We stumbled onto Koh Chang’s existence while scouring the map for a beach close-ish to Bangkok, looking to finish off our last few days in Thailand and get back to the airport easily. A 5-ish hour mini bus from Bangkok, and then a short ferry (30 minutes, SUPER short in Thailand ferry standards) it seemed perfect for a quick jaunt from Bangkok. Off the north east coast of Thailand, situated between mainland Thailand and Cambodia, I hadn’t heard of the island in anything I had read.
Koh Chang isn’t one of the usual backpacker haunts, since you have to veer pretty far off the banana pancake route to reach it. If you were going overland from Thailand – Cambodia you’d somewhat pass by it, but that’s not a super common route for most people.
Coming in at a whopping 211² km it’s one of the largest and supposedly, the last ‘untouched’ island in Thailand. The few guides I found on Koh Chang wax poetic about the lack of development, chill beaches, and cheap prices. We came to realize that we shouldn’t have believed most things we read about Koh Chang. It might of been an untouched paradise a few years ago, but that’s pretty far from the truth now. However, if you do some research and are willing to spend a few extra minutes getting around, it’s still possible to still find some quiet pockets.
Koh Chang has become a hot spot for cheap Russian package tours, with large groups descending on the island daily. I’m assuming with the influx of package tours the prices across the island went up, since things seems to a be just a bit more expensive than elsewhere in Thailand.
Looking for the laidback, hippy beach vibe of Koh Tao, Koh Chang wasn’t exactly that. But, since we had to be back in Bangkok in 6 days we decided to just do our own thing in Koh Chang and search out the pockets of the island that were our style.
The silver lining to the situation was that Koh Chang is home to some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in Thailand. While those higher end resorts don’t bode well with the chill sunset beer on bean bags vibe we were looking for, they make for a clean beach.
All the beaches are on the western side of the island, so everything in this post is on the west coast. It’s easy to go for a little roadtrip to the east coast if you have a motorbike, but the beaches are rocky and there is generally a lot less going on.
Choosing where to base yourself is so important in Koh Chang, especially if you’re not comfortable driving a scooter. Cabs don’t exist in Koh Chang and the collectivo trucks that prowl the main road are not cheap, ranging from 60-200 baht depending on how far you’re going.
The main road in Koh Chang is well maintained and wide, great for newbie scooter drivers. The one downside being the two ABSOLUTELY massive hills with hairpin turns you encounter from the pier to White Sands and from Kai Bae to Lonely Beach. If you’re comfortable on a scooter and not an idiot, you’ll be fine. That being said, we saw many mummified tourists over our week in Koh Chang.
On the road between Klong Kloi and Lonely Beach you’ll pass by Rasta Bar (it’s impossible to miss). It has an amazing view over the bay and there’s tons of nooks and crannies to chill in with comfy seating. I’m not sure how the food is since we only had a couple drinks but it was a good spot to hang out for an hour and cool down after being at the beach all day.
Also, as you could probably assume you can get other edible items here as well. We didn’t partake, but from what we overheard it’s better to just pass on them anyways.
Off the west coast of Koh Chang there is a cluster of small uninhabited islands that most day trips stop at. However, they’re also a popular kayaking destination.
We headed to Nature Rocks Resort on Lonely Beach early in the morning and rented kayaks from the hotel. They were super cheap, at 40 baht an hour, or 100 baht for 3 hours. We left a deposit, but didn’t technically pay for the kayak until we got back. We set off around 8 am with the intention of beating high heat. But, like absolute rookies, we didn’t think about the tide. We decided to go to Koh Yuak first since it was further out (not sure why that was our reasoning, but anyways).
Attempting to miss high heat or not, I was a puddle of sweat within 10 minutes. It took about an hour to reach Koh Yuak with a solid breeze making the water fairly choppy, and we arrived when the tide was at it’s highest. During low tide there’s a beach on the east side to chill out on, but during high tide the beach is entirely covered and we were basically hanging out in a tree getting pounded by the waves.
On the plus side, there’s an adorable driftwood swing strung in the trees. The swing was in the water so not exactly swing-able, but during low tide it’d be fun.
We stopped at Koh Man Nai on the way back to Koh Chang, and by this point it was mid morning. Since it’s the closest island to Koh Chang there were a dozen or so other kayaks pulled up already. Similar to Koh Yuak, there’s not a whole lot of beach on Koh Man Nai during high tide. Both islands were more on the mangrove-y side, so I’m guessing that’s why the beaches are minimal, mostly chilling between trees.
Not going to lie, the kayak to Koh Yuak was difficult and my arms were aching the next day. I’m fairly active but between the choppy waters and the heat, it was a bit of a struggle to get there. Definitely would of turned around if I had been in a kayak by myself. Keep that in mind if you’re planning on heading over solo!
