Maya Bay, the cove on Ko Phi Phi Leh where Danny Boyle filmed The Beach in 1999, is open again, but you cannot swim in it and you get about an hour on the sand. The film came out in 2000, and within a few years the bay was taking up to 5,000 visitors a day. Boats anchored over the coral, the reef died back in patches, and the blacktip reef sharks that once worked the shallows became scarce. On 1 June 2018 Thailand's national parks department closed it, and it stayed shut until 1 January 2022, the Nation reported.
The bay reopened with rules that have held ever since: no swimming, no boats in the bay, and a cap on how many people stand on the beach at once. It also closes for two months every year. Checked November 2026.
What Maya Bay looks like after recovery
The recovery is the reason to go. Blacktip reef sharks have returned to the shallows since the closure, and with no propellers churning the water and nobody standing in it, the bay no longer looks like the crowded, clouded cove of the 2010s.
The beach is smaller than the wide-angle film shots suggest: a short strip of white sand inside an almost closed ring of limestone walls. Photos from before 2018 show boats rafted together along the shoreline and the sand covered edge to edge. Today no boat may anchor in the bay, and visitors arrive on foot from the other side of the island.
How to get to Maya Bay
Maya Bay is on Ko Phi Phi Leh, an uninhabited island in the Andaman Sea, and the only way there is by boat. Most people arrive on an island-hopping tour from Ko Phi Phi Don, Phuket or Krabi that combines Maya Bay with snorkelling stops elsewhere. For more say over timing, fly into Phuket or Krabi, take the ferry to Ko Phi Phi Don and hire a private longtail there. Prices for both vary widely by operator and season.
How a visit works
When you arrive, your boat docks at the Loh Samah Bay pier on the far side of Ko Phi Phi Leh. From there a boardwalk leads through the forest to Maya Bay, a short walk. Visits run in rounds: the park chief set the limit at 375 people for about one hour at a time when the bay reopened in January 2022, and Thairath reported in April 2023 11 rounds a day between 7am and 6pm.
The national park fee is 400 baht for foreign adults and 200 baht for children (Thaiger, April 2023); we found no change to it in 2025 or 2026. In April 2026 Pattaya Mail described park staff at Loh Samah counting arrivals and collecting fees in cash or checking e-ticket receipts from guides and tour firms. In practice, most visitors come with a licensed tour or a longtail from Ko Phi Phi Don, and the operator handles the timed entry. Ask whether the park fee is included in the price you are quoted.
The no-swimming rule
You cannot swim at Maya Bay. The ban has applied since the reopening, and when the bay reopened after its 2026 seasonal closure on 1 October, Time Out Bangkok noted that swimming remains prohibited. The front beach is for walking and photographs.
Standing on one of the best-known beaches in Southeast Asia and not getting in the water feels strange. But the reef growing back and the sharks returning are directly connected to keeping people out of the water, and the park has kept the rule every season since 2022.
Tours make up for it with snorkelling stops at Pileh Lagoon and other bays around the Phi Phi islands where swimming is allowed.
Who should go, and who should skip it
Go if you can treat it as an hour at an exceptional natural site: the limestone walls in morning light, the colour of the water and the quiet now that engines are banned from the bay. It is closer to visiting a national park viewpoint than spending time at a beach, and framed that way it works.
Skip it if you want a lazy swimming day in a cove from a film. The time limit, the swimming ban and the managed walkway take away the spontaneity that made the original fantasy appealing. Ask your operator for one of the first rounds of the day, for fewer people and softer light.
Alternatives if you want a swim
The Phi Phi islands have plenty of beaches where you can swim and stay as long as you like. Pileh Lagoon is the better snorkelling stop, Bamboo Island has a long white beach with no time limit, and Long Beach on Phi Phi Don is easy to reach.
If you want the limestone-cove setting and a swim, Entalula Beach in El Nido has it, without the booking or the ban.
When to visit Maya Bay
- Season: November to April is the dry season, with calm seas. The 2026-27 dry season has just begun and runs to April 2027.
- Annual closure: Maya Bay, Loh Samah and Lo Ko bays close every year from 1 August to 30 September, according to Time Out Bangkok. The bay reopened on 1 October 2026.
- Monsoon: The south-west monsoon, roughly May to October, brings rougher seas and some tour cancellations.
- Booking: Tours sell out in high season (December to February), so book a few days ahead.
- Time of day: Entry runs from 7am to 6pm, and the rounds from 7am are the least crowded.
Checked November 2026.
Practical details
Sunscreens containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-MBC or butylparaben are banned in the national park, Thairath reported in April 2023, so pack a reef-safe one. Bring a waterproof phone case, a hat and water, because facilities on Ko Phi Phi Leh are minimal.
The bigger picture
Maya Bay is a test of whether damage from becoming too famous too fast can be undone. Here, so far, it can, at the price of rules that feel restrictive and a visit that is more managed than magical. The alternative was a dead reef and a beach that existed as a backdrop for selfies. If you have read about Navagio Beach in Greece, closed to landings since 2023 for a different reason (falling rock), you will know famous beaches now come with conditions. Maya Bay is trying to prove the conditions can work.
