March-April 2026

Ao Nang/Krabi – Koh Phi Phi – Phuket – Koh Samui –  Koh Phangan – Koh Lipe – Koh Lanta

            After brutally cold winter in the US and Europe all we wanted was to soak in the sun on a beach.  After a one night stopover in Bangkok we began our island and beach explorations in Thailand. There is no sightseeing info in this blog for two reasons: 1. It was already unbearably hot to walk around and 2. This was not our first trip to Thailand.

We didn’t pre-book any transportation as we decided our itinerary on the go. There are two main airlines to travel around Thailand: Air Asia and Bangkok air. Both have decent apps. For ferries there is 12Go app (which sometimes was more expensive then travel agency stalls on a street).  And for local taxi there is Bolt and Grab. Interestingly enough the tuk tuk, formerly the cheaper option, is more expensive then taxi in some places because it seems like an exotic option for tourists who are willing to pay more for the experience than for air-conditioned  taxi. 

Krabi /Ao Nang

Our first destination was Ao Nang Beach, technically not an island but we have friends who live there so it was our starting point.  Ao Nang is a vibrant town with two main arteries: one perpendicular to the shore and one running along the shore.  It has numerous hotels, restaurants, shops, travel shacks and most importantly good cheap foot massage places. However, it lacks one very important component: a good beach. This was a great disappointment; the city beach is not much of a beach, it’s a sliver of an unkempt and uninviting strip of sand.

The next day we took a longtail boat to Railay Beach, about 20 minutes south. The longtail boats depart from a tiny port where the two main streets meet by the water.  There was a huge line and lots of commotion. The ride on the boat was fun but a person with limited mobility will not be able to climb into the boat as you need to do it standing waist deep in the water. Once you arrive to the Railey beach you need to jump back into the water and navigate towards the shore. Railey is a peninsula; the boats arrive on the east side and after walking for about 15 minutes across to the west side we arrived at the “main attraction” a small bay full of people trying to get a sliver of a beach to sit on and no services whatsoever.  The area is beautiful but it was too crowded and we were hungry.  The only restaurant on that beach opens at 5 pm.  So, after an hour or so and not being very happy and hungry we left.

The one street that connects east and west sides is actually pretty cute, with lots of restaurants and bars and has a backpacker’s vibe.  We had a quick lunch and after returning to Ao Nang we moved to a hotel with a pool. Obviously beach was not in the cards for now.

There are 2 restaurants in Ao Nang that I recommend:  Reeve Beach Club Restaurant, it’s upscale and pricier than others, but it was my birthday so we splurged.  We sat on plush bean bags above the water, the food was excellent, music and the fire show were good as well. The other one is Krua Thara, a short taxi drive north, great seafood place in a very modest setting but totally worth the trip.  Like most places Ao Nang has a night market but it’s a good 25 minutes walk from the center.

On our very last day in Thailand (about 6 weeks later) we stayed one night in Krabi Town. It is not a beach destination, but it is very popular with mount climbers, mountaineers and hikers because of the mountains. Krabi Town has a decent night market and some very nice seafood restaurants along the river. 

Phi Phi Island

After 2 nights in Ao Nang we booked a short speed boat ride to Phi Phi Island taking small day packs for an overnight trip.  I loved Phi Phi!! It is vibrant and has a young vibe without being trashy. The center is packed with services and there are numerous accommodations for every budget.

 As we got off the ferry we immediately went to Freedom Bar on the Sunflower beach.  At this point we didn’t even have a hotel but we were starved for some beach time and Freedom Bar was perfect for us. It had lounges and lots of shade, good music, snacks and a nice chill vibe.  Sometime later in the afternoon we got a hotel on the main street and after exploring this tiny walkable island went back to Freedom bar for a fire show and late night drinks.  I am sorry we didn’t stay on Phi Phi longer.

Phuket

From Ao Nung we took a ferry to Phuket with a transfer to its main town Patong Beach. I must note here that the first time I was in Thailand about 25 years ago I loved all the islands that I visited, they all had a nice quant lazy vibe.  The hawker stalls sold beautiful local crafts and cloths made from traditional fabrics. What we saw in Patong (and later on Ko Samui) was the complete opposite.

