3 Top Tips When Climbing Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea)

Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea)

There are so many reasons to visit the Tiger Cave Temple also known as Wat Tham Suea when you are in Krabi, Thailand.

It has one of the most stunning Krabi viewpoints and is one of the most famous Krabi landmarks with its enormous golden Buddha towering in the clouds. We were not disappointed with our experience here.

The Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea) is known for its challenging stairway climb. It used to be 1,237 steps but since there was a slight rebuild it has increased to 1260! In some parts, we crawled hands and feet up the mountain.

I certainly was nervous about the climb, but your reward is the stunning Krabi panoramic view unlike any other.

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Tip 1! Getting to Tiger Cave Temple

There are a few ways to get here depending on where you are coming from and your budget.

Tiger Cave Temple is approximately 9 kilometres or 5.6 miles from Krabi and 19 kilometres or 13.3 miles from Ao Nang Beach.

You can either hire a motorbike or rent a taxi or tuk-tuk. Alternately from Ao Nang Beach, some minibuses go to Krabi, however, they run on a schedule and then you must additionally organise yourself from Krabi to get to the Krabi Tiger Cave Temple.

We personally asked our hotel to organise a visit and we were offered a reasonable price for a daily driver. He drove us from Ao Nang to Tiger Temple, waited for us for a few hours and organised a cafe stop on the way home. We had a great time with that.

You can similarly do this through an organised tour on Viator which explores more of Krabi travel tours and guides. I’ve linked some options for activities in the area and tours that all include the Tiger Cave Temple. The difference is the time spent and how many places you want to see. They are all great options.

All day Krabi Jungle Tour (Hot Spring Water, Emerald Pool, Tiger Cave Temple)

Jungle Tour to Emerald Pool, Krabi Hot Spring and Tiger Cave Temple

Discover Krabi – Emerald Pool, Hot Springs & Tiger Cave Temple

Krabi Outback Explorer to Emerald Pool, Wareerak Hotspring and Beyond

I will say as a word of warning that we had issues using the Grab App (Asian Uber) in Ao Nang and Krabi. As Tuk Tuk drivers see that this infringes on their right to earn money, Grab drivers won’t take your ride due to these ongoing disputes.

So although they had Grab available, no one would accept your ride and you sat there forever. We had to give up on the app.

Tip 2! Once You Are At Tiger Cave Temple

Once you are at Tiger Cave Temple, you will see some shops and a registration point. Go and register and be sure that you have the right attire on. The registration volunteers will check with you.

Women need their legs and shoulders covered. Men need legs covered just past the knee and prob some sort of t-shirt. You can buy these items if you are not suitably dressed on arrival.

I wished that I had not worn a sarong to cover my legs. It became restrictive to walk up the stairs and it was hot and sticky. Perhaps leggings or elephant pants would have been better. Light clothing due to the humidity and heat is also a must.

Absolutely wear sturdy shoes and shoes you are comfortable in and don’t slip. We had rain on the day and even with non-slip shoes I felt slippery.

Make sure you bring water and anything else you would bring on an arduous climb to sustain yourself.

There is an offer of donation to climb the stairs or it is free if you do not wish to donate.

You turn right and enter into the temple grounds. We initially found the start of the stairs hard to find but just keep going right until you see the entry onto the mountain.

If you are like me, you always need to use the bathroom. Go to the toilets before you go up the mountain because there isn’t anything available along the way. This would be a consideration if you are also doing this with children or teenagers too, get everyone to make a pit stop.

Tip 3! Getting To The Top Of Those Tiger Cave Temple Stairs!!

Just before you set off you may have seen monkeys. Please keep your distance, because they will pinch your things! We saw tourists get their jackets swiped and run up trees. They were there for half an hour waiting for them to drop back down.

On top of that, you wouldn’t want a bite or scratch. So take your photos and videos on zoom. Keep a good 1 meter at all times and hide your food and drinks to reduce the temptation for them.

Even though it’s called the Tiger Cave Temple, there aren’t any Tigers there! So that’s one less thing to worry about. It was just named that, as back in the day a monk saw a tiger while meditating and they were native to the area. A bit sad but they are long gone and the name is the only thing that remains.

We set off with sporadic rain so we took the climb really slowly. There is some real incline on those stairs so we took multiple breaks on our climb.

In hindsight, I would recommend going earlier or later in the day depending on the weather. Due to the stairs being so difficult, we didn’t find the place overrun with tourists, but as there are some narrow stairways towards the summit it did get a little crowded at points.

At the summit, you are greeted by the incredible Krabi Golden Buddha and the panoramic Krabi Province landscape viewpoint! It is truly magical and as far as I was concerned after all my effort to climb it, I was at the top of Mount Everest!

For us, there were some stray dogs on the summit which we stayed away from. They looked rather unhealthy and we were unsure if they were taken care of by the monks. Mostly they were sleeping so we left those sleeping dogs lie and you should too if you encounter them.

Shoes are removed at the summit so if you’re like me and don’t like dirty feet, bring some socks.

Overall it took us around an hour and a half to two hours up and down to explore and enjoy the grounds.

It is for the fit, so if you have health problems, you might want to either take it super slow or just enjoy the lower grounds on this one. It will certainly be a calorie-busting day for sure! It’s great they have snack shops at the bottom! I’ve never been so happy to have some snacks and a drink.

I hope this helps you on your Krabi Tiger Cave Temple visit, I know so many blogs have helped me along the way. If you’d like to read more on South East Asia head over to our most-read blogs 4 things you need to know about Sekumpul Waterfall for a great day! and 5 amazing North Vietnam Tips for a great time.

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