Krabi 4 island tour from Phuket: five boats, and the islands each one actually reaches

The four islands in the name are a Krabi thing, not a Phuket thing. Chicken Island, Tup, Poda and Phra Nang sit a short run off the Ao Nang shore, and the classic version of the trip is sold from Krabi town as a half or full day. What this site is about is the longer version: the same islands, reached from the Phuket side, which means a bay crossing at each end of the day.

That crossing is the reason the fares here start higher than the Krabi-side ones. A Krabi 4 island tour from Phuket is paying for distance as well as for beaches. It also explains why every one of these five listings runs eight or nine hours: the middle of the day is islands, and the ends of it are open water.

The second thing to understand is that operators use the four-island name loosely. Read the five descriptions on this page and you find two different days wearing one label. One names Poda, Chicken, Tup and Mo — the sandbank group. The others take you north of Ao Nang instead, to Koh Hong with its lagoon, to the small beach island of Lao Lading, and to the Laem Haad sandbank off Koh Yao Yai. Both are genuine island days in Krabi waters. They are not the same itinerary, and the booking page is where the difference is written down.

Our advice is simple: decide whether you want the postcard sandbar or the lagoon, then pick the listing that names it. A Krabi 4 island tour from Phuket is a long commitment of a day, and the island list is the part of it you cannot change once the boat has left the pier.

Eight hours sounds like a lot until you divide it. Here is the shape the listings describe, and it holds across all five.

The pick-up. Hotel transfer on the Phuket side, then the pier. This is the quiet hour that nobody books for and everybody spends, and it is why a Krabi 4 island tour from Phuket takes the whole of the date you book it on.

The crossing. Open water at speed, east across the bay. You pass the Koh Yao islands in the middle of the channel; on the ninth-hour listing you stop at one of them. The sea is usually at its flattest in these first hours.

The first island. Depending on the booking, this is either Poda with its beach, or Koh Hong, whose lagoon opens through a gap in the rock. Both are swimming stops rather than walking stops.

Snorkelling. Gear is part of the day on the listings that name it, and the water they describe is shallow and clear. One of the five snorkels at Ao Kar and takes in the Bird’s Nest Cave at Lao Kar on the way past.

Lunch. Thai food, on a beach or on board. One listing serves it amid rice fields on Koh Yao Noi rather than on sand, which is a different sort of hour and worth knowing about before you choose.

The sandbar and the viewpoint. The afternoon stop on most of these days: the strip of sand that links islands at low water, and on two listings a climb to a viewpoint above it. The jungle trek version is on $104; the 360-degree viewpoint is named on $122.

The run home. Back across the bay in the late afternoon, then the transfer. Expect the return leg to be livelier than the outbound one, because the afternoon breeze builds over the open water.

If you want the islands in the name, book $122. Eight hours, 4.5 across 35 reviews, and the only description on this site that lists Poda, Chicken, Tup and Mo together with the Hong Islands. It is the highest price of the five, and what the money buys is the early departure and the full island list rather than a longer day.

If you are here for the water, book $104. Eight hours, 4.4 across 52 reviews, snorkelling at Ao Kar, the Bird’s Nest Cave at Lao Kar, the sand split at Laem Hard Koh Yaw and a jungle climb to a viewpoint. This is the busiest version of the day, with the most to do between swims.

If the fare decides it, book $99. Eight hours on the Laem Haad sandbank and at Hong Island with a Thai lunch, for the lowest price of the five. It is a new listing with a single review behind it, so you are buying the itinerary rather than a long record; free cancellation is what makes that reasonable.

If you want an unhurried pair of islands, book $104. Lao Lading and Koh Hong, swimming at both, eight hours, 3.8 across 21 reviews. Fewer stops than the others, more time at each.

If you want the longest day, book $140. Nine hours, a batik workshop and a rice-field lunch on Koh Yao Noi, snorkelling at Koh Nok, then Koh Hong and Lao Lading. It is the newest listing here with no reviews yet, and the only one that puts a village visit inside a beach day.

One thing to plan for. Every Krabi 4 island tour from Phuket on this page is eight or nine hours from pick-up to drop-off, on top of a bay crossing at each end. Treat it as the whole of the date you book it on and keep the evening after it empty.