Patong is overdeveloped, overcrowded and somewhat “trashy”; endless stores selling cheap knockoffs and lowbrow bars trying to lure the tourists promising cheap beer.  The beach across from our hotel had pretty much the same vibe.  The only thing that I did like there was a very nice night market with amazing variety of food.  Needless to say we didn’t like Patong Beach and next day we moved about 15 minutes north to Kamala Beach.

We stayed 3 nights in Kamala Princess Hotel on Kamala Beach. It’s a very nice 4 star hotel, 2 minutes from the beach with great pool with lounges, plenty of shade and a swim bar with good happy hour specials.

Kamala beach is lively without being trashy. The beach is developed with restaurants, lounges and umbrellas. The town’s main street has plenty of shops, restaurants and massage places. Our routine was as follows: breakfast on the beach, day time at the pool, then watching sunset from a beach bar with a pre-dinner drink, dinner in town or in one of the beach restaurants, foot massage and then live music in Mama Mia bar (rock bands) or in one of the live music venues on the back streets inland. The town is full of expats, Europeans who spend months at a time in Thailand, many accompanied by local women… The inner town is a bit seedier. There are plenty of bars and pool holes run by “working girls” offering companionship to single male tourists. There is an enormous night market on the outskirts of town but we didn’t eat there just went to check it out.

All the restaurants we ate at were pretty much the same. The most recommended is Ice Seafood. Our usual meal was a deep fried red snapper to share, with an appetizer of green papaya salad or stewed morning glory.  Plus couple of beers for bf and a glass of wine for me, was never above $20 in total.   

     

Ko Samui

Our next destination was Ko Samui, about an hour flight on Bangkok Air. Ko Samui has a unique airport, a pride of the island. It’s built in Thai style temples and offers free refreshment in its departure lounges.

First two nights we stayed in adult only Dara Samui Resort on the northern edge of Chaweng Beach, the main Ko Samui beach. The hotel has beautifully decorated enormous suites, private beach and amazing breakfast.  However, venturing outside I felt the same disappointment as in Patong Beach: over-development, noise, fast food restaurants, and no sign of the quaint place I remembered from years ago. The beach bars resembled Daytona Beach on spring break and we didn’t like it.  The dinner at one of the numerous touristy restaurants was unmemorable and bland.

One mentionable venue is The Samui Roof, restaurant bar on top of a mountain with amazing views of the island. It’s a taxi ride to their parking lot and then a tuk tuk ride provided by the restaurant about 20 minutes from Chaweng. It’s pricey but the views are worth it.

After 2 nights in Chaweng we moved to Fisherman’s Village on Bophut Beach about 15 minutes ride north west. The vibe there is completely different; it’s also very lively but for a more mature crowd.  One main street with cute clothing stores, restaurants, bars and massage places. Two cool live music bars with rock and pop hits and a very good night market where we ate nightly; lots of beach bars with bean bags, music and fire shows. The only problem for us was that the beach was not organized; there was no shade or umbrellas.  Most hotels provide beach chairs but no umbrellas. The heat at this point was oppressive and we stayed in Smile Village Resort, with 2 pools, in the very center of the village. 

Koh Phangan

Phangan is known for its full moon parties and was an item on my bucket list for a long time.  It is located a short speed boat ride from Samui and it gets very busy and more expensive around full moon as the tourist population swells. The full moon parties are held in Haad Rin, at the very southern end of the island on the Sunrise beach on the eastern side of the island. The first 2 nights we stayed on the sunset side (5 minutes walk thru the island) in a really bad Black & White hotel which was the only available place within walking distance to the party.  Besides being a dump there was no real beach next to it. They advertised as having a pool but it actually belongs to the hotel next to it and didn’t really look very sanitary.

So we walked north until we found another hotel with nice pool and crushed it for the day.