When we were deciding where to go in Thailand, being able to dive was pretty high on the list of musts. So when we read about the Koh Rang Marine National Park , we knew we were in. The park is massive and includes tons of different diving locations, so we were pretty excited. There’s a manmade wreck, HTMS Chang, which was sunk in 2012 to make an artificial scuba diving reef.
Since the two of us are fairly cautious when it comes to diving (really I feel like cautious should be the only way to approach going 20m below water with a hose keeping you alive), we took a long time to find a good shop to go with. Diving in Koh Chang is basically the same price across the board, so that wasn’t really a factor. Unfortunately, with a bit of research we realized that the majority of shops in Koh Chang have sketchyyyy safety standards. We decided to go with the shop that had the best reviews of the bunch.
We went on two dives, deciding to skip the wreck dive. We are only Open Water Certified and the wreck dive requires an Advanced. The shops on Koh Chang offer an option to pay an extra fee and you can consider the wreck dive as the deepwater portion of the Advanced course. We looked into this but we couldn’t find any information that supported this as legitimate. We assume that if you did go this route and went to complete your Advanced somewhere different, you having the deep water wreck dive completed isn’t going to be applicable to your certification.
We went with Scubadawgs, but sadly I wouldn’t really recommend them, there were a few things that happened with equipment and during the dive that made me pretty uncomfortable, but I also don’t know if it was just a fluke or bad timing.
I will say though, Roctopus is opening up a shop in Koh Chang in the near future, and I would always 100% go with them. We did our Open Water certification in Koh Tao with Roctopus, and they were amazing.
Looking to get a sweat on to break up those beach days, the interior of Koh Chang offers a few different hikes that range in difficulty. You can also do some more intense jungle trekking if that’s what you’re into, but they recommend a guide. Mu Ko hChang National park is definitely great for some epic viewpoints!
Depending on the season the waterfalls may unfortunately be dry, which was the case for us. Still good to go for a walk, but a little bit disappointing at the end! Some of the more popular hikes in Ko Chang are Klong Plu Waterfall and Kai Bae Waterfall. Klong Plu has an entrance fee of 200 baht, and opens at 8 am. It’s a casual half km walk down the path to the waterfall.
The walk to Kai Bae Waterfall starts around the 7-11 next to El Barrio in Kai Bae. I’m not going to bother giving instructions since google maps or maps.me will do a much better job of navigating than I could. It’s easy to get to however. Just if it’s during dry season, it might be a little lack-lustre but it’s not a huge hike so might as well check it out. There’s a sign that says you have to pay 40 baht to go to the waterfall, so if there’s someone home who asks for it, pay them. Kind of a toss up if you have to pay or not.
Please please please, DO NOT go on any of the elephant excursions in Koh Chang. Driving down the main road, the heartbreaking sight of the elephants chained up waiting for their next group of tourists should be enough to deter you. The babies are torn from their mothers at an early age and beaten into submission.
If you’re looking for an experience with these amazing animals, Koh Chang is not the place for it, despite their name literally being Elephant Island. None of the elephant camps on Koh Chang are sanctuaries of any sort, so if you are looking to have an experience with them, save it for one of the better reputed sanctuaries elsewhere in Thailand. Bullhooks are used to direct the elephants, and they’re chained up for the majority of the day. Not the way that you should be meeting these majestic animals.
Bus from Bangkok to Koh Chang – Mini buses to Trat leave from Mochit Bus Station or Ekkamai Bus Station in Bangkok. The mini buses stop at a ‘terminal’ of sorts on the highway, and from here it’s a 45 minute ride to the ferry terminal in the back of a pick up truck. Our tickets covered the ride down to the pier, but didn’t include the ferry ticket. The ferry ticket was 80 baht, and took around a half hour to cross. A boat leaves every hour until 5 pm!
Fly from Bangkok to Koh Chang – The closest airport is in Trat, with direct flights to and from Bangkok a couple times a day. The flight is about an hour, and can get fairly expensive if you’re booking last minute. From the airport to the ferry terminal is about a 30 minute drive. Ferries to Koh Chang leave from Ao Thammachat Pier and from Centerpoint Pier.
Collectivo trucks run the route up and down the western coast, but it’s not a cheap ride, ranging from 60-200 baht depending on how far you’re going.
Scooter rental shops aren’t as prevalent on Koh Chang as they are elsewhere in Thailand. Depending on how comfortable you are on a scooter you can get a taxi from the pier to White Sands and get a bike there and drive to wherever you’re staying. A rental is 200-250 baht a day, but if you’re renting for more than a day or two you can usually weasel a bit of a discount.
Some accommodations on Koh Chang offer free pick up from the pier, so look into that if you have somewhere pre-booked!
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