"As per you requested a private transfer by speedboat, we can be operated any time a day, stating from 07.00 am.- 05.00 pm. the service cost is 13,500 Baht/Boat/way (Sea only / Max. 8 pax), and land transfer at 1000 Baht/minibus (max.6 pax), Anyway, this service is depend on the weather condition."

Now that is a lot of money!

Kathie

Yes, that is a lot of money. The price you quoted looked too high for the ferry but I thought it was too low for the speedboat!

LeighTravelClub

The ferry from Krabi to Phi Phi is 400baht. Add on the 200 from Tonsai Bay to your resort and that still leaves loads for your transfer from Amari Vogue to the pier.
I say do it yourself. It's actually a very easy journey to make. You'll get help with your luggage from the ferry staff.

sriceali

It looks like it would be half the price to do on our own If it's that easy then we'll do it ourselves. If we don't have to worry about dragging our luggage through the sand or water. Should we wait to book the ferry when we're in Krabi? I guess I'm just afraid the ferry will be too crowded. We'll be going to Phi Phi on Dec. 1st. Anyone buy ferry tickets online? Not sure if we do ahead or we could arrange when we're at the Amari. Any thoughts?

LeighTravelClub

You can book ferry tickets on line ahead of your trip but it's not really necessary. An added advantage of buying them once you get to Krabi is that you may be able to get a free hotel/pier transfer included in the price of your ticket.
For example,there is a lady who runs a small travel agency at the bus station. She often meets travellers off the buses. Look for her shop. She sells tickets to the islands and usually throws in free transport to the pier.
Strangely, ferry tickets are usually more expensive at the pier than from local agents.
I wouldn't book the tickets through Amari.

sriceali

Thanks so much for the advice. I was looking online and there seem to be different times for the ferry, departing from different piers. One from Krabi and another from a different pier. The transfer offer from the Phi Phi Island resort only mentioned a 10am and 3pm Krabi departure. Online I found a 9am ferry to Phi Phi. Is there an express boat and then a different one that stops in Railay? I'm thoroughly confused.

I just now realized that our package with the Amari includes return transfer to airport (hope they would instead take us to pier). I figure they would. So that solves that. Anyone know how far it is from Amari to Krabi pier? I have no sense of distance in the area.

Just want to confirm that the best is to purchase ferry tickets from a travel agent as opposed to at the pier? Very odd.

Thank you so much for all your help. It's getting close to our departure and want to tie up all the loose ends.

LeighTravelClub

Just chill out !!
It's really very easy to get your transfer from Krabi to Phi Phi.
Nothing is best.....just go with the flow.
Deal with all your issues with a smile on your face...shoulders down, but brain alert.
Cost wise re the ferry......well, the difference from cheap to expensive is hardly worth any consideration.......you might save as much as the cost of a beer at the Amari.

tinto

While we are on the ferry issue which I find confusing as hell too. sriceali, I hope u don't mind me plugging in.

I am also planning a trip to Holiday Inn PhiPhi in mid Dec. But I am coming from Phuket (Khao Lak). Holiday Inn has suggested Andaman WaveMaster http://www.andamanwavemaster.com/(which I think they also do Krabi to PP). sriceali, pls check out their schedule.

Holiday Inn quotes 1900B/person/way include land transfer. But I am not sure if that includes pickup from Khao Lak JW Marriott to the Rassada Pier which seems kind of far away. Also the ferry time is 830am which means hotel pickup will be 6am!! 1330 ferry is kind of late and would cut into my time in Phi Phi.

The shuttle speedboat quote is 2500/person/way + land 1500/car/way
and private speedboat is 15500/boat/way

That's kind of steep.

Should I also try to arrange it locally with an agent (if I can find one in Khao Lak) or just go to the pier? Or somehow there will be someone advertising near the hotel in Khao Lak? Any suggestions?

Will start a new thread too. Thanks sriceali.