Long Beach is a white sand beach on the south eastern tip of Koh Phi Phi Don, the largest of Phi Phi islands. Whilst very close to the extremely busy Tonsai Village, Long Beach is much quieter and for most people much more pleasant than the main beach in Tonsai Village, Loh Dalum Beach.
About Long Beach
The first thing that anyone who has been in Koh Phi Phi in the last few years will have noticed is that whilst it is undoubtedly a place of immense natural beauty, it has also been massively overdeveloped and this is especially true of Tonsai Village. 95% of people who come to Koh Phi Phi will pass through Tonsai Village because this is where the main ferry pier is located, and a high proportion of the overnight visitors will get no further than Tonsai Village. Tonsai Village is a lot of fun if you are young and like to drink alcohol. Loh Dalum Beach is in the centre of the village and it gets very busy and noisy, and cleanliness of the water is often called into question.
Long beach in Koh Phi PhiFor a families and older visitors Long Beach is a good alternative to Tonsai Village and Loh Dalum Beach. This 660 metre long beach has fine white sand, is great for swimming, has a handful of resorts and virtually no night life except for people drinking in the resort restaurant after their evening meal. Amongst the resorts currently open on Long Beach are:
You get a good view of Koh Phi Phi Le from Long BeachOne of the plus points of Long Beach is that you get a great view of both the headland to the west of Tonsai Village also also of Koh Phi Phi Le, which is the location of the famous Maya Beach where many of the scenes from the ‘The Beach’ were filmed. You can’t see Koh Phi Phi Le clearly from Tonsai Village.
Taxi boats at Long BeachThe other major plus point of Long Beach is that not so many people come here despite the massive numbers of people who visit the very nearby Tonsai Village. The reason for this is that there is no road between these Tonsai Village and Long Beach. There are two other ways to travel between Tonsai Village and Long Beach which are just inconvenient enough to put off most visitors:
- You can walk, which takes 30 to 45 minutes depending upon which route you take, with the shorter route being very steep with ropes in place to assist you along the way.
- You take a taxi boat, which costs 100 THB each way during daylight hours, rising to 150 THB early in the evening, and 200 THB late at night.
Shark Point at Long BeachLong Beach also has a particularly good snorkelling area called Shark Point which is about 150 metres out from the coast. Shark Point is a pinnacle which rises just above the surface of the sea. A lot of fish are attracted to this large rock as well as the occasional shark which can measure up to 2 metres in length although sharks that size are now fairly rare and not known to try to bite human beings.
Location of Long Beach
- Long Beach is 2.6 km walking distance from Tonsai Pier.
