Ao Phang Nga is a band 3 park: 300 baht for a foreign adult, 150 for a foreign child, 60 and 30 for Thai visitors. Only nine parks in Thailand sit in that band. On top of that, the boat pays its own fee by size, under Schedule 2 of the same regulation. The park is 400 sq km and over 80 per cent of it is water. It was gazetted on 29 April 1981 as Thailand’s 25th national park, and the decree runs over six inhabited tambon, including both Ko Yao islands — which is why anyone buying on that shoreline needs the boundary checked rather than assumed.
What it costs to go in
The entry fee is set nationally, not by the park. Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 sorts every national park in Thailand into four bands, and Ao Phang Nga is in band 3 with eight others: Erawan, Doi Inthanon, Kaeng Krachan, Khuean Srinagarindra, Doi Pha Hom Pok, Sai Yok, Than Bok Khorani and Huai Nam Dang. That is the whole of band 3. It makes Ao Phang Nga more expensive than Khao Yai or Khao Sok at 200, and cheaper only than Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin at 500.
| Who | Adult | Child |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign visitor | 300 baht | 150 baht |
| Thai visitor | 60 baht | 30 baht |
A child is three to fourteen complete years, or not more than 140 cm tall. A foreigner is anyone without Thai nationality; there is no rate for foreign residents, work permit holders or spouses. Clause 6 means a visit with no overnight stay is charged once. Clause 16(1) exempts monks, novices and clergy of other religions residing in Thailand, Thai people aged sixty complete years and over, disabled people, and children under three. We set out how the two-column pricing works, and where it is and is not lawful, on dual pricing in Thailand.
The fee your boat pays, which you will not see on a ticket
This is the part of Ao Phang Nga that is genuinely different from a land park. Schedule 2 of the same regulation charges vehicles for entering a park — 30 baht for a car, 20 for a motorcycle — and in a marine park the vehicle is the boat. The fee is charged on the vessel by type and passenger capacity, once, regardless of how many people are aboard.
| Vessel | Fee |
|---|---|
| Long-tail boat, 1-20 passengers | 20 baht per vessel |
| Long-tail boat, 21-40 passengers | 50 baht per vessel |
| Long-tail boat, 41 passengers and over | 80 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 1-30 passengers | 50 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 31-60 passengers | 100 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 61-100 passengers | 200 baht per vessel |
| Speedboat, 101 passengers and over | 500 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 1-100 passengers | 100 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 101-300 passengers | 500 baht per vessel |
| Large passenger vessel, 301 passengers and over | 2,500 baht per vessel |
Spread over a full boat this is trivial, which is exactly why it vanishes into a package price and why most visitors never learn it exists. It matters in one situation: hiring a long-tail privately at the pier, where 20 baht on the boat plus 300 a head is the actual structure of what you are paying, and a quoted round number that does not break down is worth questioning.
What the park actually is
Ao Phang Nga covers roughly 250,000 rai, or 400 sq km, across amphoe Takua Thung, amphoe Mueang and amphoe Ko Yao in Phang Nga province. The department describes it as a coastal-type national park and states plainly that more than 80 per cent of its area is sea — a seabed of mud, silt and sand with limestone towers standing out of it, and around 42 islands east of Phuket.
It became a national park by Royal Decree published in the Royal Gazette, special issue, pages 1–2, vol. 98 part 64, 29 April 2524 (1981), making it Thailand’s 25th. It did not start there. In May 1973 the governor of Phang Nga proposed that Tham Ruesi Sawan, Tham Lot, Koh Panyi and Khao Phing Kan be made a forest park; the land around Tham Ruesi Sawan belonged to the State Railway of Thailand and had been passed to the provincial municipality, whose council voted against handing it over on 27 April 1973. So the Royal Forest Department took the other three, and from the 1974 budget year they became Si Phang Nga forest park. The survey that led to the national park was carried out on 25 June 1973 by the head of the National Parks Division and by Dr Boonsong Lekagul, the physician and naturalist who did more than anyone to build Thai conservation.
The geology is why it looks the way it does. The department’s record puts the bay at the meeting of the Tenasserim and Phuket granite ranges, formed in the Cretaceous and early Tertiary roughly 136 to 36 million years ago, cut by two named faults — the Khlong Marui fault and the Phang Nga fault. The folding and faulting concentrated tin, lead, wolfram, iron, antimony, manganese, barite, fluorite and gold, which is the mining history of this coast; the limestone that sits between and above it dissolved into the caves, channels and free-standing towers that the boats now go to look at.
For wildlife the department records 27 mammals, including the long-tailed macaque, the dusky langur and the lar gibbon, plus three marine mammals by name — the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin and the finless porpoise. It lists 120 bird species, 26 reptiles and only four amphibians, one of which is the crab-eating frog that can live in brackish water. The mangrove is classified three ways by the rock it grows on: twelve tree species on limestone, seven on shale and quartzite, five on sandstone.
Khao Tapu, Khao Phing Kan, and a name the park does not use
The department’s one-line summary of this park is “visit Khao Tapu, see the mangroves”. Khao Tapu — nail mountain, or spike mountain — is the narrow pinnacle standing in the water. Khao Phing Kan — the mountains leaning on each other — is the split limestone mass on the beach behind it. Together they are what the rest of the world calls James Bond Island, after the 1974 film, and the department has never used that name in its own record of the park.
The naming runs deeper than a preference. Khao Phing Kan is one of the three sites the Royal Forest Department specifically asked for in August 1973 when it could not get the fourth, and the Royal Gazette accommodation annex — written in 2021, in law — names the park’s own four-unit bungalow block at headquarters Ao Phang Nga 102 (Khao Phing Kan). If you are searching for information about this place in Thai, or asking a boatman, or reading a park notice, those are the words that will be in front of you.
Sleeping in the park, at Royal Gazette prices
Almost everyone visits Ao Phang Nga on a day boat from Phuket or Krabi and never learns that the park runs its own accommodation. The annex to Schedule 4 of the fee regulation prices seven units in two named zones, and these are legal rates rather than advertised ones.
| Unit | Zone | Sleeps | Baht / night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ao Phang Nga 101 (Kudu Yai) | Zone 1 - park headquarters | 2 | 800 |
| Ao Phang Nga 102/1-102/4 (Khao Phing Kan) | Zone 1 - park headquarters | 3 each | 1,000 |
| Ao Phang Nga 201 (Chan Pha) | Zone 2 - ranger station, Koh Lawa Yai | 4 | 1,000 |
| Ao Phang Nga 202 (Ton Son) | Zone 2 - ranger station, Koh Lawa Yai | 4 | 1,000 |
| Ao Phang Nga 203 (Nonsi) | Zone 2 - ranger station, Koh Lawa Yai | 4 | 1,000 |
| Ao Phang Nga 204 (Krathin Dong) | Zone 2 - ranger station, Koh Lawa Yai | 4 | 1,000 |
| Ao Phang Nga 205 (Lamphu) | Zone 2 - ranger station, Koh Lawa Yai | 4 | 1,000 |
Clause 14(1)(a) of the regulation gives a 30 per cent discount on accommodation from Monday to Thursday outside public holidays. Camping in your own tent is 80 baht per person per night here, not the 30 baht of a land park, because Schedule 4 prices marine and island sites separately. Sleeping aboard a moored boat is its own charge: 1,000 baht a night for a vessel taking up to twenty passengers, 2,000 for twenty-one and over. Snorkel mask and snorkel are 50 baht a set a day, fins 50 a pair, a life vest 30, and a marine kayak 200 baht an hour or 1,000 a day — all Schedule 3 rates that apply nationally.
Getting there
The park headquarters is at 80 Moo 1, Ban Tha Dan, Tambon Ko Panyi, Amphoe Mueang Phang Nga, Phang Nga 82000 — Tha Dan is the pier on the mainland side of the bay, a few kilometres out of Phang Nga town, and it is where the park’s own boats and most privately hired long-tails leave from. The park telephone numbers are 0 7648 1163, 0 7648 1188 and 0 7641 2188, and the email is aophangnga_np@hotmail.com.
Day tours reach the same water from Phuket and from Krabi, which is how the overwhelming majority of visitors arrive; the entry fee is the same wherever the boat starts, and a tour price that does not itemise it has still paid it. We could not read the department’s own travel directions for this park — that part of its site is loaded dynamically and did not render in the archived copy — so there are no road numbers or driving times on this page rather than numbers taken from somewhere else.
What we could not confirm
- Opening hours. Not stated on any departmental source we could read. Ask when you telephone.
- Whether the park closes seasonally. The department’s record for Ao Phang Nga carries no annual closure window, where its records for Mu Ko Ang Thong, Similan and Surin all do. We are reporting that absence, not converting it into a claim that the park never shuts.
- Boat charter prices and crossing times. Quoted everywhere, published by the department nowhere. The only boat figure on this page is the statutory vessel fee.
- The department’s own live pages. On 8 September 2026, for the third consecutive run of this work, nps.dnp.go.th did not answer at all (connection timeout) and dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th returned an automated challenge instead of content, from two separate networks. Everything attributed to the department here was read either from its own fee-regulation PDF, which is still served, or from an Internet Archive capture of its park record, and we have said which is which.
If you are buying on this bay
The 1981 decree is written over places people live. It names tambon Krasom, Kalai and Khlong Khian in amphoe Takua Thung, tambon Ko Panyi in amphoe Mueang, and tambon Ko Yao Noi and Ko Yao Yai in what was then king amphoe Ko Yao. Two of those are the Ko Yao islands, which have been sold to foreign buyers as the quiet alternative to Phuket for twenty years, and the Takua Thung shore is the mainland frontage looking straight at the bay.
Being inside the outer perimeter of a decree is not the same as being inside the protected area — the boundary is fixed by the map annexed to the decree, not by the tambon names — but it is precisely the situation in which a boundary has to be checked rather than assumed. Before you commit to land or a villa on the Phang Nga coast, have the title deed and the surveyed boundary read against the park map by a Thai lawyer and the Land Department. BAANLYY is a listing portal and not a law firm, and this is not legal advice; it is the one check worth insisting on here.
Frequently asked questions
300 baht for a foreign adult and 150 for a foreign child, against 60 and 30 for Thai visitors. That is band 3 of Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564, published in the Royal Gazette on 9 December 2021 and in force from 7 June 2022. Band 3 holds exactly nine parks in the whole country - Ao Phang Nga, Erawan, Doi Inthanon, Kaeng Krachan, Khuean Srinagarindra, Doi Pha Hom Pok, Sai Yok, Than Bok Khorani and Huai Nam Dang - so this is the second-most expensive tier, above Khao Yai and Khao Sok at 200 and below only Similan and Surin at 500. A child is three to fourteen complete years, or not more than 140 cm tall; a foreigner is anyone without Thai nationality, and the regulation gives no residency rate. Under clause 16(1) entry is free for monks, novices and clergy of other religions residing in Thailand, Thai people aged sixty complete years and over, disabled people, and children under three.
Yes, and almost nobody sees it because it sits inside a tour price. Schedule 2 of the same regulation charges a vessel fee on the boat itself, by type and passenger capacity, on top of every passenger's entry fee: a long-tail carrying up to twenty people pays 20 baht, a speedboat carrying up to thirty pays 50, and a large passenger vessel carrying three hundred or more pays 2,500. It is charged per vessel, not per head, so on a full boat it works out at pennies a person - which is why it disappears into a package price. If you hire a long-tail privately at the pier, it is a fee you should expect to see itemised, and it is small.
It is, and the department has never called it James Bond Island. The pinnacle standing in the water is Khao Tapu, meaning nail or spike mountain, and the leaning limestone slabs on the beach behind it are Khao Phing Kan, meaning the mountains leaning on each other. The department's own record for the park leads with the line 'visit Khao Tapu, see the mangroves', names Khao Phing Kan, Khao Tapu and Tham Lot as the park's defining natural features, and lists them among the three sites the Royal Forest Department asked for by name in 1973 when the area was first set aside as Si Phang Nga forest park. The Royal Gazette accommodation annex goes further: the park's own four-unit bungalow block at headquarters is officially named Khao Phing Kan. The film name is a nickname the park does not use.
