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 whose shared wave figure is closest to being right.
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 one beach the shared figure fits
Every Samui beach page on this site carries the same caveat: the marine grid is about five kilometres, and Chaweng, Bophut, Maenam, Choeng Mon and Silver Beach all sit in one cell and share one series. On most of those pages the caveat is a warning, because the beach faces a different way from the cell’s other members.
Choeng Mon is the exception. The thing that makes this coast rough is the northeast monsoon, running down the Gulf from November into January. Choeng Mon faces northeast: straight into it. Its cellmates face east, or in Bophut and Maenam’s case north, and are sheltered from it to varying degrees that the model cannot see.
So of the five, this is the beach whose shared number is closest to describing its own water. That is not a claim that the number is precise. It is a note that for once the aspect and the measurement point the same way.
- 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.
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, calmer 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?+
It peaks at 0.64 metres in December on the shared figure for this corner of the island, and Choeng Mon is the beach that figure fits best. It faces northeast, straight into the monsoon that makes this coast rough, where its four cellmates face east or north.
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.