How to get from Krabi to Koh Samui

Koh Samui is in the Gulf of Thailand and Krabi is on the Andaman Sea, so no boat goes across: every route crosses the peninsula by road to Don Sak in Surat Thani province and carries on by ferry or catamaran. Operators sell this as one combined ticket. Below are the fares and times from Raja Ferry’s booking system and Lomprayah’s 2026 timetable, the AirAsia MOVE flight listing and Samui Airport’s flight board, all seen on 13 November 2026.

All options in one table

Fares are for one adult, one way. The Raja Ferry fare covers the bus or van and the ferry ticket but not the ride from Lipa Noi Pier to your hotel. Lomprayah lists a dearer fare that adds a minivan to your hotel on Samui and arrives an hour later.

Cheapest: Raja Ferry bus and ferry from 650 baht

Raja Ferry’s online booking sells bus tickets that include the ferry. For trips on 20 November and 20 December 2026 it returned:

• Krabi Bus Terminal. 10:00, arriving at Lipa Noi Pier at 15:30, 650 baht. The booking note names the check-in point as the Phantip company’s at the bus terminal. The booking note says the bus runs direct to Don Sak and the ferry leaves Don Sak at 14:00
• Krabi Town, Sea Pearl Travel office. A direct van at 10:00 arriving 15:30, and another at 11:30 arriving 16:30, 650 baht. The ferries leave Don Sak at 14:00 and 15:00
• Ao Nang. Pick-up at the Starbucks branch in Ao Nang at 09:00, arriving 15:30 with the 14:00 ferry, and at 11:00, arriving 17:30 with the 16:00 ferry, 760 baht

The ferry itself sails hourly from Don Sak between 04:00 and 19:00 and takes about 1 h 30 min: the operator’s timetable has applied since 23 October 2026. Tickets are on the booking page under the bus ticket service, and the pier is Lipa Noi on the west coast of Samui: see Lipa Noi for what is around it.

Fastest by land: Lomprayah bus and catamaran

Lomprayah sells one ticket for the bus or van from Krabi and the high-speed boat. On its 2026 timetable (file of 25 August 2026), from the Krabi office:

• To Nathon Pier by catamaran. 08:00 arriving 11:45 and 11:30 arriving 15:45, 1,100 baht. With a minivan to your hotel on Samui the same trips arrive at 12:45 and 16:45 and cost 1,250 baht
• To Pralarn Pier by speedboat. 09:30 arriving 14:00, 1,000 baht, or 1,150 baht with the minivan and arrival at 15:00

Tickets are sold on lomprayah.com, by phone and on LINE. The timetable also lists a transfer service for the start of the trip, per person per trip: hotels in Krabi Town 100 baht from fixed pick-up points, and hotels in the Ao Nang area 150 baht. It names pick-ups at 07:00 for the 08:00 trip and 08:30 for the 09:30 trip, and its transfer table shows departures at 11:00 and 13:00 rather than 11:30, so ask for your pick-up time when you book the 11:30 trip.

From Ao Nang

Ao Nang is the long start of this trip: 216.8 km and about 2 h 56 min by road to Don Sak Pier. You have two ways to join the combined tickets:

• Raja Ferry from Ao Nang. The 09:00 and 11:00 pick-ups at the Starbucks, 760 baht, arriving 15:30 and 17:30
• Lomprayah via its Krabi office. Add the 150-baht hotel transfer to the 1,100-baht ticket, for 1,250 baht in all, and be ready an hour before the office departure

For a day on the water before you leave, the Hong Islands from Ao Nang trips start at Nopparat Thara Pier, and the Ao Nang page has the area and the airport distance.

By plane: 45 minutes, from 4,157 baht on the dates listed

Bangkok Airways is the airline on this route. Samui Airport’s live flight board on 13 November 2026 shows PG 266 from Krabi arriving at 14:30 and PG 265 to Krabi at 12:25. On the AirAsia MOVE route page, which gives about 45 minutes in the air, the one-way fares for the dates it lists were:

The page’s headline says fares from 3,099 baht, but no listed date matched it, and it warns that the price can change dynamically. AirAsia MOVE is an aggregator: Bangkok Airways’ own site returns an error to automated requests, so we did not check the carrier’s fare or baggage rules, and the table is a guide to how widely the price swings, not a quote. Add the ride to Krabi Airport and the wait there: the transfers are in the Krabi Airport guide.

By road and ferry on your own

Calculated by the OSRM router on OpenStreetMap data on 13 November 2026, without traffic or the ferry queue. Add about 1 h 30 min for the Raja Ferry crossing. We found no operator-published fare for a private van or taxi from Krabi to Don Sak, and the aggregators that sell vans did not give us a carrier timetable, so agree the price before you leave. Seatran Discovery’s booking form lists Krabi Town (Sea Pearl Travel office), Krabi Airport and Ao Nang pick-up points, but its public pages carry no Krabi timetable or fare, so we quote nothing from it.

What if you land late

The last departures we found by land leave at 11:00 (Ao Nang, Raja Ferry) and 11:30 (Lomprayah and the Sea Pearl van). If your flight lands at Krabi Airport in the afternoon, there is no same-day way to Samui by land. The 18:25 flight runs on some dates, and otherwise the practical choice is a night in Krabi Town or Ao Nang and the morning bus and boat.

Rain, sea and the November crossing

Samui’s rainy season is later than the Andaman coast’s: the heaviest rain falls from October to December, and November is its wettest month by the Thai Meteorological Department’s normals, as Koh Samui weather by month shows. Boats keep running in the rain, but the operators warn that schedules can change, so confirm your trip a day ahead and avoid a tight onward connection.

Common mistakes

• Reading 650 baht as the price to your hotel. It ends at Lipa Noi Pier
• Comparing the Lomprayah fare with and without the minivan as if it were one price. The 1,250-baht ticket arrives an hour later
• Booking the 11:30 or later trip and hoping for a connection. There is no later departure by land
• Taking the flight price from the first date you see. Fares swung from 4,157 to 14,282 baht across the dates listed
• Forgetting the start of the trip from Ao Nang. Lomprayah picks you up an hour before the office departure

After you arrive

For the island and its beaches see Koh Samui and holidays in Koh Samui. If you started in Phuket instead, the options are in Phuket to Koh Samui, and the way from Phuket to the Krabi side is in Phuket to Krabi. Carrying on to the Gulf islands: Samui to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao.