The shortest itinerary that still feels like a voyage: flat water, limestone on every side and no passage longer than three hours.
Phang Nga is the bay east of Phuket, closed in on three sides by the mainland and by the island itself. That geography does two things. It keeps the water flat, because there is no fetch for a sea to build in. And it fills the bay with hundreds of limestone karsts that rise vertically out of shallow green water, most of them undercut at the waterline by millennia of tide.
For a first charter this is the right cruising ground and it is not a compromise. The anchorages hold well, the passages between them are one to three hours, and nothing on the itinerary depends on the weather being kind. A family that has never been on a yacht can do this route in comfort.
It is also the route that survives the monsoon. The bay sits in the lee of Phuket when the southwest blows from May to October, which is why the green-season itineraries are built out of the same anchorages.
Board late morning, clear the marina and run northeast into the bay. Koh Hong is about two hours away and the anchorage on the south side takes the yacht for the night. If the tide is out in the afternoon, the tender goes into the interior lagoon before dinner.
Early tender run to the sea caves at Koh Panak while the tide is low enough to get under the entrances. Move west in the middle of the day, and take Khao Phing Kan after 16:30 once the tour fleet has gone home. Overnight either back at Koh Hong or, on a shallow-draught yacht, tucked in near Koh Panyee.
A slow morning at anchor off Koh Yao Noi, swimming and paddleboarding in water that is usually glass before ten. Return to Ao Po by early afternoon.
The value of doing this route on a yacht rather than on a day boat is control over the clock and the tide. Most of it comes down to these.
The tunnel into the lagoon is tide-dependent, not weather-dependent. Around high water the headroom disappears and the entrance closes. Ask the crew for the day's tide window before planning the afternoon around it, because the window moves about fifty minutes later each day.
The low caves only open around low water and close entirely on a big spring tide. If your itinerary has one fixed day in Phang Nga, the crew will pick between Panak and Hong based on the tide, and pushing them to do both on the wrong tide gets you neither.
The tour fleet from Phuket and Krabi arrives between 10:30 and 14:00 and there is no way to be there at noon and have it to yourself. Take the tender in before 09:00 or after 16:30. From an anchorage at Koh Hong that is a twenty minute run, which is the entire argument for anchoring at Koh Hong the night before.
The village is deep in the bay in genuinely thin water, and the last three miles silt continuously. Anything drawing more than about two metres will anchor a long way out. On a large motor yacht this stop is often traded for a longer tender run from Koh Hong rather than moving the mother ship at all.
This is the standard answer to the question of where to sail between May and October. The bay east of Phuket sits in the lee of the island through the southwest monsoon, and Koh Yao is at the centre of that lee.
No two operators run an identical itinerary. The variant is the useful part: a shorter version has dropped a destination, and it is almost always the furthest one.
Three-night crewed catamaran, Ao Po round trip
Skippered or bareboat, handover at Yacht Haven
Two-night version, Koh Hong and James Bond island only
Superyacht short charter, minimum three nights
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Sanlorenzo, 2018
A 37 metre Sanlorenzo from 2018 with five cabins and seven crew, one of the larger hulls that stays in Thai waters through the season rather than visiting for a few weeks.
from $14,900
per day
Ao Po Grand Marina
Sunreef Yachts
The luxury catamaran answer to a superyacht: twenty-four metres of beam-heavy platform with superyacht volume, shallow draught for the limestone anchorages, and the 24 metre length that puts it exactly on the Thai charter licence threshold.
from $90,000
per week
Ao Po Grand Marina
Sunreef Yachts
Eighteen metres of crewed luxury catamaran, below the licence threshold and above the charter-fleet standard. The size most couples and small families actually want once they have seen the price of the next step up.
from $48,000
per week
Phuket Yacht Haven
Source: Operator itineraries, Andaman Sea cruising guides. Checked 6 September 2026. Distances are planning figures and the coastlines on the chart are simplified. Neither is for navigation.