For the 3^rd night we moved to an upscale Bayshore Resort on Sunrise beach and it was lovely. Sunrise beach that hosts the full moon parties is vast with white sand, has numerous bars but there is no shade anywhere so we spent the two days by the pool and had late night drinks in a next door bar. Their included breakfast was very good as well.

Since we couldn’t get enough of Koh Phangan we moved yet again back to the Sunset side to a lovely Sunset Villas Resort. It has a nice sandy private beach and a pool in the shade. The guests are gathering every afternoon to watch beautiful sunsets seating on bean bags sipping happy hour drinks. 

Between the two sides of Haad Rin there is a vibrant food street with food stalls, restaurants and bars with good music. The town is not limited to the food street; it sprawls north and south with many side streets with same services.  Koh Phangan is a perfect combination of great beaches, good hotels and nightlife. One evening we took a taxi to another night market about 6 kms north, the market itself was fabulous, enormous variety of food and live music but there is nothing around it.

The highly anticipated full moon party itself was a bit anti-climactic. About 10 thousand people of all ages and all walks of life are roaming this huge beach moving from one bar to another, from one fire show to another under the cacophony of sounds blasting from all the bars at the same time. The party goes on till 5 am but we barely lasted till 2 crossing the beach back and forth thru the crowds.  At some point we went back to the food street and listened to music in one of the bars there.    

There is no airport in Phangan so we had to take a ferry back to Koh Samui and from there we flew to Malaysia for 2 weeks. (See Malaysia blog).

Koh Lipe

We arrived to Koh Lipe from Langkawi Malaysia on a short, 90 minutes, speedboat ride.  We called our arrival the “Normandy Landing” because the ferry does not get all the way to the shore and we had to jump into the water. I was glad we had waterproof sandals and didn’t wear anything that can’t get wet. The operators were throwing the luggage over and many suitcases were getting wet.  

Nevertheless, Koh Lipe has beautiful beaches, there are many hotels and resorts for every budget all over but the Sunrise beach side is the best. I booked 1 night at the Andaman beach resort but we loved it so much that we stayed 4.  Lipe is small and very walkable. There are no cars on the island and tuk tuks serve as taxis. Anywhere on the island is 50 baht per person.

Our routine was breakfast at the hotel then beach; watching sunset with happy hour drink at North Point bar, dinner around Walking Street, the island’s main artery and foot massage before bed.  We ate fabulous seafood dinners at Nee Papaya and Hua Mum Seafood restaurants. Their fried fish, pad thai, shrimp dishes or anything we tried was delicious.

There was no real late night entertainment, the only bars that are open late are located on the Walking Street and it was unbearably hot since the Walking Street is inland. For some reason there were no beach side bars open late where it is breezier.

Koh Lanta

From Lipe we took a 2.5 hr ferry to Lanta. Lanta is a much bigger island then Lipe and is not walkable so it is important to decide on which beach to choose the accommodations and the only way to move around is by taxi.  We stayed 2 nights in Nakara Long Beach Resort; the rooms were good but the vibe was not great (a little nursing homey). Then we moved for another 2 night to an absolutely fabulous Long Beach Chalet; huge beach view private cabanas with modern furnishings; large bathroom and private Jacuzzi. This was end of the season and this 5 star resort was greatly discounted.  The breakfast buffet was amazing.

Long Beach is an enormous stretch of sand with resorts and hotels for every budget, but it is a little boring, there is no night life except shows in some of the resorts. One evening we took a taxi Klong Nin Beach which was a lot livelier than Long Beach; many beach bars and restaurants and much younger crowds. We stayed for sunset and dinner and if we had more time we would have moved there for few days.

The main town on Lanta is Saladan; it has a night and regular markets. It is famous for its seafood restaurants on the stilts. We ate in one of them and it was really good. On our last evening we ate in a highly recommended Malina’s kitchen close to Long Beach which we did not like, it was definitely “blandified” for tourists’ palate and not authentic.

From Lanta we got a minivan transfer to Krabi town to catch a flight. Lanta does not have an airport and it takes about 3 hours with traffic till the airport. FYI, I booked the transfer online and it was much cheaper then same option thru the hotel. 

THE END