Thailand: How We Avoided Peak Season Crowds

We stayed primarily in the Krabi/Phuket region. In Krabi, we went to Railay Beach, Emerald Pools, Hot Springs and to Phrangnga Bay, where we took a boat tour. We stayed at a beautiful Thai looking hotel, Centara Anda Dhevi. It was clean, comfortable and very reasonably priced. It has a great water slide for the kids and babysitters available for us to be able to have a couple date night dinners. To avoid crowds, we made sure to take our boat trips early and when we took tours, we hired a private taxi. We were able to leave earlier than the tour busses and we had the attractions to ourselves. It costs more but it is worth the extra money in our opinion. We were the only people at Emerald Pools, which apparently gets busy at 9:00. We also had James Bond Island to ourselves for an hour and 15 minutes. We were leaving the island right as the crowds started showing up in hordes. This is the most crowded attraction in the country, with thousands of people coming to the small island on a daily basis. The private taxi and private longtail boat tour coast a little less than twice what the normal tours cost, but we had JBI all to ourselves.

Next, we stayed on Phi Phi Islands. Breathtakingly beautiful and isolated, we enjoyed hiking to the scenic viewpoints and taking a boat tour around the islands. The same rules applied here: the early bird gets the worm. If you get up early and start your day before 8, you’ll have an hour or two to yourself. At 9:00, hundreds of tourists pour into the bays, reefs, beaches, start their hikes…etc. We stayed at the The Paradise Long Beach Hotel, which was perfectly situated on the quiet side of the island and right on the beach.

We ended our stay in Phuket, where we stayed in a nice hotel right on Kata Beach. We visited an elephant sanctuary, surfed, relaxed at beaches, visited temples and ate at some local hole in the wall kitchens that were incredibly cheap and delicious. Because we didn’t really take tours while in Phuket, waking up early was less essential, and we were more casual and laid back.

We then spent a night in Bangkok and took a boat cruise dinner which was awesome. It was Christmas time, so the boat had a Christmas Tree and was lit up beautifully and we got great views of the city.

The Thai theme for us was: Everything is cheap and get up EARLY. We don’t like hundreds of photobombers in our family pictures, so it was worth the extra expense and setting the early alarm!