If you’re coming to Thailand for a 100% climbing holiday, obviously bring all your gear as you’re looking at between £20-£40/ day/ 2 people for full rental. If, however, you’re like me – travelling South East Asia and climbing for a few days here and there- I’d recommend just bringing your shoes and renting the rest as it’s not worth carrying around all that gear plus month’s worth of travelling essentials.

I climb anywhere up to 6B, so if you’re looking for harder climbing, this isn’t the place to be. If, however, you’re relatively new to it and want to know where there’s suitable climbing, this will hopefully be helpful.

We came to Thailand in the end of May and it’s been an early monsoon so, naturally, climbing has been difficult. On the upside, May is low season so there are very few climbers at that time of year and there’s no queuing for climbs.

We’ve climbed in two hot climbing areas of Thailand:

• Krabi/ Railay Beach
• Chiang Mai

Rock Climbing Krabi/ Railay Beach

When we got to Krabi, it was torrential rain but we had already booked ourselves in for 4 nights at the Phutawan Resort on Railay Beach so, that’s where we went.

Price: All climbing shops have the same rental price of 1000THB/half day/ 2 people or 1800THB/full day/ 2 people

Diamond Cave

Rental location: Right at the foot of the cave, there is a climbing rental shop called ‘Highland Rock Climbing’ so you don’t need to lug rented gear from the beach up the hill.

The climbing: Putawan Resort is on the doorstep of Diamond Cave (which we climbed on the outside of) which has some really nice climbs ranging from single pitch 20m to multi-pitch big-uns. It’s Limestone so your feet don’t easily slip with lots of nice pockets. In this area, the first 10-12 metres are all around the f5 region but they quickly earn their 6 badge at the top of the first pitch with small overhangs and quite boulder moves.

Rain: It rained twice in the day whilst we climbed there but the rock was so hot that it dried almost as soon as the rain stopped.

Phranang Cave

Rental location: The only way to get to Phranang Cave is from East Railay, so I would suggest renting from the shops on that side as it’s still a 10 min walk from there. We rented from Krabi Rock Climbing (all shops have the same prices) which had good quality gear and friendly owners. We hired a guide for the first day (which I wouldn’t recommend for a competent climber as it’s about 3x the price of just renting). However, if you’re very new to climbing, a guide is extremely useful as they point out all holds if you’re stuck, have great local knowledge and provide that guidance and safety to make it very enjoyable.

The climbing: There’s a range of climbs here in both variety and grade. Despite the name ‘cave’, everything is not overhung- I’d call it more of a curved cliff. In fact, there are about 20 metres of straight climbing before the cliff becomes overhung. There are also lots of areas to get stuck in to some meaty overhangs from the get go- variety. It’s all limestone so nice and grippy.

Rain: not a problem here! The rain won’t even touch the belayer, it’s so protected. There is rock on your sides and in front. We went in torrential downpour (following 4 previous days of torrential downpour) and not only didn’t get wet, but the rock didn’t seep.

Rock Climbing Chiang Mai – Crazy Horse Buttress

Price: There’s only one place to rent gear in Chiang Mai (CMRC- Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventure), so they can charge what they like. Luckily they don’t take the mick and they charge 1875 THB/ day/ 2 people for full gear rental (no discounts for less gear i.e. shoes) and they don’t do half days (probably because the crag is nearly an hour away)

They charge an additional 475 THB/ person for transport there + lunch (375 without lunch) but Ian and I had a scooter at 250THB/ day/ 2 people so made our own way there- VERY simple (I personally would rent a motorbike in Chiang Mai as it’s so convenient, cheap and easy). You come back at 16:30 with the arranged transport whereas you can do what you want on a bike (and there are some hot spring about 3km further up the road for when you’re done!).

Rental location: There’s only one place to rent gear in Chiang Mai (CMRC- Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventure).

The climbing: There are over a hundred climbs on The Crazy Horse Buttress, enough to keep you going for days (regardless of your grade range)! CMRC bolt and maintain the crag themselves, and to a very high standard too. There are signs to the climbs, a comprehensive guide and maintained steps and paths from the car park to climbs and everything in-between. The climbs range from 4-8 (not that I ever looked for 8’s) and had a variety of overhangs, slabs, caves, juggy holds, pinchy holds, the lot! I could not recommend this area of climbing enough.

A lot of the limestone is extremely sharp and pitted, so be prepared for a couple of painful holds. Also, some of the bolts are fairly spaced apart (in the pictures above, I’m at the first clip), so have conviction with your moves!

You can hide from the sun all day by moving around the area, so no worries about getting burnt, just be smart about where the sun is moving and go with it. Ian’s office bought him a LayBag as a farewell present which was well used when chilling out at peak heat!

Rain: We fortunately never got caught in the rain on the crag, but one thing I can say is that the weather in Chiang Mai DOES NOT resemble the weather on the crag.

The amount of times we would either leave rain in Chaing Mai for beautiful weather on the crag or leave the crag for thunder storms in Chiang Mai made us realise the you need to go regardless of the weather.