My girlfriend and I just spent 8 days at Krabi, Railey, and Phi Phi Don, in six different hotels.   Krabi, Phi Phi and Railey have  Thailands best beaches  and snorkeling where you can see up to sixty feet underwater.  It also has perpendicular hills  called karsts.  The Karsts are everywhere whether you are on the mainland or on the smallest island where they jut straight out of the sea.  As soon as you get here, you will notice there's a different kind of tourist than you are going to see in Pattaya, Koh Samui or other tourist areas in Thailand.  Most of the lard asses travel elsewhere.   Here you will find a lot more back packers, hardened rock climbers, and people who expect a more arduous traveling experience that offers gobs of spectacular scenery as its reward.   There's so much to see but to get there you will be taking a lot of boats which means you actually have to get up early not to mention taking the chance of getting sea sick.   Throughout the entire area there's outstanding rock climbing, diving, snorkeling, bicycling and kayaking.  Although this was my second visit to the area,  I wanted to investigate as much of it as possible so we'd know what highpoints to concentrate on during our next visit. 

1. Let's start with Ao Nang Beach which is just twenty minutes from the airport in Krabi City. 

2.  For our number two area we went to Railey Beach, which is just fifteen minutes from Ao Nang by long tail boat, internationally acclaimed by some of the world's finest rock climbers for its spectacular cliffs that shut if off from the mainland.  

3.  And last there's the Phi Phi Islands.  I've called my article "The Two sides of Phi Phi" largely because we stayed in the heavily congested tourist section where most people go and then there's the East side where there's only a few resorts, more monkeys than tourists, and only two ways to get to and from the tourist hub of the island--a one half hour trip by long tailed boat from Phi Phi's main pier or a half hour walk straight up and down a very steep hiil.  But that's only Phi Phi Don.   There's also the smaller island, Phi Phi Ley where Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the movie, "The Beach" that has been designated a national park where no hotels, restaurants or souvenir shops are allowed.