My friends, I love the Thai islands. All of them. True, I’ve never met an island I didn’t like – but all of Thailand’s islands are special. I’ve had the good fortune of visiting several. Care to explore them with me? Read on, then pack your bags for paradise!
The following list is not in order of admiration. Instead, it’s simply organized by the order in which I happened to visit these particular islands. Hint: they get better and better!
Phuket
Some may say this is paradise despoiled, but bear with me. Phuket might be touristy, crowded and chaotic – but that’s not the full picture. There’s a lot of adventures you can have from here!
In 2017, I flew into Phuket and was amazed. Sure, you could say it’s because I hadn’t made it anywhere else in the Gulf of Thailand yet. But it’s true. I booked a couple of days at an out-of-the-way accommodation, and joined a sea kayaking tour on the bay – and loved both.
Then in 2021, Kent and I returned to run Ultra-Trail Phuket in celebration of 9 magical years of marriage! This visit was even better, because I learned that Phuket is a lot like my other favorite cities. It’s metro-meets-mountains, just like Seoul and Hong Kong!
So don’t be shy about starting your trip here. There’s lots to do beyond Phuket and it does have it’s downsides, but it’s got lots of upsides (steep ones!), too!
Ko Hong
No visit to Phuket, or indeed, anywhere in the phenomenal Phang Nga Bay, is complete without a visit to the famed Hong Island.
So, of course, I visited by boat in 2017 and again with Kent in 2021. We spent last NYE splashing around on this remote beach and, for the first time, climbing up to its summit for incredible views!
Ko Phi Phi
Another one for the haters gonna hate category. Is Ko Phi Phi Don crazy? Yes, at certain times and in certain places. And it definitely depends on who you’re traveling with and what you want to do there.
Maybe I just lucked out, but on my solo visit a few years ago, I spent a night in a dreamy little cabin overlooking a peaceful stretch of sea. I’m not that into nightlife, but I am into night life, so I want on a boat trip to Ko Phi Phi Lee that had me jumping in the water with bioluminescent plankton.
As a result, I’ve got nothing but praise for Ko Phi Phi! I had a great time, and I think, with a little introspection and planning to match your needs, you can too. Don’t avoid something just because it’s popular: beautiful places are famous for a reason, and it’s still possible to carve out your own little niche in paradise.
Ko Samui
Among the islands, this was one of my least favorites. I know many who love it (famous for a reason!), and I would absolutely return to give it another go. It just didn’t really hit with me, because I stayed at too long at hostel with crappy service, plus the weather was pretty dreary during my stay in winter 2017.
But there were definite high points – literally! One of my favorite things was reaching out to a local guiding company and going on a hike in Samui’s highlands. I also did an island-hopping boat/kayak trip that was a lot of fun, and I even joined a drop-in yoga class!
So while Samui didn’t leave me smitten, I’m still stoked I went. And as one of Thailand’s biggest islands – and with a big airport to boot – Samui is easy to access and there’s lots to do there.
Ko Lanta
I read somewhere that this sleepy, southerly isle was a hidden gem. Although it’s no longer hidden, I agreed wholeheartedly with it being a gem.
Like everywhere else you go in life, your experience of a place is largely determined by what you do there. For me, part of the reason I loved Lanta so much is because basically all I did was play with animals and study the shore.
I spent a glorious day and a half at the island rescue with so many sweet furry friends, and evenings I would just stroll the beach solo, looking at the splendid sunsets. I spent NYE 2017 here and was delighted that I did!
Ko Yao Noi
Kent and I had been on this island a total of 10 minutes before we started to have fantasies about moving there for good. We went to Ko Yao Noi to recover from UTPK in late 2021, and we considered never leaving.
For starters, it is quieter than all of the other islands previously mentioned. No, really: it does not have a late night scene of any kind. There are more locals than tourists, and their lives are synced with the sun. This makes for A+ relaxation, especially because that’s exactly the schedule I love to keep too!
