Pileh Lagoon and Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh

Phi Phi Leh, the smaller island, is uninhabited and almost all cliff, and it lies inside Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Pileh Lagoon is enclosed by sheer walls on almost every side, with emerald water inside and a narrow entrance the boats slide through. A longtail from Phi Phi Don at first light finds it nearly empty, and the colour is strongest once the sun clears the cliffs and reaches the water. Swimming is allowed in the lagoon, so this is the place for a frame in the water.

Maya Bay, on the same island, became famous through the film The Beach, and the crowds that followed damaged its reef so badly that the bay was closed for more than three years, from 2018 to the start of 2022. It reopened under strict rules: boats moor on the other side of the island and visitors walk in on a boardwalk, swimming is not allowed — blacktip reef sharks returned to the shallows while it was closed — and time on the beach is limited. The bay also closes for about two months every year, usually August and September; the dates are set each year, so check them.

For a session, Maya is a place you visit, not one you stage: the first visitors of the day have the best chance of a clean frame of the sand and the cliffs, so keep it simple — the two of you at the water's edge, the cliffs, the turquoise. The park sets the rules: foreign visitors pay its entrance fee, a professional shoot can need the park's permission, which the photographer clears in advance, and sunscreens with oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-MBC or butylparaben are banned in Thailand's marine national parks.