Phuket to Phi Phi: the one-way transfer, and when you want a Phuket Phi Phi island tour instead

The listing for $22 is unusually clear about what it sells, so it is worth quoting its own shape. You reserve a speedboat transfer from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi at Tonsai Pier or Laemtong Beach, or the reverse, in an open-air speedboat, with optional pickup arrangements included in the booking. The operator sells it as the most time-saving way to get to or from Koh Phi Phi and as a way to take the worry out of planning by pre-booking the island crossing. Nowhere does it mention Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, snorkelling or lunch, because none of those is in it.

Now read any Phuket Phi Phi island tour on this site and the difference is obvious. $35 visits Maya Bay through the official Loh Samah Bay access route, swims in Pileh Lagoon, snorkels at a selected Phi Phi site when conditions allow, stops at Khai Island, includes a buffet lunch and carries the National Park fees inside the booking. It is a day, it is guided, and it returns you to Phuket. That is what the phrase is normally used to mean, and it is what most people searching for a Phuket Phi Phi island tour actually want.

So who is the transfer really for? Three groups, and they are all easy to recognise. People staying the night on the islands, who need a crossing in one direction and will buy the return separately or later. People already on Phi Phi who need to get back to the mainland at a particular hour. And people who have booked something on the islands themselves — one of the short trips that leave from Phi Phi, such as $44 or $40 — and need to arrive first. If you are in none of those three groups, the transfer is almost certainly not the thing you are looking for.

One honest word about the arithmetic. Two one-way transfers cost $44 in total, which is more than the $35 full-day Phuket Phi Phi island tour that includes the crossing both ways, a guide, several stops, snorkelling gear, a buffet lunch and the park fees. Nobody should buy two transfers as a substitute for a day trip. The transfer earns its place when you are going one way and staying, and it is excellent at exactly that job.

Most itineraries on this coast fall into one of three shapes, and naming yours settles the booking in about a minute. The first shape is the day return: you sleep in Phuket on both sides of the trip and want everything in between handled for you. That is a Phuket Phi Phi island tour, and the only remaining question is which one — $35 for the lowest full-day fare with lunch and the park fees inside it, $125 for the speed catamaran, $160 for the small-group sunrise start rated 4.9.

The second shape is the move: you are leaving the mainland and staying on the islands for a night or several. Here the crossing is the whole purchase. Book $22 in the direction you are travelling, note whether you are landing at Tonsai Pier or Laemtong Beach, and book the return leg separately for the day you come back. Once you are there, the island-based listings such as $37 and $40 cover the same landmarks as the mainland day trips without any long crossing attached.

The third shape is the mixed plan, and it is the one people build badly. You want a night on the islands and you also want the full set of stops. The neat solution is to take the crossing out one day and a short island trip the next, rather than buying two transfers and hoping something turns up in between. The four-hour $44 and the five-hour $40 both leave from the islands, so a single night can hold a proper trip at either end of the day.

Whichever shape you are in, book the boat before the date rather than after. Every listing here carries free cancellation, so an early booking costs nothing to change, and the popular departures — the ones with four figures of reviews behind them — are the ones that fill first.