In addition to the quiet, that sun-following schedule might have been my favorite aspect of our time on this island. We stayed a week, and watched both sunset and sunrise every single day. It’s one of the coolest things about island life: rent a scooter, and you’ve got two sky-viewing shores!
Our days on Ko Yao Noi settled into a lovely rhythm in harmony with nature, and replete with awesome eats! We quickly found a friend at Anchor Po!nt restaurant just down the road, where we ate everyday (and sampled so many new fruits!).
We loved our bungalow: complete with a sea view and a resident Tokay gecko. Our hosts were kind, and we loved riding our rental scooter (Clicky I) all over the place. There are hidden beaches and peaceful rice paddies, mangroves and much, much more to explore on this large island.
Even Kent needing to work wasn’t an issue: he found a nice cafe with fun drinks and sat with his laptop outside. Meanwhile, I enjoyed our local beach or napped in our hammock!
I learned about this lovely locale from this post, and am thrilled I did. We’ll see you again, Ko Yao Noi!
Ko Muk
What a tiny little dream this island is: pint-sized perfection. It’s found just off the coast from Trang, the small southern town where I very nearly worked in early 2021!
I kept my eye on the area, and in early 2022, I leapt at the chance to go there! I opted out of a high-stress, potential superspreader field trip event at my middle school, and opted in for a quick trip to paradise. Did I nearly lose my job? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!
In fact, I love Ko Muk so much that I hesitate to even share it. It’s so small that it doesn’t even have cars, so too many tourists could quickly overwhelm it. It’s not unknown – even in the height of the pandemic, there were other guests at our place. But scarcely a handful – and only locals everywhere else we went. It’s tranquil, and I hope it gets to stay so.
How to even enumerate all the elements I love about this island? I love that it’s narrow waistline is barely 5 minutes by motorbike across: that makes seeing sunrise and sunset a cinch! The mangrove forests of the east enchanted me just as much as the soft white sand beach of the west.
I love the trail into the highlands to a breathtaking viewpoint. A kayak journey around the island to hidden beaches and caves is one of the best things you can do in your life. Yes, I think it’s safe to say Ko Muk might be a favorite of mine…
And after all of your adventures, Miss Island Bakery has the most wonderful smoothies of all time. Plus amazing curries. Even if you’re not hungry, go for the kittens. We ate every single night of our stay at Sugar’s: completely alone, feet buried in the sand, with twinkle lights overhead and longtail boats bobbing just offshore.
In between meals and multiple daily swims, Kent and I drank coconuts and played cards in the shade of a beach umbrella. I never wanted to leave Ko Muk.
Ko Chang
I’d been waiting years to go to this island for a very special race. I was so happy to finally run Ultra-Trail Koh Chang in March 2022. And of course, in classic KnC style, the race was our starting point for a longer adventure.
While Kent couldn’t quite believe that I’d bungled the accommodations booking for the second race in a row, it meant that we explored much more of this island than we otherwise might have! Ko Chang is Thailand’s third largest island, and its tarred road forms a horseshoe rather than a complete ring. The more you know!
However, we wound up adoring our stay in Bang Bao, at the southern end of the island. And of course, we loved the race, and all that came before and after it.
And what was that? Well, a LOT of chillin’. We mostly lounged at our stay’s amazing seaside restaurant and in the pool, both before and after the race.
So we weren’t as explore-y as we usually are – but I’d say we had plenty of adventure on this dream destination race. Not to mention, our motorcycle ultra getting home from UTKC!
Ko Chang is a great race, and an awesome island. I loved every minute of our visit to the island as well.
Ko Wai
Alas, because I’m an insufferably restless person, we couldn’t just stay on Ko Chang after the race. Oh no. We had to see all the other islands in the Trat group! Next stop: Ko Wai.
This is truly a tiny island: it has neither roads nor a permanent population. It’s home to two collections of seaside bungalows where you’ll agree to forget the modern world.
This is where all you need do is while away the hours swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing. It’s a dream: pure paradise, as far as I’m concerned.
