Thailand is obviously well-known for its beaches, particularly Phuket and often Maya Bay, the island from the movie “The Beach.” But I heard that Phuket had basically turned into another tourist trap and “The Beach” beach was closed to tourists because of mass tourism. I wanted to go to an island that wasn’t too overrun with people or high rise hotels. So with a little research, I came up with Koh Lanta.
Koh Lanta takes a little time to get to, but its definitely worth it. To get there, you drive about an hour from Krabi to the ferry dock, take a 30 minute ferry trip to the main island, and depending where you stay on the island, the drive can be from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. The island is only about 19 miles long from top to bottom and is pretty much unspoiled when you compare it to the more well-known islands in Thailand. During the course of my trip, whenever locals would ask me where I was going in Thailand and where I had been, they were always surprised when I said Koh Lanta, and not Phuket or Phi Phi since it is not usually a popular tourist spot. It has a very laid-back vibe, but you can still find plenty of partying on the island if that’s what you’re looking for. They have random parties going on all the time like body-painting, half-moon, and even shroom parties.
I was coming from Chiang Rai to get to Krabi (the closest airport to Koh Lanta) so it took about four hours including a layover in Bangkok, but its only an hour flight from Bangkok. We went with Thai Smile, which I was not a fan of because the flights were so rough. I was nauseated from the first flight so by the time we boarded flight number two, I knew I was going to get sick and sure enough, I did. This was my first time ever getting sick on a plane and definitely not a first I want to repeat. Finally, a few hours and a ferry ride later, I checked into my hotel and went to sleep to feel better, Luckily, I had four nights in Koh Lanta so one night to recover wasn’t so bad.
We stayed at Lanta Castaway Beach Resort in little bungalows so you could walk right out of your room, walk past the pool and you were right on the beach. This was exactly what I was wanting and picturing when I thought about going to the Thai Islands—no high rise hotel with hundreds of people on the beach with you. The resort was “expensive” by Thailand standards at $82 a night, but you just can’t beat the experience and it did include a full breakfast. It also provided umbrellas and lounge chairs right on the strip of beach in front of the resort for guests and I didn’t see that at any other place. There were also massages offered by the pool, which I took advantage of one day. Definitely just loved relaxing on the beach during the day and watching the most beautiful sunsets while sitting in the water. The water was like bath water and really calm. One problem, though, is there were tiny little jelly fish that strung a bit. I don’t think they are usually there, though according to a friend I met there who had been coming to Koh Lanta for years. He also said there used to not be very many hotels at all. Koh Lanta is definitely building up, but still no high rises.
I wanted to visit some other islands but it didn’t seem like the best idea since I was only there four days and it would be a trek to the other islands. The most popular tour in Koh Lanta was called the Four Island tour. But reading reviews, it sounded like you’d be on the boat the whole time in a large crowd of people going to large crowded beaches. I decided to look for a boat tour that just went to different dive sites and my resort actually offered this at an onsite shop called “Dive and Relax” that only takes a handful of people on the boat (around 10).
The upside and downside to this excursion is that it is on a speedboat—you get to the dive sites quick but the ride is rough AF. The back of the boat is less rocky but completely covered. Since I just got over feeling sick from the plane and was not about to take my chances again, I picked the front and had the roughest ride where I was pretty much bouncing and being thrown around the whole time.
The boat brought us up on the quintessential Thailand island images of big islands emerging from the water. We docked the boat at two separate locations and saw so many schools of fish, octopus and a lot of (harmless) shark! Then they served lunch onboard and brought us back to our resort. It was the perfect day or exploring the water and seeing the views from the boat. One thing that was weird, I thought, that when you go to the bathroom on the boat, they said that it goes back into the water? Also on the ferry coming to the island, there were a couple of guys peeing into the water from the ferry. That seems like that should probably be something Koh Lanta would try to discourage?
There are a couple of little towns in Koh Lanta—old town and Saladan. Saladan is apparently very modern and we didn’t end up going there. Old Town is a beautifully preserved village on the eastern side of the island. It has a lot of shops but they didn’t feel quite as touristy as the shops in Bangkok, Chiang Mai or even Pai.
One of the big draws of Koh Lanta to me was that it has a national park called Mu Ko Lanta National Park. The drive to the national park is quite windy and we witnessed a motorbike veer off the road and really injure the driver and his passenger. Lots of tourists rent motorbikes and get into serious accidents in Thailand since they aren’t used to the road or the bikes. The locals came out to help the people involved in the accident and they ended up calling an ambulance. For how small the island was, I did notice so many urgent care and hospital-type establishments along the way, so there must be quite the demand to it. Koh Lanta and Krabi also draw a large Muslim population from Malaysia so driving to the park, we were able to get a better idea of that, seeing more mosques and less temples and seeing a lot of Muslim people on motorbikes and manning their businesses (I heard from so many people during this trip how beautiful the beaches of Malaysia are so gotta get on that!).
The national park is located at the bottom of the island and consists mainly of rugged hills covered with rain-forest and beach forest along the coast lines and a big impressive lighthouse on a hill. The parks main attractions are the many white beaches, trails, viewpoints and some very impressive caves. And lottts of monkeys. The national park was so pretty, with all the crazy unique looking trees and beautiful light house by the sea. The monkeys were fun to watch and the forest had so many beautiful trails by the water. This place also wasn’t as crowded as one might expect.
On the way back, we stopped for lunch at this hotel by the water and were the only people there. They had the best pineapple dish there (because Thailand has the best pineapple). This was also such a relaxing day. Really I can’t think of a better island to visit that has such a laid-back vibe, not too many people, absolutely gorgeous, and so many cool things to do like diving and visiting the national park.
So one thing I randomly found and absolutely loved was a fire show. There is a place called The Indian Bar and the owner dresses up every night (!) and puts on an hour to two hour fire show. He also has younger apprentices join him, but he does the bulk of the show. They set up some seats and tables on the beach and you can order $1 beers and just watch him do his thing. This was so fun.
It was St Patrick’s Day, so after the fire show, we stopped by an Irish bar called the Irish Embassy (and how random this small island has an Irish pub?). Of course the little bar was packed with people, as is always the case no matter where you go in the world on St. Patrick’s Day as long as you’re somewhere Irish.
I absolutely loved Koh Lanta and can’t think of a better Thai Island experience. Definitely loved it more than Bangkok and Chiang Mai, although Pai really captured my heart as well. I have a day-by-day itinerary for Koh Lanta here. I’d love to go back all the time if it were closer but am going to try to find somewhere similar in the Caribbean hopefully at some point. For real though, skip Phuket and other super crowded islands and come see this beautiful chill place.
