Emerald Pool Krabi: Entrance Fee, Hours & How to Visit

Two things catch people out at Emerald Pool, and neither is the pool. The first is the entrance fee, which is higher than most visitors expect and payable in cash at a gate an hour’s drive from anywhere. The second is the clock: the site closes earlier than the Thai afternoon suggests, and the Blue Pool up the trail keeps shorter hours still – when it is open at all. 

This is the practical guide. Fees, hours, the drive, and what to have sorted before you set off. For what the place is actually like once you are there, our Emerald Pool guide covers that side of it.

Entrance Fee

Emerald Pool sits inside a protected forest area, so the charge is a conservation entry fee rather than an attraction ticket, with the standard two-tier Thai pricing.

• Adults: 400 THB.
• Children: 200 THB.
• Parking: around 30 THB for a car, 20 THB for a motorbike, paid separately.
• Thai nationals and foreign residents who can show a Thai ID card or work permit pay a much lower local rate at the same counter. Worth asking if that applies to you.

Bring cash, in reasonable notes. Card payment is unreliable at the gate, and there is no dependable ATM nearby, so arriving without baht is a genuine problem rather than an inconvenience.

Why Tours Quote 600 THB

If you book a day trip, the park fee listed is usually 600 THB for adults and 300 for children, and it is worth understanding why before you assume you are being marked up. That figure covers two separate gates on the same itinerary – Emerald Pool and the hot springs – each charging its own entry. It is two tickets, not an inflated one. 

Most tours exclude these fees from the ticket price and collect them on arrival, which means the number you see at booking is not the number you spend. Budget for it.

One Ticket, Both Pools

The Blue Pool further along the trail is covered by the same entry fee, so there is nothing extra to pay if you walk up to it. Keep your ticket until you leave.

Opening Hours

The site runs on forest hours rather than tourist ones, and the two pools do not keep the same hours.

• Emerald Pool: open daily, roughly 08:30 to 16:30.
• Blue Pool: shorter hours again, around 10:00 to 15:30, and staff stop people heading up the trail well before closing. 
• Blue Pool seasonal closure: it typically shuts from around May to October, during the breeding season of the endangered Gurney’s pitta that nests in this forest. If seeing it matters to you, check before you plan the day around it – and note that swimming there is not permitted regardless.
• Time needed on site: allow about two hours for the walk in, a swim, and the walk back, and closer to three if you are doing the longer trail and the Blue Pool as well.

Work backwards from 16:30 rather than forwards from your hotel. With an hour or more of driving each way, a late-morning start leaves far less time at the pool than it feels like it should, and arriving after about 14:30 means rushing the part you came for.

How to Get There

Emerald Pool is in Khlong Thom district, inland and south-east of the coast – roughly 60 kilometres from Krabi Town and about 70 from Ao Nang. There is no useful public transport, so it comes down to four options.

On a Day Tour

The simplest version, and the one most people take. Hotel pickup, a driver who knows the road, and the pool package with the nearby hot springs so the drive earns its keep. You still pay the park fees on arrival, in cash.

Private Taxi or Car With Driver

Expect somewhere around 2,500 THB for a return trip with waiting time, which splits well across four people and badly across two. Agree the waiting time in advance, not just the fare – this is a half-day errand for the driver, and a vague arrangement is how people end up hurrying out of the water.

Self-Drive

Straightforward if you are already renting a car. The roads are good, the route is well signposted, and a car park sits at the entrance. Allow about an hour from Krabi Town and around an hour and a half from Ao Nang, plus more in the afternoon.

By Scooter

Possible, and popular, but be honest about it: that is roughly 90 minutes each way on a highway with fast traffic, in heat, and then a wet swimsuit for the ride home. Fine for confident riders with an appropriate licence; not the way to do it on your first day in Thailand.

Tips for Visiting  

• Carry small notes. You will pay the gate, the parking, and probably something at the stalls, and nobody is breaking a 1,000 baht note happily. 
• Choose your trail at the entrance. A direct path of about 800 metres goes straight to the pool; a longer route of roughly 1.4 kilometres loops through the forest on a raised boardwalk. Same destination, different day.
• Wear your swimwear under your clothes. Changing facilities exist but are basic and busy, and the walk back is more pleasant when getting changed is not the first thing on your mind.
• Ask about the Blue Pool when you buy your ticket, not when you reach the junction. Staff know whether it is open that day and how late you can still go up.
• If you are paying the combined 600 THB on a tour, use both gates. Skipping the hot springs to save time means paying for something you never see. 
• Keep the receipt or wristband visible. It covers the whole site, and you may be asked for it again further along the trail.
• Build the drive into your day honestly. Two to three hours of travel plus two on-site is a full outing, not a morning.

Note: The yellowish surface around the pool edge is algae and can be very slippery.

FAQ

The Easiest Way to Do It

Nothing about Emerald Pool is difficult, but the day has a lot of moving parts: two hours or more in a vehicle, two gates that want cash, a closing time earlier than you would guess, and a second pool with its own hours and its own season. Handling all of that yourself is entirely doable and takes planning. 

Eliminating most of the hassle with hotel pickup, lunch, and a local guide, you can visit the hot springs and Tiger Cave Temple all in one run on the Explore Krabi Jungle Tour to Emerald Pool & Hot Springs. Bring 600 THB per adult in cash for the park gates, and the rest of the day takes care of itself.