Yes. The annex to Schedule 4 of the fee regulation prices seven government units across two named zones: Kudu Yai at headquarters sleeps two for 800 baht, the four Khao Phing Kan units at headquarters sleep three each for 1,000, and five more at the Koh Lawa Yai ranger station sleep four each for 1,000. Camping in your own tent is 80 baht per person per night here rather than the 30 baht charged in land parks, because the regulation prices marine and island sites separately. If you sleep aboard a boat moored in the park, that is its own line: 1,000 baht per night for a vessel carrying up to twenty passengers and 2,000 for twenty-one and over.
The department's own record for this park states no annual closure window, which is unusual for a marine park - Mu Ko Ang Thong, Mu Ko Similan and Mu Ko Surin all carry one. That is not a promise the park is open every day. Individual sites and the whole bay can be shut at short notice in bad weather, the department's page notes the southwest monsoon hits this coast fully from May to September with rough seas, and the annual national closure announcement covers every park in the country and could not be read for this guide. Treat the absence of a published window as the absence of a published window, and telephone the park on 0 7648 1163 before you plan around it.
It matters more here than at most parks, because the 1981 Royal Decree is written over inhabited tambon rather than over empty forest. It covers tambon Krasom, Kalai and Khlong Khian in amphoe Takua Thung, tambon Ko Panyi in amphoe Mueang, and tambon Ko Yao Noi and Ko Yao Yai in what was then king amphoe Ko Yao - all in Phang Nga province. If you are looking at land or a villa on Ko Yao Noi or Ko Yao Yai, or on the Takua Thung shore facing the bay, you are looking inside the outer perimeter of a national park decree, and the boundary is defined by the annexed map rather than by anything visible on the ground. Have the title and the boundary checked against the survey before you commit. This is a legal-boundary question for a Thai lawyer and the Land Department, not something to settle from a map on a listing.
Related guides
- National parks in Thailand — the four bands, the booking system and the rules that carry a fine.
- Phang Nga — the province the bay is in, and what living there costs.
- Phuket — where most visitors to this park sleep, and the market next door.
- Krabi — the other side of the same limestone, and the other launching point.
- Mu Ko Similan National Park — the same province, band 4, and no sleeping over.
- Scuba diving and snorkelling — the statutory dive fee and where it applies.
- Dual pricing — why the sign has two columns, and when that is lawful.
- Island living in Thailand — what a year on one of these islands is actually like.
Phang Nga is the cheapest coastline in the Andaman
And a good deal of it sits inside or beside a national park decree. Worth knowing which before you offer.
Sources & References
- Royal Gazette, vol. 138 special part 301 Ngor, 9 December 2021, pages 57-58 - Department of National Parks Regulation B.E. 2564 on the collection of service fees. Read directly from the department's own PDF for this guide. Schedule 1 places Ao Phang Nga in band 3 (Thai adult 60 / child 30, foreign adult 300 / child 150) alongside exactly eight other parks; Schedule 2 sets the separate vessel fee by boat type and passenger capacity; Schedule 3 prices snorkel gear and marine kayaks; Schedule 4 sets camping at 80 baht per person per night on an island and prices every Ao Phang Nga bungalow by name in two named zones
- Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation - the department's own park record for Ao Phang Nga on its booking site (nps.dnp.go.th, park id 51), last edited 26 May 2565. Source for the Royal Decree and its Royal Gazette citation, the 400 sq km area, the amphoe and tambon the decree covers, the park's rank as Thailand's 25th, the founding history through Si Phang Nga forest park, the geology and faults, the species counts, and the park headquarters address at Ban Tha Dan. Read via the Internet Archive capture of 28 May 2022 because the department's own host did not answer on 8 September 2026
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
