Thailand Beach Wrapup

This is more for random people searching on Google that anything else, but I wanted to write up the five beaches that we stayed at on Thailand. The thing is that they all have their strong points, so picking one to go to is really a case of just finding the right one for you. Please note that all these visits were in mid to late November.

KO SAMUI - HAT CHAWENG

This was the most crowded and developed beach we visited. There is a main road that forms the "strip" of town, and most resorts are in the 300m or so from this road to the beach. The strip was a pretty lively place, however a good deal of the partying was hooker related. The strip also had a lot of very sleek bars, nice and expensive restaurants, as well as Starbucks, McDonald's and plenty of 7-Elevens.

We stayed at a hotel that was on the strip called The Wave Samui, which I was not a fan of. Besides my issues with the hotel, I did not realize what a pain it would be to not be in a place with beach access. There is only one place where you can take an actual public road to the beach, so most of the time we had to sneak through a resort to get out to the sand. There were a couple of relatively cheap places with beach access, I would check out those if you want to go here. If you want to pay 500 Baht for a bungalow on the beach, go somewhere else.

As for the beach itself, it was very nice. A little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. The water is clear and the swimming nice. It can be a little hard to find a place because all the resorts put chairs out for their guests, but space can be found. There is also a strip of bars near the Ark Bar that have raised futons on the beach, and are pretty fun at night as well. You can hang here is you want to buy drinks. There were several kayak and sailboat rental outfits on the beach, and we had a lot of fun with a little Hobie Cat. There are a few hawkers, mostly of junk souvenirs, but they are manageable.

Go here is you want to:

- Party, mostly with Euros and Brits
- Listen to trance music
- Get a hooker
- Have a lot of activities, food and drinks available on the beach
- Eat at high class restaurants
- Spend a lot of money

Don't go here if you want to:

- Have a peaceful vacation
- Go to chill bars
- Really get away from it all

KO SAMUI - HAT LAMAI

I will not do a full review of this, because we used Nisha's leftover Marriott points to stay at a high end beach resort at the very end of the beach. From what I did see, it looked busy, but far less so then Chaweng. The beach was nice here, but very shallow. You could walk for probably a kilometer out into the ocean before having to swim. It was great for Frisbee in the water, and there was some snorkeling by the rocks at the headland.

If you want to know about the Marriott Renaissance, read up on it here.

KO PHA-NGAN - HAT KHOM

This was our place to do the real beach hut thing, and I don't think we could have found a better place. Hat Khom is a small beach, only about .5KM long, in a cove on the north side of the island. It is accessible from the main village on the north side by a dirt road that can be negotiated via pickup truck or motorbike. The road can also be walked in around 25 minutes. The beach has occasional boulders that add to the scenery, as well as a reef that can be snorkeled. Swimming is also good as there is a deep sand bottom area between the beach and the reef.

The only business here is the four beach hut resorts that line the beach, as well as their bar/restaurants. We stayed at the Ocean View, which seemed to have the best rooms and had the best food at the restaurant, but they all seemed OK. The huts all seemed to be in the 300-800 Baht range. There is no Internet and the only nightlife is the resort bars. One of the resorts rents Kayaks for very cheap and the Ocean View had free snorkeling equipment.

Go here if you want to:

- Stay right on the beach
- Only hear the sound of the waves at night
- Hang out with a backpacker crowd
- Be on a secluded, quiet and beautiful beach
- Not spend a lot of money
- Shower with only cold water and only have electricity from 6PM to 6AM

KO TAO - HAT SAIREE

We stayed here mainly because Nisha was getting here dive certification. This beach is very long, but also very thin. The resorts in the area push right up to the beach, so there is only a little room in front for swimming and putting a blanket down. The swimming is pretty good, but there are quite a few boats tied to the beach and ropes to watch out for. There is a place in town that rents Kayaks and sailing equipment, but not on this beach. One really nice thing here is that the main road is not anywhere near the beach. Along the beach is a brick walkway which is only used by pedestrians and the occasional motorbike.

This is kind of a middle ground between an overdeveloped beach and a quiet beach. The beach is fully developed, but there is still some open space and small hut resorts. There are a couple of 7-Elevens and plenty of Internet cafes and resort restaurants. There is also a area near the far end of the beach with some bars and restaurants that are independent of a resort.

One thing is that how quiet the beach is will have a lot to do with where you stay. We stayed at the AC resort, and the bar there pumps music until late at night, so our room was pretty loud. At other locations that are not near a big time bar, things would probably be pretty quiet. As far as the nightlife, it was still low season, so things were not really hopping yet, but it seemed like in season there would be a lot of partying going on. However, not many hookers and you could get away from it if you wanted to.

Go here if you want to:

- Get SCUBA certified easy and cheap
- Party, but not be in a total madhouse
- Spend a moderate amount of money
- Have plenty of modern amenities, but not feel like you are in a city

Don't go here if you want:

- A really nice beach
- To really get away from it all

KRABI PROVENCE - RAILAY

Railay is a peninsula attached to the mainland, but inaccessible by road due to the massive cliffs. The only way to get there is long tail boat. The peninsula is about 500m across, and has beaches at each side. The west beach is pretty nice, with giant cliffs at each side. It is wide with hard and flat sand. The swimming is calm and good, but the water is very warm and there are quite a few long tail boats. The east beach is muddy and used mainly for long tail boat arrivals. There is also another beach you can walk to in 10 minutes that I did not make it out to, but Nisha rated as one of the better beaches she has ever been on. There are some hawkers who work the beach, but they mainly sell beer, so I find them quite useful.

All the area that can be developed has been, all the flat area between the beaches as well as the area up the hill that we stayed in was used for resorts. Up the hill in back was the only place for budget accommodation (besides the far beach around the corner that is, but I am talking about the main part of town), but where we stayed at the Highland Resort was very quiet and only about a 10 minute walk to the good beach. However, since there are no motor vehicles, the place has a pretty low key feel, even more so then Ko Tao. There are a fair number of bars and restaurants, but no bars really pump music, it is more of a Bob Marley kind of place.

The rock climbing is also a real attraction here, I went twice and loved it. Things are a little expensive however, you definitely pay island prices, not mainland.

All in all, this was my favorite beach.

Go here if you want to:

- See great scenery
- Go to first class beaches
- Rock climb
- Enjoy chill, but busy, nightlife
- Spend a moderate to high amount of money

Don't go here if yo want to:

- Get a hooker
- Listen to trance music
- Eat top flight international food
- Really get away from it all