Phi Phi Don vs Phi Phi Leh

Phi Phi Don is the big, inhabited island, with the village, the pier, the hotels and the lunch stop; Phi Phi Leh, a few minutes south by boat, is the small, uninhabited one with Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon and Viking Cave, and you only visit it by boat. A day tour sees both, and most add Bamboo Island. Sea Eagle Tour’s day from Krabi is a typical one: 50 minutes on Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, a snorkel off Phi Phi Leh, lunch on Phi Phi Don and an hour on Bamboo Island, from US$47 a person, rated 4.4 from 3,925 reviews (checked November 2026).

Phi Phi Don: where people stay

Phi Phi Don is the largest of the group. Its shape gives it its best-known view: two bays, Ton Sai and Loh Dalum, curve towards each other like a pair of C’s, with the village on the low land between them. Ton Sai is the main port and the hub for hotels, restaurants and shops; a path crosses to Loh Dalum, a cove with calm water for swimming. Elsewhere on the island are its viewpoint and quieter beaches such as Loh Ba Kao, Rantee Bay, Wang Long Bay and Laem Tong.

On a day tour you see it at lunch: the boats tie up at Ton Sai and most serve a buffet at a beachside restaurant there. Monkey Beach, where crab-eating macaques live along the shore, is on Phi Phi Don too, and most boats watch from the water rather than landing.

Phi Phi Leh: Maya Bay and the cliffs

Phi Phi Leh is the smaller island: steep limestone cliffs rising straight out of the sea, with nobody living on it. Everything famous is here:

• Maya Bay, the white beach enclosed by cliffs, made famous by the film The Beach. You land at the jetty in Loh Samah Bay on the far side and walk across; swimming in Maya Bay is not allowed.
• Loh Samah Bay itself, one of the island’s best snorkelling and diving spots, with coral and a small islet in the middle.
• Pileh Lagoon, a near-enclosed lagoon of calm green water inside the cliffs, where the boats stop for a swim.
• Viking Cave, a cave in the cliff with old wall paintings and the ledges where swiftlet nests are harvested; you see it from the boat, since visitors are not allowed in.

Both islands are in Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, and the park fee covers them: 400 baht an adult and 200 baht a child.

Check dates for a day around both islands →

Bamboo, Mosquito and the Khai islands

Bamboo Island (Ko Mai Phai) lies about 5 km north-east of Phi Phi Don, with a white sand beach and clear water for swimming. It is in the national park, has its own ranger station, and is the usual last stop: an hour on Sea Eagle Tour’s day, an hour and a half on One Asia’s from Phuket. The park fee covers it. Bamboo Island tours compares the days that stop there, from Phuket, Krabi, Ko Lanta and Phi Phi Don.

Mosquito Island (Ko Yung), next to Bamboo, is also in the park, but the Department of National Parks has kept it closed to visitors since 2015 so its coral can recover, and none of the tours here lands there.

The Khai islands are a different group, east of Phuket in Phang Nga province and outside the national park. Phuket’s boats often stop there on the way back, and a 20-baht-a-person service charge is collected there. From Krabi you will not see them; some Krabi days add Chicken Island and Ko Poda instead, off the Krabi coast.

Which island should you see?

You do not choose: every day tour takes in Phi Phi Leh’s bays, a stop on Phi Phi Don and usually Bamboo Island. What you choose is how long you stay. One night on Phi Phi Don gives you the early boats from Ton Sai and time for the viewpoint; can you stay on Phi Phi? covers getting there, and Maya Bay from Phi Phi the trips you can take once you are there.

Pick by how you want to see the islands:

Prices and ratings from GetYourGuide, checked November 2026; operators change prices, so treat them as a guide, not a quote. The private speedboat is priced for a group of up to 12.

Phi Phi Don’s bays, beaches and the path to Loh Dalum, and Phi Phi Leh’s bays are from the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s pages for the two islands; the park’s islands and ranger stations from the Department of National Parks’ park page; the fee and the islands it covers from the department’s fee schedule; Ko Yung’s closure, in force since 2015, from the park’s announcements as reported in January 2018 by Thai Channel 8 and Khaosod English. Bamboo Island’s distance, the stops and the times are from the GetYourGuide listings, read on 29 October 2026; the Khai islands’ province from TAT’s Ko Khai page and the 20-baht service charge from the operators’ notices of November 2021. All read in October 2026.