Lanta Kayaking Tour & For rent — Attraction in Krabi Province

We took a full day kayaking tour where we’re kayaking twice, once in the mangrove and another in Talabeng. We did a mangrove kayaking tour in Krabi, so we had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, they were not operating to the same standard, even though the price was quite similar.

Pros: You have something to do during the day

Could be improved: Guide to group ratio. The tour in mangrove had much bigger group and the guide didn’t do anything other than pointing where to go. We were actually hoping to learn a bit more about the mangrove

Clarity of communication. The people at the mangrove didn’t communicate effectively at all. They told us to wait for about 15 minutes when we arrived at the mangrove without giving us any explanation. The guide also didn’t explain anything at all such as the route we’re going to take, what we’re going to do, etc. Those information would have been useful.

Preparedness. We only found out later on that the reason they asked us to wait was because they haven’t prepared the kayak and water. Not a good sign of professionalism.

Route taken in the mangrove. We couldn’t understand why we kept on having to paddle upstream at the mangrove. We also didn’t see much at all! This was very disappointing for us because we were really hoping to explore more part of the mangrove while enjoying the peace and quite typically found at mangrove forrest. Instead, the guide led us upstream just to see monkeys where he fed the monkey some artiticial corn stick just so tourists can take pictures with the monkey. This is actually the kind of tourism we are against, but there wasn’t any information about it on the brochure, nor did the guide told us beforehand. After the monkey, we were picked up by the boat to go to Talabeng.

Please stop the practice of feeding the monkeys artificial food only to get tourists to take pictures. Wildlife are to be learned and observed, they are not economical commodities. The act of feeding them is harming them.

The second kayaking at Talabeng was actually nice, although we were hoping to do more kayaking than just a 20 or so minute. Again, communucation from the guide about the route and things to do was lacking.

In short, we were disappointed and thought that the tour was way too expensive for what we get. The tour actually has potential. It just needs to be...

The tour was okay, it's just that it's nowhere near "full day" and most of the time is spent on a boat, not kayaking. I was picked up at 8am, but the tour only started around 9:30. It ended before 2pm and we were back at the pier at 2:30.

The "Full Day Sea Cave Kayaking" tour consisted of:

1. 30 minutes of kayaking (unguided) through the mangrove at the starting point (you need to pay 20 THB extra to enter the mangrove forest).
2. A boat tour to a small sandbar (with a 10-minute stop for photos) & Ko Phee aka the Skull Island (we only passed in front of it without stopping, even though a visit to the cave on Ko Phee was supposed to be included in the tour).
3. Lunch in a monkey cove on Ko Talabeng (vegetarians/vegans beware: they only had meat options and watermelon).
4. Sea kayaking around Ko Talabeng.
5. Feeding the monkeys from the boat on the way back to the pier.

The sea kayaking part was very short; we covered maybe 1 kilometer in total. It included a short stop at a cave on Ko Talabeng (very fun; you can climb it barefoot but you need a flashlight to see the upper cave).Then we kayaked to a beach across a narrow channel, which didn't go smoothly because we had some wind and rough seas. We didn't have time for a proper swim before kayaking back to the boat (the guide had to go and rescue a member of our group who got carried away by the current; instead of swimming, we had to fend off monkeys from our stuff in the kayaks).

Personally, I think the tour should include way more kayaking, since that's what I assumed I'd be doing when I booked a "kayaking tour". It should also include stops at beaches where you can actually swim (the sea around the sandbar was murky and uninviting, and the water in the monkey cove where we stopped for lunch on Ko Talabeng...

Did a trip with them during the low season, got a free upgrade from half day to a full day, small group of just me and my girlfriend + another couple.

We got to kayak through the mangroves, a boat trip out to a small island for a swim and then out to some majestic limestone islands towering out of the sea, stopped at one for lunch.

Our guide, Sing, started calling out and a load of monkeys came out of the vines climbing the cliffs to greet him! He fed the monkeys some pineapple scraps and we all hopped off the boat and got to feed them too! They weren't aggressive at all and didn't try to take anything that wasn't held out and offered to them.

Back on the boat we headed to a hidden cove on another island with more monkeys! We gave them some more food before getting on kayaks again and kayaking around the island.

We went into a cave with a survey station for conservationist from the national park to monitor the bats (we didn't climb up to the station or disturb the bats). Saw monitor lizards basking on the rocks, and stopped at another cove to swim and cool off before completing our journey around the island and get the boat back.

Absolutely magical trip and my personal favourite experience we've done in Thailand!

Entirely thanks to our guide, Sing. His energy and positivity was infectious and made the day incredibly fun, his knowledge about the different habitats we went through made it an...