Krabi, Thailand: Exploring Ao Nang and Koh Lanta’s untamed beauty, fiery cuisine and hidden adventures

Carved into Thailand’s jagged south-west coast, Krabi is a place defined by sharp edges — the cliffs, the chillies, the sting of lime and salt.

Unlike its Andaman neighbours Phuket and Koh Samui, it doesn’t chase attention. It doesn’t have to. Caught between the rainforest and the reef, with more than 150 islands scattered between, Krabi’s power is elemental.

In Ao Nang — on the western shore — hot springs bubble from the jungle floor and curries flirt with combustion. Across the bay, Koh Lanta moves more slowly — an island of fishing villages and beaches that still feel off the map.

Together they’re two sides of an Andaman coin — one pulsing with adventure, the other offering the slow thrill of discovery.

ROAM can certainly feel Krabi’s wild edge at Peak Bar, a well-named rooftop affair clasping the edge of a cliff high above Ao Nang beach.

“We’re like the king of the mountain,” the bartender says, grinning, pointing to the limestone peaks cutting the horizon. “We can see everything from up here.”

Read the latest edition of ROAM here.

The view is pure spectacle — green islets scattered across the bay, longtails cutting through silver water, the surface alive with bioluminescent light.

It’s the kind of landscape Hollywood can’t resist — James Bond, Jurassic World and The Beach all filmed on these shores.

Peak Bar crowns Avani Ao Nang Cliff Krabi Resort, where 178 rooms and suites stagger downhill toward the Andaman. Near the summit, an infinity pool seems to spill into the sea, blurring the line between water and sky.

Rooms are contemporary and unfussy — stone and teak, cool tiles, floor-to-ceiling glass — and the hotel’s upper tiers take in wide views of the limestone karsts and offshore islands from private balconies.

Perched above Ao Nang’s lively strip, Avani makes an ideal launch pad for Krabi’s wilder pursuits — hiking the limestone trail to Naga Peak, bathing in the jungle hot springs at Khlong Thom, or taking longtail boats to hidden beaches and sea caves.

Adventure feels close here — it’s all within striking distance of that breakfast view.

The next day we head for Klong Root, one of Thailand’s last intact mangrove forests. We grab a kayak and paddle through labyrinth waterways enveloped in calm, as schools of fish swirl below and lotus flowers peer up from the shallows.

Then, suddenly, a torrencltial and blinding downpour erupts from the sky — a brief surrender to the force of nature and a regular occurrence in this untamed corner of the Andaman.

But it’s not just the elements that eviscerate you here. The food does a pretty good job too.

To taste Krabi at its most authentic, head inland to Ruen Mai, a long-running institution housed in a wooden open-air pavilion.

Owner Amarit Siriponjutagun describes his southern Thai cooking as “spicy, not sweet”. Dishes like kua kling — a dry, searing curry of minced pork or beef fried with turmeric, lemongrass and wild chillies — and kaeng som pla, a fiery sour fish soup, embody the region’s untempered flavours.

“We cook with fire and herbs, not too much coconut milk or sugar,” he tells ROAM. “That’s what makes Krabi’s food different.”

After adventuring around Ao Nang, the next leg of our journey means heading south. The road cuts through rubber plantations and palm groves, before the car glides onto a small ferry for a 20-minute crossing to Koh Lanta.

The cliffs give way to rolling hills and headlands and the pace slows. Reaching the western tip of the island, we arrive at Avani+ Koh Lanta, a sprawling seaside resort framed by jungle and sea.

“This is your treasure island,” offers general manager Piyapong Kunluck, unfolding a map marked with hidden beaches and lookout points.

His words prove no exaggeration. The resort stretches across 91 spacious rooms and suites set among towering palms, where monitor lizards patrol the lawns and hornbills nest in the treetops.

That wildness deepens inland. Venturing into the jungle, we meet Khun Yob Thwi for a hike through Mu Ko Lanta National Park.

The 4km trail to Khlong Chak Waterfall winds through rainforest tangled with vines and banyan roots. The air hums with cicadas and giant butterflies flash red and black in the light.

Before heading into a particularly dense area, Yob Thwi warns, “Watch for pythons, the kind that can kill cows”, with a devilish grin.

Luckily, the pythons never materialise, and after an hour’s climb, the sound of rushing water grows louder until the path breaks open to the falls — a chance to soak under the cascading water and a cool, blissful reward after the climb.

The next day means moving well before dawn — driving east to Tung Yee Peng, a quiet village on Koh Lanta’s east coast and home to a community of fishermen who have turned their backyard into a conservation haven.

From the jetty, we climb into a wooden gondola for the Sunrise Mangrove Tour with local guide Gun Cookiat Kongjork — someone who knows every bend of these waterways.

As first light breaks, breakfast arrives — sticky rice and grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves, coffee poured from a bamboo flask. We eat in near silence, the only sounds the oar skimming the water and the soft chatter of the forest as it wakes around us.

Then the sky shifts, streaks of orange and pink catch on the glassy surface, turning the mangroves molten. There’s no thunder here, no downpour — just a quieter kind of awe.

You can’t help but be struck by the symmetry of it all — two worlds, Ao Nang and Koh Lanta, mirroring each other across the Andaman, sharp and still in equal measure.

STAY Avani Ao Nang Cliff Krabi Resort has 178 rooms on a rainforest-clad hillside 500m from Ao Nang Beach, with rates starting from $126 per night.

Avani+ Koh Lanta Krabi Resort sits on a sunset-facing peninsula with 91 rooms, suites and villas, multiple dining spots (The Cliff, O-Zone Pool Bar, The Pantry and a beach Reggae Bar) and a private beach; rates start from $170 per night. avanihotels.com

KNOW At Ao Nang, time sunset at The Peak rooftop bar and have the hotel line up a longtail to Railay or an inland day at the Emerald Pool and Khlong Thom hot springs.

On Koh Lanta, splurge on a cliff-edge pool villa and book the dawn mangrove gondola from Tung Yee Peng — breakfast is served as the forest wakes.