Phi Phi, Maya and Maiton: Combination Tour or Shorter Route
6 min read
Somewhere between €31 and €107 the Phi Phi day trip stops adding islands and starts adding boat. Both numbers buy eight hours. The cheap end visits Phi Phi and Maya Bay; the expensive end visits Phi Phi Leh, Maya Bay and Maiton from a catamaran with a water slide. Reading the list of islands as if it were the product is the most common way to overpay on this coast.
The geography, which is the part nobody explains
Maiton sits about nine kilometres off Phuket’s south-east coast – 15 to 20 minutes by speedboat, closer to your hotel than most of the piers are. Phi Phi is an hour or two the other way. That means Maiton is not a detour on a Phi Phi day: it is the last stop on the way home, which is exactly why so many operators bolt it on.
Bamboo Island is the opposite case. It lies beyond Phi Phi Don, so adding it lengthens the outward leg rather than filling the return. A four-island itinerary that includes both Bamboo and Maiton is a genuinely long day, and the 10-hour listings are honest about it where the 8-hour ones sometimes are not.
| Trip | Listed price | Duration | Stars / reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phi Phi and Maya Bay day trip with lunch | €33.99 | 8 hours | 4.3 · 4,420 |
| Maya, Phi Phi and Bamboo with buffet lunch | €37.87 | 8 hours | 4.6 · 21,966 |
| Phi Phi, Maya, Khai or Maiton or Bamboo | €62.85 | 8 hours | 4.4 · 268 |
| Phi Phi, Bamboo and Maithon by speed catamaran | €72.29 | 10 hours | 4.7 · 1,053 |
| Phi Phi, Maya and Maiton by luxury catamaran | €108.96 | 8 hours | 4.4 · 349 |
The third line deserves a moment. “Khai or Maiton or Bamboo” means the operator picks on the day, usually by sea state and by how many boats are already at each stop. If you are booking because you want to see one particular island, that listing does not give it to you, and the reviews do not either – different reviewers describe different trips.
What you can and cannot do at Maiton
Maiton is a private island. Independent landings are not permitted; only licensed operators may bring guests ashore, and daily visitor numbers are capped, which is why the beach stays quieter than the stops any boat can pull up to.
The consequence for your booking is specific: some packages only snorkel in the water off Maiton and never set foot on it. That is a perfectly good stop – the reef there is in better condition than Coral Island’s – but it is not a beach afternoon, and the listing photograph will usually show the beach either way. Ask the operator whether the ticket includes going ashore.
What the extra money actually buys
Compare the two eight-hour trips at the ends of the table. Both go to Phi Phi and Maya Bay. The €107 one replaces Bamboo with Maiton and replaces the speedboat with a catamaran: a slide, kayaking and professional photos. That is a real difference and for some people worth every euro – but it is a boat difference, not an island difference, and it is the same trade set out in speedboat or catamaran.
Arithmetic the listings never do for you: an eight-hour day with four stops, minus roughly three hours of transit and forty minutes of lunch, leaves well under an hour at each island once tenders and head counts are done. Three stops is comfortable. Five is a boat trip with views of islands.
The two things that overrule all of this
Maya Bay closes every year from 1 August to 30 September. Trips keep running through the closure and view the bay from the water instead of landing. Even when it is open, boats moor at Loh Samah on the back of the island and a walkway leads across; swimming in the cove is not allowed and the number of people ashore at once is capped. The detail is in Phi Phi and Maya Bay from Phuket, and it matters more than the island count.
The second is not a date but the park fee. Phi Phi, Phi Phi Leh and Bamboo sit inside Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park: out at the islands it is 400 THB for foreign adults and 200 THB for foreign children, collected in cash at the pier and usually not in the price. The 200 and 100 some operators still quote is the mainland rate for the same park near Krabi. Maiton is outside the park and carries no such fee – which is another reason operators like it on the itinerary.
The short answer
If this is your one boat day and you want to see Maya Bay, take the short route and spend the difference on a better seat rather than a fourth island. If you have a second day for the sea, the combination makes more sense as the second trip, when you already know how you cope with a long crossing – and a short, close trip such as the ones in Coral and Racha or Phi Phi or the Khai islands is the better first one.
Everything currently running is in the island trips, and the reef question specifically in snorkelling from Phuket.
