Maya Bay
The bay closed in by hundred-metre cliffs, reopened after three years shut.
Duration
1 hr – 1 hr 30 min
Best time
On the first trip of the morning
Open
Closed 1 August to 30 September
Entry price
To confirm
Maya Bay is a three-hundred-metre bay on the uninhabited island of Phi Phi Leh, closed on three sides by hundred-metre limestone cliffs. The film shot there in 1999 brought up to five thousand people a day, and more than eighty per cent of the coral was destroyed.
The Thai authorities closed it entirely in 2018, for three years. It reopened under strict rules: boats no longer land in the bay but at a pontoon behind the island, swimming is banned, and numbers are capped. The blacktip reef sharks have come back.
Getting there
On Phi Phi Leh, forty minutes by longtail from Tonsai. Boats dock at the Loh Samah pontoon at the back, then you cross on foot.
What the price covers
marine national park entry fee, paid in cash on arrival; rate to be checked
Rules on site
Swimming in the bay is banned and enforced: you look from the sand. The bay closes completely from 1 August to 30 September each year to let the coral recover.