We only had one night here, thanks to my demanding schedule. But staying on Ko Wai actually made me reconsider my approach, as both Kent and I would have been happy to hang indefinitely.
Ko Mak
Still further south of Ko Chang is the fun-shaped island of Ko Mak! This one is different than the others: for starters, it is unbelievably flat. It’s not like the karst-studded, jungle-clad islands you’ve visited before. Ko Mak feels a lot more rural, and that’s part of it’s charm.
Although I originally had ambitions of exploring every edge, we wound up spending our one allotted day mainly at our home-away-from-home at the southern tip of the island. A quick motorcycle tour of the interior informed us that we’d found the very best spot already.
For the next 24 hours, we were perfectly content to stay home: especially when home involved ocean views from a variety of fun seats around an expansive lawn, friendly fish in the lagoon and harbor, and encounters with Meow-Meow, the adorable resident cat.
Our place was either semi-closed or under renovations: we were the only folks there, and we did not take that for granted! We also didn’t have classically good weather during our stay either: there was a wild thunderstorm in the evening that enlivened our stay! But in classical tropical fashion, not a trace of it remained the next morning wen we checked out.
Is this a great overview of what you can do on Ko Mak? Perhaps not. But one thing’s for sure: you can switch your clock to island time here and just chill!
Ko Kood
And now, finally, we reach the end of the Trat island chain, and sadly, the end of my Thaislanding (for now). This island, nearly on the maritime border with Cambodia, was our last stop on our 2022 post-UTKC adventure. Once again, we found ourselves in absolute paradise on Ko Kood.
Ko Kood is huge, rugged and wild. There is so much to explore here that we barely scratched the surface!
Indeed, much like at Ko Mak, we moved about very little. We mostly spent the last 2 days of our vacation on the sand. If you’re wondering, the Haad Klong Hin/Ban Ao Jak area is possibly the best beach in the world. It’s cut off from the rest of the island by cliffs and covered in powdery, white, pristine sand. The crystal clear, blue water is calm and mildly cool. If I was a mermaid, I’d make my home right here.
Thanks to the magnificence of our local beach and the looming end of our time in the islands, we were not tempted to leave very much. We made it out for just a single morning.
On Clicky IV, we rode over to Klong Chang Waterfall. Good thing, too, because it’s now my favorite of all the falls. A bit of a squall meant that we were alone when we arrived! We clambered around on rocks for a while, admiring the view from all angles. Then I decided to hop in! You can swim in the deliciously cold water, right over to the falls: an exhilarating experience! The rope swing is an A+ fun addition.
Yet another gorgeous Thai island that I cried over leaving. I still dream about Ko Kood.
Island secrets
I’ve also been lucky enough to visit a handful of small, unnamed, little-known and uninhabited Thai islands. I’m sworn to secrecy on where they are and what they’re called, but here’s a tip: take a boat ride with a local in Phang Nga Bay! There are so, so many islands out there: maybe you can find your very own for the day!
Some have hidden entrances that are only revealed at low tide. Other islands have secret hongs (rooms) you can only access by kayak. A handful of these secret islands are shown in this post, and there are so many more to discover!
Are there gaps in my Thai islands map? Absolutely! I’ve no claim to visiting them all, only of being a superfan of those visited thus far. Notable omissions of named islands include Ko Tao (Kent’s 2011 fave), Ko Pha Ngan & Ko Libong – not to mention Ko Surin and the Similan Islands. But this just means I get to go back and explore more someday! That is, if I can convince myself not to go back to one of the aforementioned faves and stay forever…
Want more on the Thai islands? Check out these island outtakes!
A final (philosophical) note about external links: Peaks and Penguins does not do ads or commissions. I’ve linked to a handful of businesses that I genuinely love and think you might too! I don’t endorse social media or travel review sites, but sometimes that’s the only web presence a business has. Above are also a couple of blog links – again, simply articles I enjoyed written by other travelers on unsponsored trips.
May all your beaches be blissful!
