Expat Travel Mom

Krabi pulled us back twice, once in April 2015, right into the middle of Songkran, and again in October 2017 for calmer, quieter days and one unforgettable morning in the water. Two very different trips, same gorgeous stretch of Thailand's Andaman coast. Here's what we'd tell anyone planning their own visit.

A quick honesty note: the 2017 hotel stay was generously hosted by the hotel. As always, everything I've written here reflects our actual experience, the good and the not-so-good. All other activities mentioned were separate.

Hotel Review: Centara Anda Dhevi Resort and Spa

Krabi is a popular holiday spot for expats across Southeast Asia, right up there with Phuket and Bali, which means no shortage of hotel options to sort through. After weighing reviews, family amenities, and cost, we landed on the Centara Anda Dhevi Resort and Spa in Ao Nang, just off the main road, about 40 minutes from the airport, and liked it enough to return here on both trips. We used the hotel's van pickup service, a smooth, comfortable ride for 1,000 baht. Check-in was warm and easy, welcome punch in hand, and the open-air lobby, live lounge music, and the smell of flowers in the air had us in vacation mode before we'd even reached our room.

Our rooms were spacious, one with a king bed, the other with two doubles, plenty of room for a rollaway if we'd needed one, and interconnecting, which as a family of five we genuinely appreciated, everyone needs a little separation sometimes, kids' shows in one room, ours in the other. Tiled floors kept things cool underfoot after a hot day out. Housekeeping timing was inconsistent, likely just a symptom of peak holiday season, and one room service order for the kids arrived cold with soggy pizza, a rare miss, though the pad Thai on the same menu was excellent. Given that we were there during Songkran one year...it makes sense.

The pool area had a speedy slide, a basketball hoop in the water, a shaded splash pool for toddlers, and a bar serving food and drinks, claim your lounge chairs early, before breakfast, if you want a good spot. Free WiFi in the rooms was a nice touch, and the on-site Cenvaree Spa, while several times the price of a 300-baht beachfront massage elsewhere in Thailand, was still a fraction of what the same hour would cost back in Singapore, and worth every bit of the splurge. The kids' club and teen E-Zone were the one real letdown, the E-Zone amounted to three computers crammed into a lobby corner, and the kids' club skewed toward much younger children than ours. Room for the hotel to improve there, but everything else more than made up for it.

Just outside the hotel: a currency exchange, a mini-mart, a coffee shop, and a row of casual eateries, plus a no-frills massage alley where 300 baht bought a genuinely lovely hour-long massage. A short walk further, the Longtail Boat Restaurant on Seafood Street was a fantastic spot for a group meal, prawns, fish, curries, and fried vegetables, especially good on their rooftop terrace. Luna Beach, right on Ao Nang Beach, looks like a shack from the sand but delivers an excellent green curry, yellow curry, and pad Thai, best enjoyed at a beachfront table right before sunset. One local tip worth keeping in your pocket: say "nik noy" if you'd like your food a little less spicy.

All in all, a lovely home base for our time in Krabi, and we left already looking forward to trying other Centara properties elsewhere in the region.

Kayaking and Cave Exploring

Booked straight through the hotel concierge (not part of the hosted package), a half-day kayaking trip out to explore a series of caves nearby. The kids were thoroughly delighted, hunting for bats, spotting what looked like ancient writing on the cave walls, and chasing down crabs along the way. One of our favorite mornings of the whole trip, and an easy one to arrange without needing to track down an outside tour company yourself.

Songkran, Thailand's Water New Year

In April, we couldn't have timed it better, or worse, depending on how you feel about being soaked by strangers for three straight days. Songkran marks the traditional Thai New Year, and it's less a single festival than a nationwide water fight that takes over entire streets, everyone from toddlers to grandparents armed with water guns, hoses, and buckets. We got our own dose of it right at the hotel, and it remains one of the most purely fun, chaotic travel memories we have as a family. We've experience Songkran in Phuket and Siem Reap as well!

Disco Tuk Tuks

A small, ridiculous detail worth remembering on its own: some of the tuk tuks around Krabi come tricked out with full light-up disco interiors, colored lights, music, the works. We hopped in one just for the fun of it, "pimp my tuk tuk" energy, and it delivered exactly that. The kids absolutely loved it!

Snorkeling at Maya Bay with Kon Tiki

Our 2017 trip brought us back for a full day out on the water with Kon Tiki Thailand, snorkeling at the famous Maya Bay. We swam alongside a hawksbill sea turtle and blacktip reef sharks in the same afternoon, genuinely one of those pinch-yourself family travel moments that's hard to top. I will say, our day had a bit of rocky waters, which led one of my kiddos back on the boat, ill, from the constant bobbing in the water. I wouldn't have thought being is slightly rough waters would lead to sea sickness, but it did.

Phra Nang Cave, the "Princess Cave"

A strange, memorable stop, and one that comes with a real story behind it. Local legend holds that Phra Nang was either an Indian princess lost in a shipwreck off the coast, or the wife of a local fisherman who never returned from the sea, and either way, her spirit is said to have made this cave her home. For generations, Krabi's fishermen have left offerings here asking for her protection and a good catch, and the offering of choice, somewhat famously, is a carved wooden phallus. The cave is genuinely covered in them, hundreds, in every size, alongside incense, flowers, and colorful cloth. It sounds like a joke until you're standing in it, and then it just feels like exactly the kind of thing that makes travel worth it, a real, centuries-old local tradition that no guidebook description quite prepares you for. It was a great day traveling there by boat, playing in the water, exploring some beautiful hidden caves and walking along the empty beach.

Two trips, two completely different moods, and Krabi delivered on both. If Thailand's Andaman coast is anywhere on your list, it's worth every bit of the detour. If Phuket is what you're looking for, check out this post.