Koh Phi Phi: a myth or a reality?

Live from Koh Phi PhHere are my first impressions:
The shuttle from Krabi It costs us 800 baht (10€), 1h30 by boat and we are now landed on this famous island of Koh Phi Phi, It was a myth to me; I absolutely wanted to go there…

We hadn’t booked a hotel; we’d seen it on booking or Agoda that there were quite a few available and they were around 30€ per night.
As soon as you arrive at the port, you have to pay 20 baht / 0.5€ each for the cleanliness of the island. (If only it were really clean…) then, At the entrance to the island there are many desk that offer hotels, but … the prices weren’t the same as the ones we found on the internet…
Nothing less than 1500 baht (40€), we who used to find guesthouses for 700 baht per night… We booked 2 nights at  »PP beach front » .

The hotel is on the beach, a bit isolated from the others, it’s quite quiet and easy to get to the center. But the hotel is in a terrible state; there’s no water all day… In short, our room is clean, there’s air conditioning, a shower, and a balcony with sea views; the breakfast is served on the beach. It’s worth taking it all in a bit…

The main streets of Phi Phi are very touristy; souvenirs cost much more than anywhere else in Thailand. For restaurants: for a dish and a drink each we managed to get it for 800 baht; that still only comes to 20€ okay, but I find they take advantage of tourists to raise prices because we are still in Thailand…

For nightlife, there are many bars run by Westerners, especially on the beach where everyone wants to go all out in a « Full Moon Party », There are » bucket  » on sale everywhere in the city (a jump, straws and alcohol, you mix everything in the jump and you drink from the straw)
The bars turn up the music until 2 a.m., and to have our hotel on the same beach as these famous bars, the first night was quite unpleasant… For the second night, we went to see what was happening up close 🙂
If you want to party, this is the perfect place, There are buckets of all sorts of prices, 250 baht for a small bottle of vodka or rum and cocktails cost between 2.5 and 5€.
If you want to rest there, day is fine, but night impossible !

There are quite a few excursions offered: boat trips, diving, kayaking…
We did the boat trip + snorkeling from 11am to 6pm, the price is 650 baht per person, 17€.
On the agenda: Maya Bay, 3 snorkeling spots, Balbou Island and Monkey Island + a Thai pad for lunch and a pineapple, a muffin at 4 p.m., and some water.
The snorkeling spots were beautiful, we took some nice photos and videos with the fish 🙂 and Maya Bay (the movie «The Beach») was splendid! These islands are wild and that’s what I love about them!

If you want to do some shopping, especially don’t do it down there; everything you’ll find in Bangkok for 100 or 200 baht will cost 400/500 baht on the island…
The massages cost double; in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, I paid 120 B for 30 minutes; here, the 30 minutes cost 250/300 baht. I only had a manicure for 150 baht and a pedicure for 100 baht.

Our conclusion: It is an island to visit at least once, but definitely not to make it the main destination of your stay, or you will be disappointed.
We had, however, been warned to go more towards Ko Samui or also Ko Tao.
We ended up staying there for 3 nights, One night too many, I think.