Koh Samet Travel Guide

Koh Samet is the closest genuinely good beach to Bangkok, and its whole character follows from that. It is a small island off Rayong on the eastern seaboard, inside a national park, and it fills with Bangkok families and couples on Friday evening and empties again on Sunday night.

Midweek it is one of the quietest islands in Thailand. That gap is the single most useful thing to know about it.

The beaches

Almost all of them are on the east coast, which faces the sunrise and is sheltered from the southwest monsoon. The sand is genuinely white and squeaks underfoot, which is unusual on this side of the country.

Sai Kaew at the north end is the longest and busiest, with most of the hotels and the restaurants that put tables on the sand at night. Ao Phai and Ao Tub Tim just south are smaller and quieter versions of the same thing. Ao Wong Duean, halfway down, is a near-circular bay with its own cluster of hotels and its own boat service, which makes it the self-contained option. Ao Wai and Ao Kiu further down are small coves with one resort each and a long walk or a taxi to anywhere else.

The west coast has one beach, Ao Prao, and the sunset. It is the only west-facing sand on the island, which is its entire claim and a real one.

The shape of the island is the rule: the bays get smaller, quieter and further from a restaurant as you go south. Choose by how far down that scale you want to be, because it is the only axis that matters here.

We measure five of them and they all return the same sea: 0.27 to 0.73 metres across the year. Samet is about six kilometres long and the marine grid is five, so the whole island sits in one cell. Anyone ranking Samet’s beaches by how calm the water is has made the numbers up.

The mermaid on the rocks

At the southern end of Sai Kaew there are two painted statues on the rocks: a mermaid, and a prince playing a flute. Almost everyone photographs them and almost nobody is told what they are.

Koh Samet is the island in Phra Aphai Mani, the epic poem Sunthorn Phu wrote in the early nineteenth century and the best-known work of Thai literature. The prince of the title is exiled, taken by a giantess, and rescued by a mermaid who carries him to this island; he escapes by playing a flute that puts his captor to sleep. The statues are those two characters, and the island’s Thai name appears in the poem.

It is the reason Samet is a national park rather than a resort strip, and it is why Thai visitors here are on a literary pilgrimage as much as a beach weekend.

The park fee

Koh Samet is inside Khao Laem Ya–Mu Ko Samet national park and there is an entry fee collected on arrival at the pier or on the island. Foreign visitors pay considerably more than Thais, which is standard at Thai national parks. Keep the ticket.

The weather, and how it compares to the east

Samet is on the eastern seaboard rather than on either of the coasts this site usually talks about, and it runs closer to Bangkok’s calendar than to Phuket’s: driest from November to February, wettest from May to October. Because the beaches face east they are sheltered from the southwest monsoon, so even in the wet months the water here is usually calm.

It is also far drier than the islands further east, and that is the useful comparison. Samet’s wettest month is September at 299mm and its year totals 1,592mm. Koh Chang takes 566mm in July and 3,155mm across the year; Koh Mak takes 675mm and 3,397mm. Samet and Koh Chang are both “the eastern islands” in most people’s heads, and one of them gets half the rain of the other.

December is its driest month at 12mm, which is dry by any standard on this site.

Getting there

Three to four hours from Bangkok by bus or minivan to Ban Phe, then a forty-minute ferry or a fifteen-minute speedboat to Na Dan pier. The last ferry back is late afternoon, which catches people out on a Sunday.

It is close enough to do as an overnight from Bangkok, which almost nobody outside Thailand does and which works very well.

The midweek gap

This is the thing worth arranging a trip around. Samet is close enough to Bangkok that it fills on Friday evening with Thai families and couples and empties again on Sunday night, and the difference between the two versions of the island is larger than the difference between most Thai islands.

Midweek, Sai Kaew is a quiet beach with restaurants on it. At a weekend it is busy, the boats run full and the prices move. If your dates are flexible at all, arrive Monday and leave Thursday. It is the cheapest improvement available on this island.

How long to give it

Two or three nights, midweek if you can choose. It is a beach and not much else, and that is what it is for.

It also works as an overnight from Bangkok, which almost nobody outside Thailand does and which is the best short break within reach of the capital. A day trip is six to eight hours of travelling for a few hours of sand, and the last boat back is early.