Private Phang Nga Bay tour: 5 islands by longtail for 2,000 ฿ (from Koh Yao Noi)

Booking a private longtail (no agency, no website)

Forget the tour counters: on Koh Yao Noi, the best address has no sign and no website. Our restaurant gave us the tip: a small family operator in the neighbouring fishing village, a modest jetty, a fisherman-skipper, and his longtail. The price quoted: 2,000 ฿ for the day, the boat chartered for the three of us. In Europe that barely rents you a pedalo.

Going private changes everything, especially with a family: you leave when you want and stay as long as you want, you linger for a photo, you cut things short if your child is flagging. Our skipper looked after us all day and finished with a thoroughly deserved tip.

Koh Hong at first light: the lagoon and the 360° viewpoint

First stop, and the star of the day: Koh Hong, inside Than Bok Khorani national park. Park entry is paid on top of the boat — 350 ฿ per adult, 150 ฿ per child — and honestly, it is worth it.

While my partner stayed below — mask, snorkel and underwater camera, alone in the world with colourful sea snakes and a crowd of other species — I climbed with our daughter to the 360° viewpoint: a good half hour of steps through the jungle. It is steep, but a six-year-old manages perfectly well (and so do grandparents, taking their time — some of the steps are sharp, so judge for yourself).

And at the top… the reward: 360 degrees over the archipelago, islets scattered across the water as far as you can see, the whole of Phang Nga Bay in one panorama. We came back down slowly, alone, on the path that rejoins the beach directly (shorter than through the jungle). Down below everything is well set up — there is even a smoking area at the far end of the island, for those it concerns.

Lunch between two cliffs (and the 30-second cave)

Next stop: an island where you walk between two cliffs — a film set. And in the middle of it, a tiny stall grilling corn on the barbecue, still in its husk: the woman paints it with butter with a brush, then with a brush of salt. Unbelievably tender — we still talk about it. Her husband gave our daughter an orange juice, just like that, for the smile. That Thai kindness, again and again.

A bonus for children: a tiny 30-second through-cave — you go in one side already seeing the way out the other. Our daughter, who is no fan of caves, walked through it on her own: a small step taken almost casually, and she was very proud of it. Then a swim, a picnic in the shade at the foot of the cliff, hornbills passing overhead. Time stops.

Monkey island: the watermelon thief who swims

Further on, monkey island — and the scene of the trip: a macaque jumped from its branch, dived, swam to the boat and climbed onto the bow, where it helped itself to the flower garlands that bless the vessel before demanding its share of watermelon. We gave it some fruit; it then refused to leave — never aggressive, just extremely determined. The skipper eventually waved it off with a stick, and the gentleman treated us to one final, magnificent dive.

And then the suspended moment: mothers with babies barely a day or two old, feeding or sleeping in their arms, while the father sat enthroned at the top of the branches. We cut the engine and just watched.

Snorkelling: clownfish, giant urchins — and an honest word on visibility

At the snorkelling spot: clownfish in their anemones, enormous black urchins with blue glints covered in starry dots, electric blue fish, a good variety. Our daughter, mask clamped on, didn't miss a thing.

Now the honest word, as always: in the green season this was not the finest dive of our lives — visibility is not that of a Maldivian lagoon. But it was the best excursion of the whole holiday, by a distance, because the magic wasn't only underwater. It was in the empty morning lagoon, the buttered corn, the swimming monkey, the boat that was ours alone. Which is exactly what we wrote in our Koh Yao Noi guide: from the island, turquoise water has to be earned by boat — and the boat delivers.

The real budget (2 adults + one child)

Prices paid in July 2026. As a rough guide, 3,000 ฿ is about US$83 — check the rate before you travel.

Quick answers

What came next

The day after this trip, our bags were on a speedboat bound for Koh Lanta — booked, as things are here, with a WhatsApp message and a word given. Our whole stay on the island is told in Koh Yao Noi with kids: the island where you do nothing, and what happened next is in Koh Lanta with kids.

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