Wat Tham Suea, the Tiger Cave Temple

Wat Tham Suea is a working forest monastery in the hills outside Krabi Town, built around a cave where a tiger is said to have lived. Most people come for the staircase, which climbs the limestone outcrop behind the temple to a gilded Buddha and a view over the whole province.

1,237 steps, and why that number matters. The Krabi Provincial Public Relations Office publishes the count twice, in two separate articles, as 1,237 steps over about a kilometre, rising to roughly 600 metres. Guidebooks and blogs give 1,239, 1,256, 1,260 and 1,272. When a Thai government body has published a figure and the internet has published five, we go with the government.

What it costs is genuinely unsettled. The temple has no site of its own that we could find. The provincial office of Buddhism has a page for it that returns a 403 to anything automated, and so does the national tourism authority. That leaves three incompatible claims in circulation: free, free with a 40 baht donation asked at the cave, and a flat 50 baht introduced in 2024. We are not choosing between them for you.

One website to be careful of. tigercave-krabi.com presents itself as the temple’s site, right down to a copyright line. It names no operator, has no contact page, monetises through tour booking links, and states both a 50 baht fee and a step count that contradicts the province’s. Treat it as what it is.

Practical, from the province rather than from us. The provincial tourism piece recommends an early morning visit for the mist, and notes that mist is common in the rainy season with the clearest conditions in the cool season. Nobody official publishes safety guidance for the climb, which is a kilometre of uneven steps in tropical heat with macaques on the lower sections. Water, early start, and a realistic view of your knees.

What we have not done. Climbed it.