10-day Thailand trip - Phuket & Krabi
Kick started the year on a high note with a 10-day trip to Thailand as I escaped the freezing cold weather in NYC. Had just gotten back into the city all the way from Japan so needless to say my brain was a little confused as to where I was in the world. But with very little time to readjust my jet lag, we embarked on a unforgettable trip in the amazing country of Thailand, together with a group of creators and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Arrival into Thailand
Rules regarding each country’s entry-requirements change very regularly nowadays due to the current public health situation in the world. Requirements for Thailand have now changed since our arrival date, but at the time or arrival we had to make sure to get a negative PCR test no more than 72 hours prior to departure, and process our Thailand-Pass application online.
Once that was done we flew from JFK to Phuket with a long layover in Doha. A total of 28 hours later, we landed in Phuket, ready for our sandbox. Upon arrival at the airport, we immediately got our PCR test and got driven to our hotel where we had to wait on our room for the test results. It was time for a well needed rest :)
Phuket
The reason why we had to land in Phuket was because that was one of the entry points into the country (at the time of travel) through the sandbox program. In short, we did not need to quarantine in our hotel, but had to stay a minimum of 7 days within Phuket to finish our sandbox. V Villas Phuket kindly hosted us during the entire 7 days, which made our stay very easy and convenient. We each had a villa equipped with our own swimming pool. All in all a super comfortable and luxurious stay in a fully equipped property with direct private access to the beach.
During our stay in Phuket, we had the opportunity to go sightseeing and enjoy a range of different activities. Some of my favourite activities included visiting Wat Chalong and the Big Buddha, located nearby each other, as well as enjoying hidden and less populated beaches such as Nui Beach and Nai Thon Beach.
A trip to Phuket would have been incomplete without a boat cruise experience. On our last two days in Phuket, we had the opportunity to go on a catamaran luxury sunset cruise to Promthep Cape, as well as a traditional long tail boat organised by V Villas Phuket. Both experiences has their unique offer as we got to jump off the boats and enjoyed the breathtaking sunset views.
Transfer from Phuket to Krabi
The transfer from Phuket to Krabi took a few hours of car ride, as we pit stopped in a few locations on our way to the destination.
First, we had a very early morning wake up call at 3:30am and left V Villas Phuket at 4am. Hopped on the van with our luggages in order to drive 2 hours though the Phang Nga province. Our first stop was at a breathtaking location called Samet Nangshe, just in time for sunrise. This experience was my favourite activity during the entire trip (typical Jérôme style adventure as we woke up super early to go explore a very remote location), where I was able to fly my drone and capture incredible aerial shots as I watched the sun rise above the horizon.
Phang Nga is very vast province by the Andaman Sea, surrounded by acres and acres of mangroves. After finishing our sunrise shoot at Samet Nangshe we drove to a location to hop of a boat ride through the mangroves to visit the famous James Bond Island. On the way back I had spotted from afar the famous floating football pitch of Koh Panyee, which was a bucketlist location that was on my list for years! We also made a stop by the island but unfortunately I had left my drone in the van, and wasn’t able to get my dream shot (I cried a little inside my head lol). One more reason to come back!
Once we finished this excursion we made our way to Krabi after stopping for lunch, as we were welcomed by the team at Rayavadee who took us to Railay Beach by speed boat.
Krabi
Our last 3 days on this trip were spent on Railay Beach, right off the coast of Krabi. Rayavadee hosted us for three nights, were we had the change of relaxing on the beatiful property by the beach, and explore what the island had to offer.
Our first day consisted of exploring Princess Lagoon. The journey to this lagoon involved a 30-min hike (well it was more of a intense climb than a hike 😂) but this was arguably my favourite activity on the island. We slightly underestimated the length of this hike/climb, but after a good physical challenge we finally made it to this breathtaking lagoon. Highly recommended for avid outdoor enthusiasts like myself!
Our last day on this trip consisted on going Island hopping in Koh Phi Phi / Maya Bay. This full-day boat trip, organised by the team at Rayavadee, was both a very relaxing and fun day to explore the clear blue water and amazing snorkelling scenes of southern Thailand. I couldn’t get enough of the increadible and quintessential Thailand beach scenes. This was the perfect way to end our trip in Krabi.
If you are going to Krabi and want to get to relax in an amazing property sourrounded by beaches and rock formations, Rayavadee is highly recommended!
I ended this trip by extending my stay in the country for a couple of days and exploring Bangkok on my own schedule with Ally. I hadn’t been in Bangkok since 2003 so I took this opportunity to revisit the capital
A huge thanks to the Tourism Authority of Thailand for hosting us on this unforgettable trip around Phuket and Krabi. Thailand is definitely a destination for all types of people, whether you like to travel for food, culture, nature or city life, it has everything. Big thanks to our partners who hosted us during this stay as well. If you are looking for places to stay, V Villas Phuket and Rayavadee in Krabi are some of the properties with the best hospitality and offerings in their respective locations. Thank you as well to Trikaya Tours for helping us on logistics, they also took care of Ally and I in Bangkok with getting our hotel, driver and PCR test logistics organised.
Link to our partners:
V Villas Phuket: https://www.vvillasphuket.com/
Rayavadee: https://www.rayavadee.com/en/
Trikaya Tours: http://trikayatours.com/
Tourism Authority of Thailand - New York: https://thailandinsider.com/
For full visual highlights of my trip, you can watch my Thailand stories on my instagram highlights :)
