Phi Phi Early Bird Tour from Krabi

On a Krabi early bird tour, “early” means a hotel pickup around 6 am and Maya Bay in the first part of the morning. It does not mean sunrise on the beach. Maya Bay opens at roughly 7 am, and in November the sun comes up at about 6:15, while you are still in the van or at the pier. The Phi Phi Early Bird & 4 Islands from Krabi Ezy Trails was $79 per person for 9 November 2026 when we checked, with 4.9 from 3,568 reviews. That is $29 more than the standard speedboat day with lunch. Our review →

What the early start gets you

Maya Bay lets visitors in by rounds from about 7 am, with up to 375 people per round and an hour each, and the main wave of standard boats from Krabi and Phuket usually builds from about 10 am. A standard tour that leaves Ao Nang at 9:00 arrives around then. On the early bird routes you land after a first stop at the Tup Island sandbar near Krabi, which puts you at Maya Bay at roughly 8:30 to 9 am. You get there ahead of the busiest hours, though other boats will already be there.

Guests describe both sides of that. “Going early at Maya Bay was perfect as it was getting crowded halfway through being there,” wrote one guest in early November. Another, on a busier day in February, found Maya Bay “still full at 9am”. The later stops are where early starters notice the crowds most, because by then you are on the same circuit as everyone else. One guest counted at least 20 boats at each stop after Maya Bay.

If you want space for the whole day, a smaller boat makes more difference than the start time. The private charter page works out what that costs per person.

The four early tours

Krabi Ezy Trails’ tour caps the boat at 30 guests and spends about an hour at Maya Bay, 40 minutes at Pileh Lagoon, 45 minutes at a snorkel stop and 105 minutes on Bamboo Island, where lunch is a Thai mini buffet. It skips Phi Phi Don altogether, which suits some people, and one guest wished they had seen more of Phi Phi. The weak points in the lower reviews are a full boat, short stops, and a couple of guests over the past two years who linked a stomach upset to the lunch. Pickup does not cover Krabi Town.

Sea Eagle’s Early Bird Maya Bay & 4 Islands was $74 and does pick up in Krabi Town, between 6:00 and 6:30 with a breakfast snack box. The boat stops at Railay East pier for more guests before the 40-minute run to Maya Bay, and lunch is at Arida Restaurant 2 on Phi Phi Don. It has 4.7 from 996 reviews. The repeated complaint is that the boat felt packed, with 30 to 40 seats, and one guest said they reached Phi Phi only at about 9. Our review →

The Phi Phi Sunrise & Shark Nursery from Krabi Sunset Tours was $74, with its first open date on 11 November. Pickup runs 06:00 to 06:45, including Krabi Town but not Railay, and after Tup Island and an hour at Maya Bay it adds a 45-minute snorkel at a blacktip reef shark nursery off Phi Phi Leh. It rates 4.9 from 52 reviews, with no complaints so far, but that is a small base. Our review →

Thalassa Tour’s Semi-Private Phi Phi & Early Maya Bay runs from 8:00 to 15:30 from an Ao Nang meeting point, which is later, but on a smaller semi-private boat that goes to Maya Bay first. It was $116, and that includes the 400 THB park fee, so the real gap over the early birds is smaller than it looks. Guides speak English, Spanish and French. It has 4.9 from 36 reviews, most of which are from 2022 and 2023. Pickup from Railay, Krabi Town, Klong Muang or Tub Kaek costs extra. Our review →

Which early tour to book

If you can face a 6 am lobby, I would book Krabi Ezy Trails’ early bird: the boat has a cap, the route gets you to Maya Bay early, and the review base is large. Stay in Krabi Town and you will need Sea Eagle’s or Krabi Sunset Tours’ version. For snorkeling, the shark nursery stop on Krabi Sunset Tours’ trip is the one to look at.

All four cost more than a standard day, and none of them gives you an empty Maya Bay. Our early bird guide weighs the extra cost in more detail, and the Maya Bay guide covers the opening hours and the no-swimming rule.