Railey and Phra Nang are beautiful beaches in Krabi. They are not accessible by the land transport, so you will need to arrive from the sea.
How to Get There
You will either need to take a longtail boat from Ao Nang or be transfered from a ferry on to a longtail boat, which is the only type of boat able to access these beaches.
Getting to Railey beach is very easy from Ao Nang. You can buy tickets for the longtail boats at the big booth at the crossing of the Muslim street (the main artery of Ao Nang) with the beach. The tickets cost 100 baht one way per person. You can buy return tickets here and keep your ticket for hopping on the longtail boat back. You can’t miss the boatmen, they are constantly shouting “Railey, Railey”. The system is easy – as soon as they collect at least 8 people (that’s a minimum they take), you get on the boat and it will leave.
Keep in mind, that to get on and off longtail boats, you need to wade through the water. So wear your shoes accordingly. I wore strapped on sandal crocs, which are more convenient than usual sandals in this case.
West Railey Beach
The longtail boat will bring you to the West Railey beach. This part is for swimmers, it’s very beautiful, with the rocks closing both of its sides. You have some cafes here, can relax and explore the beach. From here, you can head to the Eastern part through the lane full of cafes and bars.
Eastern Railey
Eastern side is not great for swimming, but it has some extremely beautiful spots. It feels like this part is dedicated to offloading the goods and cargo. There are some hotels located here. Cafes and restaurants are very few. If you walk to the far end on your right, you will come to the rock-climbing spots. I believe you can hire the relevant equipment here. Overall, the Eastern side is very beautiful and I do suggest you explore it.
From this part of Railey, you can easily walk across to the Phra Nang cave beach. The walk is nice with lots rocks around you. There is a spot, from where you can climb up to Krabi viewpoint, but it definitely isn’t for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t attempt it personally. If you are a climber, then it’s your heaven 😊 This is the way you would have to climb:
Phra Nang Cave Beach
The Phra Nang cave beach was my favourate place. It is really beautiful with a lot of different things going on. Firstly, when you get to the beach, you will see the two small caves with a number of penises in them (yes, you read it right 😊). I guess the idea is that they are praying to fertility. Either way, we did see one person praying or looking like he was.
Here you will also find a very interesting sign, which lets you know that certain types of penis depictions (without balls) are allowed, while the ones with – are not. We were totally dumbfounded by this. Anyway, an interesting thing to see for sure.
On the left side you will see the bigger caves. You can wade through water to get there. We walked around there. I saw the biggest lizard I have ever seen in my life. And strangely, it appeared to be blue. Oh, and there are numerous crabs here, so be careful not to step on any.
You can also walk to the other side of the beach and find additional smaller caves there. Btw. The sea is full of tiny fish. Overall, it’s a very beautiful place. Ah, maybe I already mentioned that, but it really is 😀
From Phra Nang cave beach, you can either walk back to West Railey, if you like, or directly catch a longtail boat back to Ao Nang with the same return ticket you bought already. Here too, you may have to wait for a short time, so that 8 people are gathered, after which the boat takes off to Ao Nang.
Getting to Railey is also possible from the ferries. If you have a ferry ticket from a tourist company, they arrange longtail boats, which transfer you from the ferry standing nearby the beach. The ferry we took from Nopharat Thara pier to and from Phi Phi, stopped at Railey to take and drop the passengers.
See also:
