Phuket to Krabi speedboat: 18 boats compared, from $32

Phuket and Krabi sit on opposite sides of Phang Nga Bay. By road the two are joined the long way round, through the isthmus at the top of the bay. By sea they are close, and that single geographic fact is the whole business of this coast. A Phuket to Krabi speedboat crosses the short side, and the listing for the direct boat says it plainly: the fastest way to commute between Phuket and Krabi across the Andaman Sea.

Two products, one search. Almost everyone who books here is choosing between two things without realising it. One is transport: $32 runs straight to Krabi, Railay or Ao Nang. The other is a day out that happens to travel in the same direction — $46 and the Phang Nga Bay boats all work the water between the two provinces. The money between them is smaller than most people expect.

What is on the way. James Bond Island, properly Khao Phing Kan, stands in Phang Nga Bay between Phuket and Krabi. Koh Yao Yai and Koh Yao Noi sit in the middle of the same bay. Hong Island, with its lagoon closed in by a ring of cliffs, is already on the Krabi side. A Phuket to Krabi speedboat that stops nowhere passes all of them; a day boat lands on them.

Where the boats put you down. The crossings name three arrival points: Krabi town, Ao Nang and Railay. They are not interchangeable. Railay has no road behind it, so a boat is the ordinary way in. Ao Nang is the beach strip most hotels sit on. Krabi town is the administrative side, further up the estuary. $46 runs the Ao Nang and Railay line via Ko Yao.

Hotel pickup. Some listings include it, some price it separately, and on $46 it is named only for the return leg out of Ao Nang. It is the single line that most often explains why two fares that look alike behave differently on the morning.

Five numbers decide it: the fare, the hours, whether the boat stops, what is included and how many people have rated it. Here is the site read out plainly.

If you only need to get across, book $32. It is the lowest fare here and it is honest about what it sells: a direct speedboat between Phuket and Ao Nang or Krabi, with the views of the bay along the way and the whole leg finished inside 1 hour and 45 minutes. 374 reviews at 4.6. For anyone moving hotels, this is the Phuket to Krabi speedboat to take.

If you want the bay as well as the crossing, book $46. Eight hours, James Bond Island and Phang Nga Bay, canoeing through the caves and lagoons at Panak and Hong Island, hotel transfers and lunch on board, with a halal menu and vegetarian options on request, and a swim at Naka or Kaya depending on the package. At 4.7 across 377 reviews it is the best rated day on the site and it costs less than most of the shorter ones.

If you want the most tested day, book $57. 2,129 people have rated it, more than three times any other listing here. Seven hours: kayaks into the caves of Panak Island, a canoe around Koh Hong and its emerald lagoons, lunch in the stilt village at Panyee, and the famous limestone stack itself.

If canoeing is the reason you are here, book $64. Eight hours with breakfast and lunch, sea kayaking among the limestone formations and caves at Hong Island, and beach time at the Palm Beach Club on Yao Yai. 4.8 across 950 reviews, which is the highest rating of any listing with more than a hundred ratings.

If the park fee worries you, book $65. Entry to the national park is charged separately on this coast, and this ten-hour listing puts it inside the fare. Caves and lagoons by canoe, lunch at the Panyee sea gypsy village, canoeing at Hong Island and a swim at Naka. 4.8 across 24 reviews.

If you want the boat to yourself, book $141. A private transfer from Phuket airport or your hotel to Krabi or Ao Nang, with the pickup hour chosen by you a day ahead, 90 minutes of waiting built in at the airport and 15 at a hotel. 4.9 across 31 reviews, the best rating on this site. $933 is the other private option: a charter to James Bond Island with no other guests on board.