Two Islands You HAVE To Visit In THAILAND
Thailand is one of Southeast Asia’s most popular tourist destinations. And especially during the holidays, tons of people arrive in Thailand ready for their winter vacation. So, that’s me and my group of friends did as well. We decided to visit two beautiful islands off of Thailand; Phuket and Phi Phi Islands. These places are amazing!! And if you go to Thailand, you definitely have to visit these two islands!
PHUKET:
We arrived in Phuket on December 24, hahah Merry Christmas!! We all got off the plane so excited and ready to begin our adventure. We all flagged down a taxi, and headed to our hotels. Before we left, I found this really nice hotel room. It was in the perfect location, right next to our other friends, it had a pool, and gym, and even our own kitchen! We were so excited. We arrived to our hotel and went to check in, and they told us this room doesn’t exist. It was 11pm on Christmas and we were exhausted from traveling all day, this was the worst news we could’ve received. We were both so upset, and started off our trip crying in a coin laundry shop. We drove around for a while with the owners of the hotel we showed up to, who were helping us try to find where we were supposed to be (they were seriously the nicest people ever, even offering to let us stay the night at their own home). But, after an hour or two and no luck, we decided to find our other friends, and they let us sleep on their floor for the night.
This was definitely not how we pictured our trip starting out. We had been planning this and looking forward to it for months, and when it happened like this we were pretty devastated. But, we definitely learned that things never go exactly how you plan them. In our whole lives too, we can plan and expect everything to go a certain way, but most of the time it doesn’t go the way we want. So, we have to accept the ‘bumps in the road’ and just appreciate that it’s part of life.
The next morning, we were able to get on the phone with the company we rented the room from, and luckily they gave us a new place to stay for free! Moral of this story: be really careful and contact the place you’re going to stay before you get there.
After we figured that out, we were able to get excited about being in Thailand! First thing we did, of course, was rent some mopeds so we could drive around. We headed straight up to the Big Buddha, and then to the Wat Chalong Temple. These are two popular tourist destinations, and definitely worth the trip. Another popular tourist destination we visited was called Promthep Cape, a perfect place to watch the sunset!
Also while in Phuket we enjoyed hanging out at our hotel pool, shopping, going to the beach, and hanging out on Bangla Road at night, which has the best nightlife ever!!! It’s so much fun, there’s so many people walking around and so many fun nightclubs to hang out in.
And after about 5 days of hanging out on this island, we packed our bags, and hopped on a little boat to go to the next island.
PHIPHI ISLANDS:
As soon as we stepped off the boat in PhiPhi Island, we’re greeted with bright blue, warm water, and tons of people pouring off of boats onto the tiny island. I was surprised that so many people could fit on this small of an island. But, being surrounded by so many happy and excited people, only fueled our excitement about being there. After getting through the swarms of people, we started to realize how tiny this island was. There were no cars and very few locals had mopeds they drove around occasionally. It was so crazy to me to think that some of these people had lived on this tiny island for their whole life, with no cars and a ton of tourists everywhere. It’s so different from anything I could imagine.
So, we start walking to our hotel! Hoping that this time, there will actually be a room waiting for us when we get there. And there was:) with no difficulties at all. We had a long uphill walk to our resort, and an even longer walk upstairs after we got there and were told we were staying in a treehouse at the very top of the resort. This resort was called PP Ingphu Viewpoint, and it was amazing!
Definitely the coolest hotel I had ever stayed in. It was located on this mountain that overlooked the whole island, and the rooms were all little treehouses! Each treehouse had its own balcony, so that you could go outside and admire the island and all it had to offer. This Resort was amazing, and such a unique experience, and definitely worth walking up 100 stairs 5 times every day. Plus! We got free breakfast, hahaha the highlight of any trip.
While in Phi Phi Island, we decided to rent a boat that would go around to little surrounding islands, and included activities like snorkeling and swimming, and seeing Monkey Island and Maya Bay. We all loaded onto the small traditional Thai boat and headed off into the ocean. The tiny boat was bouncing
around in the waves, and I realized I was actually terrified of being on this tiny boat, being jostled around by the waves, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I was so excited to participate in this activity, but I couldn’t help from feeling so scared, holding onto the side of the boat, fearing for my life. This just showed to me again, that things don’t turn out how you expect them to. I expected to go out and have so much fun, dance around, and take pictures on the boat, but in reality I was sitting in the corner of the boat, trying not to think about what would happen if the boat tipped over and we all were stranded in the middle of the ocean. But! I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything else. It was so much fun, and as the day went on I got more comfortable with the idea of being on the boat, and began trusting that the waves wouldn’t cause the boat to flip over. We ended that day watching the sunset on that little boat, realizing how lucky we were to be somewhere so amazing, surrounded by friends.
Another day, while we were hanging out at the beach, we rented a kayak for an hour and paddled out to little nearby islands. This was so much fun as well and I definitely recommend it. Another really fun activity on this island is a hike that leads up to the Viewpoint, which is the top of the mountain that looks over the whole island. It’s probably a 20 minute hike, straight upstairs, and the view is like none other.
Other than those activities, we also really enjoyed just hanging out at the beaches, trying different food at all the little shops, swimming in our pool, getting massages, and shopping. Phi Phi Island is known for its nightlife, so of course, we spent New Years here and went to the famous beach parties at clubs like Slinky Beach Bar, or Stones, which are full of neon glow in the dark paint, and fire shows. These places are so fun and perfect to meet new friends.
After a week on PhiPhi Island, we split up from our friends, hopped back onto the boat and headed back to Phuket to catch our flight out.
These two islands in Thailand are amazing, and should definitely be included in your “Trip to Thailand Itinerary.” I loved being in Thailand and actually learned so much during this trip. Thailand is also a very affordable place to travel! The cost for food, and a hotel is so much lower than most places, which is so nice! I went with around $400 for two weeks, and felt like I was living in luxury. I was able to eat really nice meals and even buy a few souvenirs. However, I was really surprised by the amount of tourists in Thailand at the time we were there. I’ve heard that Thailand is a really popular place to spend the holidays, especially New Years. It was really fun! But, I would prefer to plan to go another time during the year, when the streets aren’t constantly crowded. So, maybe keep that in mind if you start planning your trip. I highly recommend visiting Thailand, and especially these two islands. It’s definitely worth it, and it's clear to see why Thailand is one of the world's top travel destinations.
And here's a travel video we made from our adventures in Thailand!!