Plan your trip · Krabi
What's on in Krabi
Upcoming festivals, fairs and events in Krabi — plan your visit around them, then check the best time to visit.
Nothing dated is confirmed for Krabi right now, so here is the year instead — the fixtures that come round annually, and what each one means for a visit.
The year in Krabi
Krabi's calendar works around the monsoon — the big outdoor events sit either side of it, and the wettest weeks are the quietest ones for anything held in the open. Broadly, Nov – Feb is when visiting is most comfortable here, and that is when the calendar is busiest — which also means accommodation is most expensive and books furthest ahead.
Most of these follow lunar calendars and move by weeks from year to year, so treat the windows below as the season rather than the date, and confirm the year’s dates before you book around one.
Nationwide
Songkran — Thai new year
🗓️ 13–15 April, and longer in practiceThe new year, and the largest water fight on earth. The origin is gentle — pouring scented water over Buddha images and over the hands of elders — and what it has become in the street is hoses, buckets, water pistols and pickup trucks with barrels in the back. UNESCO inscribed it in 2023.
Loi Krathong & Yi Peng
🗓️ The full moon of the twelfth lunar month — usually NovemberKrathongs — little rafts of banana leaf, flowers and a candle — floated on every river and pond to carry away the past year's misfortune. In the north it coincides with Yi Peng, when paper lanterns are released into the sky.
Vegetarian Festival (Nine Emperor Gods)
🗓️ Nine days in September or OctoberA Chinese-Thai festival of purification observed hardest in Phuket, where the streets fill with yellow flags and vegan food, and where mediums at the shrines pierce their cheeks and walk on fire in processions that are not staged for tourists.
Makha Bucha & Visakha Bucha
🗓️ Full moons in February and MayTwo of Buddhism's most important days, marked by candlelit circumambulation of the temple after dark — three slow laps around the ordination hall, everybody carrying flowers, incense and a candle.
The King's and Queen's birthdays
🗓️ 28 July and 3 June, with the late King's on 5 DecemberNational holidays with illuminations, ceremonies and yellow or blue shirts everywhere — colour matters here and people dress deliberately.
Chinese New Year
🗓️ Late January or FebruaryYaowarat in Bangkok and the Chinese quarters of Phuket and Chiang Mai fill with lion dances, red lanterns and street food for several days, and the Chinese temples run at capacity.