Emerald Pool, Blue Pool and the Hot Springs: Is the Inland Day Worth It?

Almost everyone who stays in Ao Nang for more than four days ends up considering the inland day: Emerald Pool, the Blue Pool, a hot spring waterfall, and usually the Tiger Cave Temple on the way home. It is the standard counterweight to the island trips, and it is sold everywhere.

It is also the Krabi day trip where the advertised price is furthest from what you actually spend, and where the itinerary most often includes something you cannot see. Both problems are easy to avoid once you know about them.

The pools are not in Krabi, and the drive is the point

Emerald Pool – Sa Morakot on Thai signage – sits inside the Khao Phra Bang Khram protected forest in Klong Thom district, well inland from the coast. The Blue Pool, Sa Nam Phut, is a few hundred metres further along the forest path. The hot spring waterfall is a separate site again.

None of this is near the beach. On the most-booked version of the trip, the Tiger Cave Temple, Emerald Pool and Hot Springs Tour, the operator’s own itinerary lists one hour in the vehicle each way before the first stop. The whole thing runs 9 hours, from €34.27, and it carries 4.8 stars from 4,115 reviews.

That length is the honest headline. You are buying two hours of driving, roughly an hour in each of three or four places, and lunch. If your idea of a good day is unhurried time in one spot, this is not that day.

The money: the fees are usually not in the price

This is the part that surprises people at the gate, and it is written plainly on the booking pages if you read the exclusions.

On the Tiger Cave, Hot Springs and Emerald Pool Jungle Tour – 8 hours, from €35.48, 4.3 stars from 2,840 reviews – the “not included” list names them:

• Emerald Pool: 400 THB per adult, 200 THB per child
• Hot Springs: 200 THB per adult, 100 THB per child

That is 600 THB per adult on top of the tour, in cash, at two separate gates. For a family of four with two children it is roughly 1,800 THB, which is more than one adult’s share of the tour itself.

Not every operator handles it the same way. On the 392346 tour above, entry fees are included if you pick the option that includes them – so two listings for what looks like the same day can differ by 600 THB per head, and the cheaper one is not necessarily cheaper. The third well-reviewed version, Hot Spring, Emerald Pool & Tiger Cave Temple Tour from €39.42 with 706 reviews, is the dearest of the three before fees – and its exclusions add a third gate the others do not mention, 50 THB at the Tiger Cave Temple.

Before you book, open the listing, find the line that begins “not included”, and decide with the fees added. Bring the cash; the gates are not card machines.

The Blue Pool is closed for half the year, and you may never swim in it

Two facts that tour titles almost never mention.

It shuts from May to October. The Blue Pool closes during the breeding season of Gurney’s pitta, the endangered bird that makes this particular patch of forest internationally known. Outside that closure it opens on a shorter schedule than the Emerald Pool – around 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.

Swimming is prohibited there, always. The pool is fed from below, the temperature varies, and the bottom is soft. The Blue Pool is a place to look at, photograph and leave. The swimming happens at the Emerald Pool, which is shallow, warm and busy.

Tours run year round and keep “Blue Lagoon” in the itinerary year round. If you are travelling between May and October and the blue water is the reason you booked, ask the operator to confirm before the day. A message through the booking platform is enough, and you will have the answer in writing.

When it is genuinely good, and when it is not

It is a good day if it rained yesterday, if you have had enough salt water, or if you want the one thing the islands cannot give you: forest, freshwater and shade. Early is better. The Emerald Pool from opening until mid-morning is a different place from the Emerald Pool at noon, and the tours that leave first get there first.

It is a poor day if you have young children who will spend two hours in a minibus for one hour of paddling, or if you are only in Krabi for three days. With three days, the boats win. The island tours are what the province is actually famous for, and the inland sites will still be there next time.

It is also a poor day if you are chasing photographs of impossibly blue water in September. That is the middle of the southwest monsoon on this coast, the Blue Pool is shut, and heavy rain turns the Emerald Pool cloudy.

Doing it without a tour

You can. The sites are public, the gates take cash, and nothing about them requires a guide. What they require is a vehicle: there is no useful bus, the sites are an hour inland, and a private taxi for the day will often cost more than two seats on a group trip.

If you are already planning to drive elsewhere in the province – Krabi is left-hand traffic and the inland roads are straightforward – it is worth comparing car hire for Krabi against the tour price for your group size. For two people the tour usually wins. For four or five, driving starts to make sense, and you get to stay at the Emerald Pool as long as you like.

Whichever way you go, the fees at the gate are the same, and so is the opening time.

What to take

Long enough clothing for the temple stop, if your trip includes one: the Tiger Cave Temple has a dress code, and one operator’s “not allowed” list simply says sleeveless shirts. Shoulders and knees covered, or a sarong in the bag.

Beyond that: cash for the gates, a towel, something to change into, and insect repellent for the forest path. Swimwear under your clothes saves you a queue at the changing rooms.

If the temple is on your itinerary and you want to know what the climb involves before you commit to it, that is its own question – and the answer is more than 1,200 steps.