A place that feels like an island: Railay, Thailand

If you read about Railay Beach you will see very positive or very negative opinions. On one hand crowds, dirt and expensive hotels and bars, on the other amazing bays, cheap bungalows and friendly people Railay is a bit like that, full of contrast, but still wonderful.

After 15 hours from Bangkok with three different means of transport (bus, minivan and boat), around 11 am in heat and sun we arrived to Railay East. We were kind of expecting a turquoise beach with white sand and we got to a dirty bay full of noisy and stinky boats, a couple of bars and nothing more. The first moments were not the best.

We went to our hotel on the northern end of Railay East, managed to check-in earlier and after a short hike through numerous stairs we reached our bungalow. Our own, standing almost in the end, with a terrace and a view over the palm trees and sea!

I barely went to take a long awaited shower when Renato started shouting: Monkeys! Monkeys! Come and see! Indeed, there were three black and white monkeys sitting on a tree next to us. Not the small brown ones you can find everywhere in south-east Asia that steal things from people, but bigger, black and white langurs! I guess it was a sign that maybe it won’t be all  that bad.

Railay is a small peninsula separated from the mainland by high limestone hills. It is accessible only by boat, so you can feel as though you were on a real island. You can find here four beaches: Railay West, Railay East, Ton Sai and Phra Nang.

Railay East and Railay West are completely different. East is cheaper, but also more ugly. Don’t count on swimming and sunbathing here; the water is dirty and full of boat and trees. During the day it doesn’t impress at all, hence our initial disappointment. At night though, this places turns into a nice accumulation of bars and restaurants, most of them cheap and simple, although you can find also some more exclusive ones. We recommend The Last Bar: they have really delicious food in affordable prices, fresh seafood, Muay Thai fights and fire shows. Accommodation on Railay East is also cheaper than on the west side, but the closest beach (Railay West of Phra Nang) is 10-15 minutes away. The cheapest accommodation we found in Rapala resort, but don’t expect any luxury. We spend there one night and two nights in Garden View Resort where we had a quite pleasant bungalow on a hill. All houses have fans, not AC and you need to climb a bit to get there.

Railay West has a beach, quite good one, long and rather wide even during high tide. There are a couple of more expensive hotels with swimming pools.

We fell in love with Phra Nang beach. It is located in the southern end of the Railay peninsula. To get there you need to get to the southern end of Railay East beach, walk through a path next to the rocks (be aware of the sneaky monkeys!) and enter the beach next to a super exclusive Rayavadee Resort. During a high tide only one side of the beach (with Phra Nang Cave) is easily available. By the way, you must see this cave, it’s quite unique, but why I will leave it to you to discover. You can get to the other end of the beach if you wade in the water, or walk through a stone embankment.

There the water is cleaner, more blue, and the views on the island in front are absolutely amazing. Also, there are fewer people and only some boats passing from time to time. During a low tide you can practically walk (the water should be until your waist) to the island, nevertheless, there aren’t any nice places for snorkeling.

We didn’t have a chance to see the fourth beach. It is accessible only by boat from Railay East, although we heard that during a low tide you can walk there by the rocks. They say that the beach there is not the best, but you can find there the cheapest accommodation, more backpacker in style and a lot of climbing routes.

The whole peninsula is known for hundreds of climbing routes. At every step you can see stands offering climbing courses and different options for more and less advanced people on the rocks nearby.

The second day we went for a walk in search of the view point to see both beaches, Railay East and West. We were not expecting at all that we will come back extremely excited and dirty… It turned out that we need to climb to the viewpoint. It was rain season in Thailand and the night before there was a storm, so the whole track was all muddy.

The route is practically vertical and you need to climb the rocks and boughs in the middle of the jungle helping yourself with specially prepared ropes. We had a blast, even though there were some dangerous moments. It was really slippery and we were wearing sandals… After a couple of minutes, the path divided. One leads to a little opening in the trees where you can see a decent part of the peninsula, the second one goes to a lagoon.

After a short walk to the view point we went back to the crossroads and went in direction of the lagoon. This time there was a steep descent. We started walking deeper into the jungle, the high trees were covering the sky. At some point it got quite dark.

We managed to go down the first part, but our feet were slipping both on the mud and our own feet. When we were 10 meters from the lagoon we had to give up. Two very steep descents awaited us, the clouds covered the sky and we were afraid it was going to rain and going down in streams of water would be a dangerous slide. Disappointed, but still excited we came back. We went straight to Phra Nang beach and jumped to the water in clothes to wash off the mud and dirt on our shorts and legs. After some minutes it started to rain, so I guess we did well withdrawing earlier.

On the way to our bungalow we saw a group of monkeys sneaking to people’s backpacks. On of them opened a zipper and stole a pack of chips and ran up a tree. A dozen of brown monkeys jumped around in search of food, rummaging through the trash.

As you can see, everybody can find something suited for their needs: an exclusive resort with a swimming pool, cheap bungalows with fans, climbing tracks, beautiful beaches, delicious food, small local restaurants, quiet bars with pillows on the floor or loud pubs with music. Railay is wonderful, you just need to “discover” it and find the most charming spots.

Magda

To find hotels in Railay, click here.