Phi Phi by Speedboat or Catamaran: Which Boat Suits Your Day

Two tours 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.

The short answer: take the speedboat unless somebody in the group gets seasick. Phuket: Maya, Phi Phi, and Bamboo Island with Buffet Lunch is eight hours from €37.87 and holds 4.6 stars from 21,966 reviews – more reviews than every other boat in this article put together. If a rough crossing is the thing that would ruin your day, Phuket: Phi Phi, Bamboo & Maithon by Premium Speed Catamaran rides on two hulls from €71.04, with deck space and shade you can sit in, and takes ten hours rather than eight.

Check availability and prices for Maya, Phi Phi and Bamboo Island with buffet lunch

The figures below are what the booking pages state; each operator sets its own conditions, so confirm anything that matters before you pay.

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 of the three hulls; 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. Phuket: Phi Phi, Bamboo & Maithon by 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.

See prices and dates for the premium speed catamaran to Phi Phi, Bamboo and Maithon

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, and both are covered in the James Bond Island guide.

Price and duration, side by side

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 offered from Phuket is a powered boat with two hulls. A genuine sailing catamaran is a separate, smaller category – the 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, and it is an evening on the near island rather than a Phi Phi day. We take it apart in the Coral Island sunset dinner guide. If you were picturing sails, read the description rather than the word in the title.

The same applies to luxury and premium. On GetYourGuide 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. Talk to a pharmacy or your doctor about what to take before you travel – and treat the boat itself as the decision that matters most, because it is the one entirely in your hands. If you want the best-rated catamaran in the comparison above rather than the cheapest one, that is Phuket: Phi Phi Islands Day Trip by Speed Catamaran at 4.7 stars from 977 reviews, 8 hours 30 minutes from €109.69.

See prices and dates for the Phi Phi day trip by speed catamaran

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.

Our recommendation

For most travellers: the speedboat, and specifically Phuket: Maya, Phi Phi, and Bamboo Island with Buffet Lunch at €37.87. Eight hours, 4.6 stars from 21,966 reviews, and by far the longest track record of any boat here. What you accept for the money is a hard ride if the swell is up and a canopy instead of a deck.

If anyone in the group gets seasick, or there are small children aboard: Phuket: Phi Phi, Bamboo & Maithon by Premium Speed Catamaran from €72.29, 4.6 stars from 1,053 reviews. Two hulls, shade you can sit in and a proper toilet – at roughly double the price and ten hours instead of eight.

For the smallest budget: Phuket: Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay Day Trip with Lunch at €33.99 over the same eight hours, 4.3 stars from 4,420 reviews. It is the cheapest Phi Phi day in this comparison, and the 0.3 stars it gives up against the bestseller are what the higher price buys there.

Check availability and prices for the Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay day trip

Who should not book any of these? Anyone whose budget is tight enough that €31.31 plus the park fee hurts – the near islands are the better day for that money. Anyone expecting sails, because these catamarans are powered. And anyone who cannot sit still for eight hours, because there is no leaving a boat early.

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.