Koh Samui
Choeng Mon Beach, Koh Samui
A rounded bay on Samui's northeast corner, closed by a headland and shallow a long way out. Ten minutes from the airport, quieter than Chaweng, and the one beach on this corner with a marine cell of its own.
Choeng Mon is a rounded bay on Koh Samui’s northeast corner, closed at one end by a headland and shallow a long way out. It is quieter than Chaweng, considerably more expensive per room than Maenam, and ten minutes from the airport, which is the shortest transfer on the island.
The island you can walk to
Koh Fan Noi sits just off the northern end of the bay, and as the tide drops a sandbar surfaces between it and the beach. You can walk across, look around, and walk back, which takes about half an hour and is the closest thing Choeng Mon has to an activity.
Check the tide before you cross rather than after. The water comes back.
The open water off the corner
The marine model this site uses works on a grid of about five kilometres. Until October 2026 this page gave Choeng Mon the same series as Chaweng, Bophut and Maenam, because the point we read the model at had been placed by eye west of the bay. Read at the beach itself, Choeng Mon falls in a cell of its own: the open water off the island’s northeast corner.
It is the roughest water we measure around Samui: 0.85 metres in December, against 0.64 for Chaweng’s stretch in the same month, and above Chaweng's in every month of the year. That fits the aspect. The thing that makes this coast rough is the northeast monsoon, running down the Gulf from November into January, and Choeng Mon faces northeast, straight into it.
One limit, said plainly. The cell is open sea beyond the headland, and the bay is closed by that headland, which the model does not see. Inside the bay the water is calmer than the number, by an amount nothing available to us can measure. Read the figure for when this corner of the island is rough, not for how rough the bay is.
- Rainfall, millimetres per month
- Phuket, for comparison
Driest is February at 41mm over 7 rain days, wettest is November at 313mm over 23 rain days. Against Phuket, Koh Samui is wetter in 4 months of the twelve, and the largest gap is in November.
The island-level pattern is the counter-intuitive one this coast keeps producing: calmest in October, which is the second-wettest month, and roughest in December and January, which are among the driest. June is where both land near their best, at 85mm and about 0.29 metres.
Where it is and how to get there
Address
Choeng Mon Beach, Bo Phut, Ko Samui District, Surat Thani 84320, Thailand
ต.บ่อผุด อ.เกาะสมุย จ.สุราษฎร์ธานี 84320
9.5733° N, 100.0834° E
Where it is
On Koh Samui's northeast-facing Gulf shore, 3.5 km northeast of Samui airport and 17 km east of Nathon, in a straight line.
Getting there
8 min 4.8 km by road from Samui airport, with no traffic
Drive time and distance: OSRM over OpenStreetMap roads, to the road nearest the middle of the beach, free-flow, so a floor rather than a forecast. Address: official subdistrict boundaries (Royal Thai Survey Department, via OCHA) and Thailand Post.
Who it suits
Choeng Mon for families with young children, for couples who want a quiet bay and a good dinner rather than a strip, and for anyone on a short trip who does not want to spend an hour of it in a transfer.
Not Choeng Mon if you want to walk to a choice of places. It is resorts and a small handful of restaurants; the strip is fifteen minutes away at Chaweng.
All eight beaches compared, with the tide caveat that runs along this whole north coast, are on Koh Samui’s beaches. Where to base yourself on the island as a whole is on where to stay.
Choeng Mon Beach, Koh Samui FAQs
Is Choeng Mon a good beach on Koh Samui?+
It is the island's quiet upmarket corner: a rounded bay closed by a headland, quieter than Chaweng, and ten minutes from the airport. It suits couples and families who want somewhere pleasant to walk out onto rather than somewhere to be entertained by.
Can you walk to the island at Choeng Mon?+
Yes, at low tide. Koh Fan Noi sits off the northern end of the bay and a sandbar surfaces between it and the beach as the water drops, so you can walk across and back. Check the tide before you go over rather than after.
Is Choeng Mon good for families?+
It is one of the better beaches on Samui for it. The bay is sheltered by its headland, the water is shallow a long way out, and there is very little boat traffic and no nightlife to navigate around. The same shallowness that suits children frustrates anyone wanting a proper swim at low tide.
How far is Choeng Mon from Samui airport?+
About ten minutes, which makes it the most convenient beach on the island for a short stay or a late arrival. It is also about fifteen minutes from Chaweng, so a night out is easy without living next to one.
How rough does Choeng Mon get?+
The open water off it peaks at 0.85 metres in December, the roughest figure we measure around Samui, against 0.64 for Chaweng's stretch. Choeng Mon faces northeast, straight into the monsoon that makes this coast rough. The bay itself is closed by a headland, which the model does not see, so the water inside it is calmer than that number.
Choeng Mon or Chaweng?+
Choeng Mon for quiet, for children, and for being near the airport; Chaweng for sand, choice and everything else. They are fifteen minutes apart, and a good number of people stay at Choeng Mon and drive to Chaweng for the evening.