Phi Phi by Speedboat or Catamaran: Which Boat Suits Your Day
Updated September 17, 2026 · 6 min read
Two listings can visit the same islands on the same day and be completely different experiences, because the boat is not a detail of the trip – it is most of it. On a Phuket island day you will spend between six and nine hours on or beside the hull you chose, and the three types on offer behave very differently.
All figures come from our inventory of Phuket listings dated 17 September 2026 and describe what the booking pages state.
What the three hulls actually do
Speedboats are the default. They carry twin or triple outboards, cross to Phi Phi in well under an hour, and fit five or six stops into a day because the transfers between them cost almost nothing in time. That speed is bought with ride quality: a planing hull crossing swell slams, and the passengers at the back sit in the engine noise. Shade is a canopy, not a deck. On a calm morning this is the best value on the island; on a day with swell it is a long, loud eight hours.
Catamarans – almost always motor catamarans here, not sailing ones – ride on two hulls and roll far less. You get deck space, shade you can actually sit in, and usually a toilet worth the name. What you give up is stops and money. The Phi Phi, Bamboo and Maithon premium speed catamaran is listed from €71.04 and runs 10 hours against the speedboats’ eight. That is the honest trade: a steadier boat is not a shorter day, it is a longer one.
Longtail boats and large excursion boats are the slow end. The James Bond Island longtail and sea canoe tour starts at €45.53 across 9 hours with 4.8 stars from 2,505 reviews, and the two-storey boat into Phang Nga Bay from €41.55 across 10 hours. These belong to the sheltered bay, not to the Phi Phi crossing – open water in a longtail is a different proposition entirely.
Price and duration, side by side
| Listing | Hull | From | Stated duration | Stars / reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maya, Phi Phi and Bamboo with buffet lunch | speedboat | €37.22 | 8 hours | 4.6 / 21,439 |
| Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay day trip | speedboat | €31.31 | 8 hours | 4.3 / 4,169 |
| Phi Phi, Bamboo and Maithon premium speed catamaran | motor catamaran | €71.04 | 10 hours | 4.6 / 1,045 |
| Phi Phi Islands day trip by speed catamaran | motor catamaran | €109.69 | 8h 30m | 4.7 / 972 |
| Phi Phi, Maya and Maithon by luxury catamaran | motor catamaran | €107.08 | 8 hours | 4.3 / 340 |
Roughly, a catamaran day costs two to three times a speedboat day for the same islands. Whether that is worth it depends almost entirely on how your group handles a rough crossing and how much of the day you intend to spend sitting down.
“Catamaran” describes the hull, not the sailing
This trips people up. Nearly every catamaran listing from Phuket is a powered boat with two hulls. A genuine sailing catamaran is a separate, smaller category – a Coral Island sunset dinner by sailing catamaran is listed from €58.76 and holds 3.8 stars from 73 reviews, the weakest rating among the boats in this article. If you were picturing sails, read the listing text rather than the word in the title.
The same applies to luxury and premium. In our inventory those words go with a higher starting price and, on the luxury catamaran above, a lower rating than the cheaper premium one. They describe a market position, not an inspected standard. What is worth reading instead is the concrete list: water slides, kayaks, a photographer, buffet on board – those are checkable.
Choosing by the thing that would ruin your day
If seasickness is the risk, the catamaran is the safer choice, and a sheltered Phang Nga Bay day on a big boat is safer still. Whether to take anything for it is a question for a pharmacy or your doctor, not for a comparison site – but the boat choice itself is well within your control, and it is the decision that matters most.
If crowds are the risk, the hull matters less than the departure time. Early boats reach Maya Bay before the main wave; that is covered in our Phi Phi routes guide.
If small children are in the group, a shaded deck and a working toilet beat speed every time, and the crossing length matters more than the boat. Our island hopping with children guide takes that apart properly.
If budget is the constraint, take the speedboat and take it to the near islands instead of to Phi Phi. Forty-five minutes of slamming is tolerable; a whole day of it – out to Phi Phi, back again, and the transfers between five or six stops in between – is not. The Khai islands comparison and the Coral and Racha guide cover what the short crossings buy you.
Whichever hull you choose, the national park fee for Phi Phi is normally collected separately in cash, and the operator’s stated duration is time from pier to pier – hotel pickup often starts an hour or more before that. Compare the full set on the island tours page, and see what to see in Phuket for how a boat day fits into the week.
