Description
ITINERARY: The Krabi “Jungle Tour” offers a packed day of sightseeing for those with limited time. You’ll get to visit three of Krabi’s must-see inland attractions, all of which are very accessible and require average fitness. Note: as the Hot Springs / Emerald Pool sites are located more than 70km from the beach areas, please bear in mind there will be a considerable amount of time spent travelling between destinations.
First stop is the Klong Thom Hot Springs, which offer both natural and manmade bathing pools with comfortably warm (around 40C) mineral rich water. You can soak for around half an hour, then cool off in the river below. Then it’s on to the nearby Khao Phra Bang Kram Nature Reserve where you can take a short trail to the spring-water filled Emerald and Blue Pools. You’ll have approximately 1.5 hours here on your own to swim and explore the surrounding forest.
Break for lunch at a restaurant next to the entrance to the Emerald Pool. There are usually 3 – 4 dishes served with rice and fruit. Then it’s time to head to the temple at Tiger Cave, which is home to a great (and short) rainforest nature trail and several caves in the Khiriwong valley where the monks go to meditate. For those who wish to climb the 1260 steps to the mountain top shrine, 1.5 hours is allowed – hard work but do-able – incredible panoramic views reward those who make the effort. For a reasonably fit person, the climb takes around 40 minutes, about half that on the way down. If you fancy a challenge, local runners can do it in under 15!
Note that the order of events may be changed if more than one group are booked on a single day. In this case, the itinerary will be normally be reversed with Tiger Cave Temple in the morning, then Emerald Pool and Hot Springs after lunch. It is not possible to choose the order in advance.
Expected group size: 6 – 14 pax, depending on the day and time of year.
Further reading:
– More info on the Hot Springs and Emerald Pool.
– More info on Tiger Cave Temple.
Meijia –
One of our favourite tours in Krabi, the hot springs, emerald pool and tiger cave temple is a must see!
Despite the usual crowds of tourists, the hot springs were very special and relaxing to soak in. The emerald lagoon is a sparkling fresh water spring that was lovely to swim in, so clear that you could see the bottom of the pool.
The 1237 steps to the top of tiger cave temple is tough.. But well worth for the golden statues and the view from the summit.
Lots of walking was done on this tour but we liked it! Great experiences :)
Giovanni –
After this tour I felt very disappointed and frustrated of wasting my last day of holiday with this.
On the positive side: the hot spring and the emerald lagoon are very beautiful places, a bit overcrowded, but well worth a visit. I actually booked the tour for other reasons and these two places were a positive surprise.
What made me book this tour was the forest trekking part. I was expecting to have some sort of guide and have the opportunity to learn and see some nature. That’s so-so: the only forest one gets to see is to and from the hot spring and the emerald lagoon. The latter being a trek on an unpaved road where two cars could pass at the same time. I literally had more forest trekking in Singapore.
As for the temple, the driver did not give enough the time to climb to the top of the mountain. I am a reasonably fit person, but even walking -very- fast up the steep stairs I realized I could have never made it back to the car on time without risking my neck on the way down so I gave up. I wonder how comes the driver found the time to drop some passengers at Krabi airport before going to the temple but not enough for us to properly enjoy the temple. Considering we ended the tour in Ao Nang at 16:30, I’d say something’s odd here.
The restaurant experience was also not the best I had. The food is nice, but what I really didn’t like is that I was rushed out of my lunch and had no time to finish. I would have cut fifteen minutes of the time allocated to the temple, which anyway wasn’t enough, to let people finish lunch and relax a little. I guess it had to do with the airport drop-off time.
Overall I would not recommend this tour for those who seek a jungle experience, and if you aim at the hot springs or the emerald lagoon you can probably visit them separately without wasting your time with the rest. Poor experience.
S.D. Sasidharan –
The trip was tiring but great. The food was great too (1 of us is vegetarian). Some really good service I should say.
Lenny –
Our guide was not a guide. He was more a bad taxi driver. He drove way to fast, not very responsible with a group of people in his minibus. He could hardly speak English, he just hold sign with the times we had the be back.
He dropped us at the several places without any explanation. The result was that everyone had no idea where to go and how much time it cost to walk to the pools. A lot of people calculated the time wrong so the rest of the group had to wait on them every time.