Beach Guide: Thailand

Thailand’s beaches are among the most startlingly beautiful in the world. But without a good guide, it’s easy to fall into overcrowded tourist-traps, with spoiled beach-fronts and seedy night-spots. This quick guide to the best and worst of Thai beaches should help you get the most out of your trip.

On the west coast, Phuket is a popular destination. Many unsuspecting travelers follow the crowds to Patong Beach, a sprawling resort town in Phuket’s south-west corner. As the capital of the Thai sex-trade outside Bangkok, Patong Beach gets pretty ugly after dark. It does, however, boast a lot of cheap guest-houses, many of which will include a bargain boat-tour in the cost of your accommodation. This is the best way to see the authentic west-coast beaches. Make sure you catch Maya Bay, where The Beach (2000) was shot. The nearby island of Ko Phi Phi Don, accessible by ferry from Phuket, is another must-see. It’s a quirky, hippie getaway, with gorgeous beaches and a fun, non-threatening nightlife. There’s also some great snorkeling and diving around the island. Be prepared: in this small community, the tragic damage inflicted by the 2004 tsunami is still visible and still raw.

Beach-hopping off Thailand’s East Coast

No beach guide to Thailand would be complete without the vibrant east-coast islands. If you’re a party animal, Ko Phangan is the place for you, home of the legendary Full Moon Party at Haad Rin Beach. The warm-up parties start about a week before the full moon waxes (check a lunar calendar), but the recent addition of half-moon and new-moon parties means that you’ll rarely be bored. It’s worth splurging on an air-conditioned room to help you recover from a night of dancing. The adjacent island of Ko Samui occasionally runs rival parties, but also has a few pleasant resorts and good stretches of beach. Some travelers use Ko Samui as a slightly cheaper base for accessing the Haad Rin parties. “Party boats” run back and forth between the islands, but you should avoid these – they are unreliable and have been known to sink. Air Asia offers cheap flights from mainland Thailand to Ko Samui, but taking a ferry from Surat Thani is a good way to meet fellow-travelers.

If the hectic east-coast islands get to be too much for you, hop on a ferry north to Ko Tao, a beautiful, secluded spot with pristine beaches and some of the best dive-sites in Thailand. After Ko Phangan’s full-moon craziness, Ko Tao is blissfully chilled-out, and should remind you what the Thai beach lifestyle is really all about.