Car Rental in Krabi Town: Night Market and Klong Jilad Pier

Krabi Town in one day: the pier in the morning, the market after dark

Krabi Town is not the resort. It is the working riverfront where the island ferries actually leave from, and where the evening is better spent than on the beach strip. Here is where the car sits at each point in that day.

Morning

Klong Jilad pier

The speedboats and ferries to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta leave from Klong Jilad pier (also written Khlong Chilat), roughly 10 to 15 minutes from the town centre. The car sits in the pier car park for the day while you are on the water.

Midday

Tiger Cave Temple, or an errand in town

Wat Tham Suea sits just outside town, and the long stairway to the summit shrine is a better idea before the early afternoon heat than after it. Otherwise the middle of the day is when the town itself is easiest to drive: quiet, and parking is simple to find.

Late afternoon

Back into the one-way streets

Highway 4 (Phetkasem Road) brings you back in from either direction. The centre narrows fast once you are off it, with short one-way sections that catch drivers who are used to wider Ao Nang roads.

Evening

The night market at Chao Fa pier

The riverfront night market runs near the Chao Fa pier once the heat drops. This is the part of the day the car actually earns: the market and the food along the river are consistently cheaper and less crowded than the same evening spent on the Ao Nang strip.

The town you drive through, not the resort you drive to

Most itineraries treat Krabi Town as a pass-through: the airport road, then straight out to Ao Nang. That skips the two reasons a visitor actually has to come into town at all. The island boats to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta leave from Klong Jilad pier, and the riverfront night market near the Chao Fa pier runs cheaper and less crowded than the same evening spent on the beach strip.

Both of those are only easy with your own car. A supplier can drop a car in town, and from there the pier is roughly 10 to 15 minutes and Highway 4 puts Ao Nang about 25 minutes away in the other direction. Without a car, both trips mean negotiating a return taxi fare, twice.

The town itself asks for one adjustment: the historic grid near the river narrows into short one-way sections, and it is nothing like the wide roads on Route 4034 out to the coast. Once you are through that grid and back on Highway 4, driving here is no different from anywhere else in the province.

Krabi Info Group lists what the local Krabi suppliers actually have on the board, in euro, with the same fleet a portal would quote at a higher price. Every car currently on that board is automatic, so the gearbox is one thing you do not need to think about before a boat morning.

Parking and driving

Narrow streets, one-way turns, and where to actually leave the car

The compact riverfront grid is the only part of Krabi Town that takes concentration. Streets close to the market and the pier road run one-way in places, and they were laid out long before anyone was driving a car through them. Slow down, expect a scooter from a side street, and do not assume a street continues the way it looked on the map.

Once you are a couple of streets back from the river, the town opens up and parking gets straightforward again. Highway 4 (Phetkasem Road) is the road in and out, wide and easy the whole way, and is the road to be on if you are heading further than the town itself.

Quick reference

Riverfront grid near the market: narrow, one-way in places, slow down.
Highway 4 (Phetkasem Road): the wide road in and out of town.
Klong Jilad pier: about 10 to 15 minutes from the centre.
Evenings by the river get busy fast once the market opens.

What a car is actually good for once you are in town

Klong Jilad pier

Also written Khlong Chilat. Island ferries and speedboats to Phi Phi and Koh Lanta leave from here, roughly 10 to 15 minutes from the town centre by car.

The night market

Runs along the riverfront near the Chao Fa pier in the evenings. Cheaper and quieter than the equivalent evening on the beach strip.

Tiger Cave Temple

Wat Tham Suea sits just outside town. Best combined with a morning already spent driving into the centre.

Highway 4

Phetkasem Road, the mainland spine. It carries you into town, out to Ao Nang on Route 4034, and everywhere else on the mainland.

Travellers who used the town for the pier and the market

We left the car at Klong Jilad in the morning for the Koh Lanta boat and picked it straight back up in the afternoon. Cheaper and quieter than anything we did on the coast.

HB

Henrik Bakke

Bergen, Norway

The night market by the river was the best food of the whole trip, and it is nothing like the tourist strip prices at Ao Nang. Parking took two minutes once we knew where to look.

MR

Marisol Reyes

Cebu, Philippines

Driving into the town centre itself was the one bit that took getting used to, the streets are narrow and some are one-way. Everything outside that was easy.

DK

Daniel Kessler

Graz, Austria

What people ask before driving into town

Public parking sits back from the riverfront rather than right on it, so plan to walk the last few minutes rather than looking for a spot directly outside the market. Arrive a little before the market gets busy and the walk is short.

Yes, that is the normal pattern. Drivers heading to Phi Phi or Koh Lanta for the day park at the pier, take the boat, and come back to the same car in the afternoon or evening depending on the return sailing.

They serve different trips. Ao Nang is the beach base with the resorts and the boat across to Railay. Krabi Town is the working town: the island ferries leave from here, the night market is here, and prices are generally lower than on the beach strip. Plenty of visitors base in one and drive to the other.

The centre itself is compact with narrow, partly one-way streets, which is the one adjustment from the wider roads out at Ao Nang or along Highway 4. Outside the old grid, the roads in and out of town are ordinary and easy.

It sits just outside Krabi Town, a short drive rather than a day trip. Most visitors combine it with a morning already spent in town.

If you want the island boats or the night market, yes: both only happen in Krabi Town. Otherwise it is a reasonable half day out from Ao Nang, roughly 25 minutes each way.

More Krabi car hire options

Airport Pickup Cheap Deals No Deposit Minivans SUVs Automatic Cars Ao Nang Railay

Reserve a car for the pier and the market

Live availability from local Krabi suppliers, priced in euro, with a No Deposit option on part of the fleet and free cancellation on most of it.

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