I am trying to be as objective as possible while conveying this information because my perspective is a bit skewed as I have lived in Krabi for 14 years and I am kinda over it. However, considering that I first came here a long time ago and was completely blown away by it, I will attempt to put myself in the shoes of someone who is seeing it for the first time. There are lots of genuine reasons that Krabi IS, in fact, better than Phuket.

Krabi has far less people in it

The picture above, which is the same picture I used for the article explaining how Phuket is better than Krabi, is not at all representative of what one can expect on a beach in Phuket. Phuket's beaches are crowded, especially during high season (December to March.) You can expect there to always be hundreds of people at any of the major, popular beach destinations. Krabi, on the other hand, has considerably fewer visitors and therefore you have a much better chance of having some open space to yourself. That isn't to say that Krabi is never crowded, but if you plan your vacation during the low season (May to September) you at least have some chance of beaches being empty.

Krabi has karst formations in the sea

Photo by Marcin Kaliński on Unsplash

This is probably what made Krabi a tourist destination in the first place and they really are something else. I am sure a geologist could probably attempt to tell me how they formed but I would probably lose interest after 30 seconds or so. Basically, i am just in awe when i see these massive limestone structures all over the horizon. Several of these karst islands have caves inside of them that you can actually scuba inside of, so that is pretty wild.

Krabi has a no jetski or parasailing policy on all beaches

If you want to do those things I guess head to Phuket or Pattaya. I consider them to be annoying and an eyesore for the view. Plus you only have to do a small search to see how many people have been ripped off by the jetski scam in Phuket to realize that we should all be happy that they are completely banned in Krabi.

Krabi has much less of a harassment factor compared to Phuket

One of the things that is very irritating about being on any of the Phuket beaches is that a visitor can expect to be continually pestered to buy things. If you are walking down the street you will be shouted at for taxis, restaurants and bars, trinkets, massages, and whatever else they have for sale. If you are already in a restaurant you can expect several "sales reps" to interrupt your dinner trying to sell you sunglasses, fake watches, and various other things. As an experiment me and my friend walked from one end of Bangla road in Phuket (a famous street with loads of bars and clubs heavily traveled by tourists) to the other end to count how many times we were approached by touts.

The total was more than 30, i lost count. Twice we were actually grabbed by staff who tried to pull us into their bars. This wasn't even prime time either, it was only 7pm.

In Krabi this happens significantly less. As a matter of fact, if you are not in Ao Nang Beach, there is a good chance it wont happen to you at all. This is a MAJOR reason why Krabi is better than Phuket because it starts out as charming and becomes such a nuisance that people actually leave this country with a bad sense about it because in certain areas you are pestered from the moment you leave your hotel room until the moment you return. I hate this aspect of Phuket and therefore Krabi is much better in this category.

Traffic

The only time that Krabi has traffic jams is in very specific areas at very specific times of day. This is normally between 3 and 4:30 when the kids are getting out of school. The beachfront area of Ao Nang has delays because there is only one road and lots of people trying to get down the two lanes. Other than that, you can expect traffic to keep moving all the time.

This is Phuket, pretty much all the time

Krabi has calm seas

I had mentioned before that I enjoy waves and surfing and how this will never happen in Krabi, it can't happen because of the land formation. However, for families Krabi would be a much better choice because the waves in Phuket (on certain beaches) are extremely dangerous. There are strong rip tides on many of the beaches that can be deadly to even strong swimmers, let alone children. The beaches in Krabi are extremely safe for kids.

Cheaper accommodation

Krabi has undergone what I consider to be far more expansion than it can possibly maintain in the past couple years. This means that you, the potential customer, can expect to pay very little for your hotel or bungalow. I have seen beachfront or near beachfront hotel rooms that extremely nice going for as little as $20 a night. You can get $20 rooms in Phuket as well, but you are going to be staying on a side street in a sketchy part of Patong.

Well there you have it! Do you think i was fair? This is an honest representation of the differences and I hope it ends up being helpful to someone out there. :)