Koh Phi Phi to Koh Samui

Most combos end at Nathon, Samui's main town on the west coast, which is fine if you're staying there but leaves you about 40 minutes from Chaweng or Bophut. For those, a ticket that finishes at your hotel saves the taxi. Lomprayah's ฿1,700 ticket drops at any Samui hotel at about 16:45. Ramon's 08:45 and 09:00 tickets reach Samui hotels at 15:30 and 16:00 for about ฿1,750 and ฿1,400, and Phantip's 10:30 gets there about 19:30 for ฿1,260.

If you're staying in Nathon or along the west coast, the pier tickets are the better deal. Future Travel's 10:00 and Krabi Transport's 09:00 land at Nathon about 15:30 for ฿970–1,060, the cheapest on the board. Raja's ticket is the outlier, ending at its own car-ferry pier at Lipa Noi, about 8 km south of Nathon, at 19:30.

Every ticket does the same three legs. A boat leaves Tonsai for Krabi, a van or bus drives about three hours to Donsak pier near Surat Thani, and a boat crosses to Samui, about 45 minutes on Lomprayah's catamaran and an hour and a half on the car ferries. Booked as one ticket, each operator waits for its own connections, which is the reason to buy it that way.

Lomprayah's 10:00 is the one I'd book. Its own timetable sells it for ฿1,550 to Nathon, arriving 15:45, and ฿1,700 to a Samui hotel, arriving 16:45, with the first leg on PP Cabana's boat to Krabi and its own catamaran for the Gulf. The fastest ticket on 12Go leaves at 08:20 and lands at Nathon at 14:00 for about ฿2,700, and Ramon's 08:45 reaches Nathon at 14:30 for ฿1,550, so an early start is the way to arrive in daylight.

The late tickets are the slow ones. Phantip's 10:30 rides the car ferry and reaches Nathon at 18:30 for about ฿1,110, and Songserm's 10:30 lands at its own Nathon pier at 17:15 for about ฿1,700. Raja's 09:00 doesn't reach Lipa Noi until 19:30.

Phi Phi has no airport, so a flight starts with a boat. Phuket is the easy one. The big ferries leave Tonsai for Rassada at 09:00, 10:00 and 11:00 for about ฿500–700, Rassada is 40 to 55 minutes from Phuket airport, and Bangkok Airways flies Phuket to Samui 6–8 times a day until about 19:00, in about an hour, from about ฿3,700 in October and November and ฿5,000 or more in December. Allow about five hours from the boat's departure to the flight, so a 10:00 ferry suits a flight around 15:00 or later.

Krabi works if the one daily flight fits. Bangkok Airways leaves Krabi for Samui at 14:00 in October and 13:45 from November, with a second flight by mid-December, for about ฿4,800. The speedboat-and-van tickets from Tonsai reach Krabi airport in an hour and a half to two hours, from 08:45, so an early one makes it. Speedboats are the first boats canceled in a swell, so in the monsoon months I'd go via Phuket.

The same Lomprayah ticket carries on past Samui. Its 10:00 from Tonsai reaches Thong Sala on Koh Phangan at 16:30 for ฿1,650 and Koh Tao at 17:45 for ฿1,850, so you don't need a night on Samui to reach either island.

Phi Phi and the Andaman coast are wet from May to October, and Samui's rainy season comes late in the year, with November its wettest month at about 445 mm. So the natural time to go from Phi Phi to Samui is the middle of the year, June to September, when the Gulf is drier. From February to April both coasts are good. In the Andaman monsoon the boat from Tonsai to Krabi is the leg most likely to be rough or canceled, so leave a spare day before any flight home.

The combos run east to west as well, leaving Samui between 04:00 and 10:00. Our Koh Samui to Phi Phi guide has every ticket and the flight-and-ferry plan via Phuket.