Krabi · Thailand · Regional hub · Thailand
Krabi International Airport KBV
Krabi serves the same beaches as Phuket, only smaller and barer: no lounge you can buy by the hour, no hotel within walking distance here everything happens twenty kilometres away, by taxi.
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
How long is your layover?
2 hrs
No airside transit procedure is published: expect to clear a check at every boarding.
- Sources disagree on the terminals: some still describe two buildings (T1 international, T2 domestic) linked by a 2–3 minute walkway, others a single Terminal 3 that replaced them from 2023. Either way, you cover the ground on foot, with no shuttle.
- No official connection time is published by the airport or by AOT the site's compactness allows quick transfers, but there's no figure to hold anyone to.
- ⚠️ No secure transit procedure without a fresh check is documented: between two domestic flights, or between an international and a domestic one, expect to clear security again, and immigration too if your status changes.
2–5 hrs
The Wi-Fi is free; almost everything else is missing, starting with anywhere decent to sit.
- Free Wi-Fi in the airport, but the exact terms session length, registration aren't published. Expect a basic connection.
- ⚠️ No dedicated rest zone, no garden, no quiet zone: you're left with the standard seating in the departure lounges.
- ⚠️ No shower, free or paid, is documented anywhere in the terminal.
- Cafés and restaurants exist in the departure zones, international and domestic alike you pay, and the only condition is being past the gate.
5–10 hrs
Nothing keeps you inside, but nothing helps you get out comfortably either.
- NO VISA the terminal doesn't offer much: standard seating, free Wi-Fi, and the paid cafés and restaurants of the departure zones.
- VISA REQUIRED Thailand grants a visa exemption for a short stay to most European passports, with a duration revised since 2024. Check yours before counting on getting out.
- ⚠️ No city tour organised by the airport. Transfers to Ao Nang, Krabi Town or Koh Lanta are ordinary commercial services, booked at the arrivals counters.
10 hrs +
You sleep, but not on site the nearest documented hotel is some twenty kilometres off.
- VISA REQUIRED no hotel is within walking distance of the terminal. Ao Nang, Krabi Town, Klong Muang and Tubkaek are reached by taxi, van or bus, booked at the transport counters in the arrivals hall.
- ⚠️ No airside hotel and no transit capsule exists at Krabi as at Phuket, you clear immigration before you sleep.
- Don't count on a night courtesy of the airline: no stopover accommodation policy is documented for Krabi.
What catches travellers out
Krabi is not a scaled-down Phuket
Same list of beaches, same diving, but the airport has neither the buyable lounge nor the walk-to hotel of its bigger neighbour. Don't plan your stopover around HKT's comforts.
The Bangkok Airways lounge isn't for sale
It's free, but only for passengers holding a same-day Bangkok Airways ticket turning up at the door with a credit card gets you nowhere.
The real number of terminals depends on when you're travelling
Sources disagree between the old T1/T2 pairing and a single Terminal 3 open since 2023: don't build your connection plan on a terminal map that may have changed since it was drawn.
Where to sleep during the layover?
No hotel is within walking distance: at Krabi, everything happens some twenty kilometres away, by taxi or van booked on site.
- Ao Nang, Krabi Town, Klong Muang and Tubkaek hold most of the choice compare on the usual platforms according to your budget.
- Book the transfer at the transport counter in the arrivals hall: no free shuttle from the airport is documented.
For subtitles in English: start the video firstthen click the gearat the top right of the video, select “Subtitles/CC”, then “Auto-translate” and choose “English”.
The diver’s reflex
No lounge, no shower at Krabi
Unlike Phuket, no lounge at Krabi is sold by the day the only documented lounge, run by Bangkok Airways, is reserved for the airline's own passengers. If you're following a night flight with a dive the next morning, the shower waits for the dive centre.
Two spare batteries between 100 and 160 Wh, never more
The same rule applies here as elsewhere in Thailand for the batteries in your torches and housings: cabin only, terminals protected, unrestricted up to 100 Wh, two units maximum between 100 and 160 Wh with the airline's agreement, refused beyond that.
Krabi and Ao Nang are on your doorstep, Phuket and Koh Lanta are somewhere else
Krabi and Ao Nang are a few minutes' drive from the airport; Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi need a boat; Phuket and Khao Lak are a different airport altogether don't confuse them when booking a transfer.
The airport at a glance
- Terminals
- Compact complex historic T1/T2 or a single Terminal 3 depending on the source, everything on foot
- Connection
- No official time published no documented transit procedure without a fresh check
- Wi-Fi
- Free, exact terms not published
- Showers
- None documented in the terminal, free or paid
- Baggage storage
- None documented
- Lounge
- None sold by the day Bangkok Airways Boutique Lounge reserved for its own passengers
- Nearest hotel
- None within walking distance Ao Nang / Krabi Town around 20 km away, by taxi or van
- City exit
- Visa exemption for a short stay depending on nationality duration revised since 2024, check before departure
- City tour
- No official airport tour
