Four Islands or Hong Islands? How to Pick Your Krabi Boat Day

Walk along the beach road in Ao Nang and you will be offered two boat days within the same hundred metres. One is the Four Islands. The other is the Hong Islands. They leave from the same stretch of coast, they last about the same time, and the prices overlap.

Most visitors pick whichever one the agent mentions first. That is a shame, because the two trips suit different people, and one detail on the ticket – which national park you are entering – decides how much cash you need in your pocket.

What the Four Islands actually are

Four stops, all within sight of Ao Nang: Ko Kai (Chicken Island, named after the rock that looks like one), Ko Tup, Ko Poda and Phra Nang Cave Beach under the Railay cliffs.

The draw is Ko Tup. At low tide a sandbar surfaces and links it to neighbouring Ko Mor, and you can walk between two islands with water on both sides. At high tide it is simply two islands. Nobody selling you the trip will mention this, because the boat goes either way. Look up a tide table for Ao Nang before you pick your date, and if the sandbar is the picture you came for, book a day when low tide falls in the middle of the trip.

The most-reviewed version is the Premium 4-Island Day Trip by Longtail Boat: 6 hours, from €29.33, 4.6 stars from 6,104 reviews, with lunch served on the beach at Ko Poda. Cheaper listings cover the same four stops – longtail or speedboat from €19.53 with 2,176 reviews, or a longtail with Thai buffet lunch from €18.08.

What the Hong Islands are

A different group, further out and further north: Ko Hong itself, plus Ko Pak Bia and Ko Lao Lading. The name comes from the lagoon – hong means room – a near-enclosed pool of green water you enter through a gap in the cliff.

The Hong Islands Day Trip by Speedboat is the benchmark here: from €30.49, 4.6 stars from 4,748 reviews, 6 hours, with a half-hour speedboat crossing at the start and twenty minutes back. The itinerary gives two and a half hours on Hong Island itself, a lunch stop, twenty minutes in the lagoon and forty minutes of swimming and snorkelling off Ko Lao Lading. A longtail version runs from €24.65.

Two things on that listing are worth reading twice. The 360° viewpoint on Hong Island is marked optional – it is a steep climb, and it is not automatic. The kayaking is optional too, and carries an extra fee. If either is the reason you are going, confirm it when you book rather than on the boat.

The fee nobody quotes you

Here is the practical difference, and it is on the booking pages rather than the posters.

The Four Islands lie in Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Three separate listings give the same figure: 200 THB per adult and 100 THB per child, paid in cash on the day.

The Hong Islands lie in Than Bok Khorani National Park. Same coast, different park, different rate: 300 THB per adult and 150 THB per child.

Read your own listing before you set the cash aside: every one of these trips leaves the fee out, the Premium 4-Island longtail included – it names a flat 200 THB per person, with no child rate. For two adults and two children that is 600 THB for the Four Islands on the listings that publish a child rate and 900 THB for the Hong Islands, in baht, in cash, handed over at the boat or the jetty. It will not change which trip you choose, but it will change how much money you bring, and being short of cash on a beach with no ATM is a genuinely bad hour.

So which one

Take the Four Islands if you want variety, you are travelling with children who get bored in one place, you want the Railay cliffs without booking a separate Railay day, or you are hoping for the sandbar. Four stops in six hours means nothing drags.

Take the Hong Islands if you want to swim rather than sightsee. Two and a half hours in one bay beats four stops of forty minutes, the lagoon is the single most striking thing either trip visits, and the snorkelling off Ko Lao Lading is better than anything on the Four Islands circuit.

Take neither in the middle of a storm. Both are sold in all weather and both get cancelled or rerouted when the sea is up – operators typically call the evening before or on the morning itself. That is normal practice here, not a bad sign.

Longtail or speedboat

A longtail is slower, louder, open and closer to the water. A speedboat halves the transfer time and gives you more time on the islands, but it slams in a swell and there is less shade.

With small children, the longtail is usually the kinder ride. With half a day and a plane to catch, take the speedboat. And whichever you take, sit further back rather than at the very front, unless you want to arrive wet.

Before you book

Read the “not suitable for” line. The Hong Islands speedboat listing, for example, excludes children under 3, pregnant travellers, people with back or heart conditions and wheelchair users, and states plainly that the boat is not wheelchair accessible. Every operator sets these limits for themselves, so check the listing you are actually buying rather than assuming it matches the one next to it.

And tell the operator about dietary needs when you book, not on the day. The same listing charges 150 THB per person for a meal arranged at short notice.

If you have already done both and want the water rather than the boat ride, the next step is where to snorkel around Krabi – or a paddle through the mangroves instead, which is a different kind of day entirely. The full range is on the island tours page, from €12.88.