Railay Beach is one of Thailand’s most spectacular beaches and a very popular tourist destination. It’s not only great for enjoying the beach, it’s also famous for rock climbing and caving and the many monkeys that roam around the pensinsula. It’s an amazing place to spend a day or two, and after reading this extensive guide, you’ll have all the information you need for an incredible stay at Railay Beach.
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Table of contents - The Ultimate Travel guide to Railay beach
What is Railay Beach
Railay Beach is a peninsula located in the province of Krabi, in the south of Thailand. Here you’ll find beaches, jungle and limestone cliffs and rocks perfect for climinb and caving.
Railay Beach can only be reached by boat, which gives it a really nice island vibe. Railay consists of 2 parts: East and West. The western side is where the boats from Ao Nang arrive and has a beach. The eastern part is where the boats from Krabi town arrive. This part doesn’t have a beach, but mangroves. From here it’s a short walk to Phra Nang Beach though, the most beautiful beach of the peninsula.
How to get to Railay Beach
You can get to Railay Beach by boat from Ao Nang or Krabi. Once you get here, the only way to get around is on foot. There are no vehicles on the peninsula. The town is only small though so it’s easy to get around.
Long tail boats leave from Ao Nang, and Krabi. Since Ao Nang is a lot closer than Krabi, I recommend leaving from there. A one way ticket is 100 baht (less than 3 EUR/USD, at the time of writing) and boats come and go throughout the day and leave when full. They normally fill up quickly, so no need to wait very long.
Where to stay in Railay beach
Many people visit Railay on a day trip from Ao Nang, Krabi or even Phuket, but I recommend staying at least one night. It can get quite crowded during the day and we enjoyed Railay the best early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Accommodation here is a little pricier than in Ao Nang, but definitely worth it! We stayed at Railay Hilltop, which was a good budget option. Note that you need to climb up a lot of stairs to get here, so it’s not for everyone. They do have a little lift for your luggage though, to make things easier.
What to do in Railay beach
Besides enjoying the beach and the water, Railay has some amazing viewpoints which are definately worth visiting. If you’re looking for more adventure, you can go caving or rock climbing and if you prefer something with less adrenaline rent a kyak or SUP board and explore the lime stone cliffs and rocks from the sea.
Railay East Viewpoint and lagoon
The most famous and accessible viewpoint is the viewpoint at Railay East. Accessible doesn’t mean easy though! It’s a mostly vertical climb up. There are ropes to help you up though and I thought it looked harder than it actually was. But be prepared to get dirty and sweaty!
I only recommend this climb when it’s dry. The path gets super muddy and slippery after rain. Also, the rope was full of dried mud, meaning it won’t offer much grip when wet. I went in the dry season and all the mud was dry so it was fine. You just get dirty.
Getting up takes about 10-15 minutes I’d say, but it depends on your fitness level and how many other people are going up or down. Once you’re up, you’ll see a split: viewpoint to the left and lagoon to the right. The walk to the viewpoint is easy from here. It’s only a little more up, but no more climbing required. From here you get a nice view over Railay East and you can see Railay West in the distance too. Railay East looks nicer with high tide, which is one of the reasons I recommend trying to time your climb up with high tide. The other one is that the lagoon actually fills up with the high tide and is empty at low tide!
In order to get to the lagoon, you need to walk back to where the path split and climb down. I really wanted to do this hike early in the morning, before it got even hotter and before the crowds, but it was still low tide.
I went down till I got into a kind of valley. There I spoke to a group that was just coming up and they said there was virtually no water in the lagoon and they didn’t go further down than the valley, as it was a really steep drop from there. It didn’t seem worth the effort for an mostly empty and muddy lagoon. So I followed their advise and did the same. I could see the first part of the lagoon from the valley and it was indeed just mud with some puddles. A couple that was right behind me decided to give it a try, but decided to turn back about 1/3 of the way in as well.
Railay West Viewpoint
Railay west viewpoint is a little more hidden and not as well advertised. But I actually enjoyed this one more than Railay East! Some people said it’s only doable with climbing equipment, but that’s not true. If you access from Phra Nang Beach you can do it without climbing equipement.
The first part isn’t so hard and the views are awesome. So you can come up to here and always decide if you want to go further as you need to climb through a cave to get to the second viewpoint. If you think you might want to attempt this, I recommend a head torch. It’s possible with a phone in your hand too, but as it involves climbing up and down ladders and some parts where you need to hold a rope, a head torch makes your life a lot easier. And the risk of injuries a lot smaller. 😉
We did it with a phone, as we didn’t think we were gonna do it. We though we had to have climbing gear so we figured we’d just see how far we’d get. It was doable with a phone, but I don’t recommend it. There were moments I really wished I had both hands completely free and moments I handed my phone over to Miguel when possible.
In order to get to the Railay West Viewpoint, walk to the other side of Phra Nang Beach. Here you’ll see a sandy path between the bushes that does behind the rock and a rope to use to go up. Follow the path into the cave and go up the ladders. You’ll find yourself in a giant cave which is already awesome as it is! When you get up the ladders, the tunnel to the first viewpoint is right in front of you. Go up and around and go into the tunnel. You’ll be amazed by the views and given they are from a cave make it even more special. This part isn’t very difficult and the views are 100% worth it.
Now if you’re brave enough and want to continue, you can keep going to the other viewpoint. Leave the tunnel and follow the path crossing the cave to the other side. There are more ropes and ladders to get to this point and if we hadn’t come across another tourist who just came back from the other side, I don’t know if we would have been brave enough to do it! But another tourist said it was doable and the views are worth it, so we decided to go for it.
Getting up wasn’t to difficult. I really dislike ladders so I was a little nervous going up, but they are well tied up so I did it. And wow! The views were indeed definitely worth it. We saw some rock climbers coming up the other side, so maybe that’s why people said you can only go climbing.
We enjoyed the views here from the coolness of the cave for a little while until we thought it was time to head back. I found going down the ladders a lot more nerve wrecking than going up, but I couldn’t stay up there forever forever so I took a few deep breaths and step by step I made it down. An amazing experience.
Rock Climbing
Another very popular thing to do in Railay is rock climbing. I have tried rock climbing before, and it’s not my thing, so I decided to skip it, and just look at those way braver people from my towel on the beach instead. But if you are into rock climbing, or would like to try it, it’s a spectacular location for it.
Caving
There are more caves at Railay Beach besides the caves at the Railay West Viewpoint. The most famous one is Diamond Cave. These caves require an entrance fee though, and receive a lot of tourists. After visiting the viewpoint at Railay West, we didn’t think it was worth it, so we skipped the other caves.
Kayaking and SUP
If you’re tired of lying on the beach and want to do something a little more active, you can rent a kayak or a paddle board and explore more of the limestone cliffs around the coast.
This was The Ultimate Travel guide to Railay beach
If you love the vibe of Railay but also want to experience some other places, there are many agencies who can organize trips for you. The most popular options are Koh Phi Phi and a 4 island tour.
