Ao Thalane at Sunset, and Whether You Can Paddle at Night

The sunset paddle at Ao Thalane starts in the afternoon and ends in evening light: V Welcome Travel’s sunset session starts at 3:00 PM, and the sun sets at about 6:00 to 6:40 PM between November and April. Book it on Krabi: Ao Thalane Mangrove Kayaking Tour with Pickup, priced from US$24 on promotion, usually US$40 a head (checked November 2026); the sunset option itself was US$59.85 a person on the dates we read, against US$39.80 for the morning and afternoon. A true night paddle is a different trip that none of the tours here sells.

Choose your date, then “Sunset Kayaking”. Krabi Town pickup is 14:00 to 14:30, Ao Nang 14:30 to 15:00.

When the sun goes down

Computed for Ao Thalane, Thailand time.

So in November and December the sun is down by about 6 PM, and in February and March half an hour later. Cloud decides whether you see it: a May reviewer had a cloudy evening, an August one “lucked out with the weather”.

Three sunset tours

GetYourGuide (checked November 2026); For Friends travel &tour’s options not read on dates.

The For Friends paddle has the lowest from-price of the three and a group capped at 10; Sea Kayak Krabi’s costs most and turns the evening into a dinner, with a longtail back to the pier. V Welcome Travel’s sits between them and is the simplest: paddle, fruit, home.

Book whichever evening you want:

Prices, ratings and review counts from the GetYourGuide listings (checked November 2026). Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.

What sunset paddlers wrote

Reviewers of V Welcome Travel’s sunset session in 2026 liked the cooler air (April), had the water nearly to themselves with three in the group (August), walked a sandbar as the sun went down (July) and called it “better tide” than the day (August). The other side: one in June found it “a bit overcrowded”, and one in October was turned back by low water and offered another day. The sunset session is no exception to the tide; check it as you would for a morning (tide times).

Night kayaking and the plankton

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has named Ao Thalane as a place for a night kayak through the mangroves, lit by bioluminescent plankton under a moonless sky, and says to arrange it through a hotel or a local tour operator (February 2025). None of the GetYourGuide tours on this site is a night paddle: the sunset sessions end around dusk. If you want to try it, ask your hotel, and pick a date near the new moon, when the sky is darkest. The new moons from December 2026 to April 2027, computed for Thailand: 9 December 2026, 8 January, 6 February, 8 March and 7 April 2027.

Even on a dark night the glow is a chance, not a promise.