Places
The beaches of Koh Samui
🏖️Chaweng Beach
Six kilometres of white sand on the east coast, and the busiest strip on the island. The water stays swimmable all year at the northern end; a reef sits close in at the southern end.
Chaweng is the beach people picture when they picture Koh Samui: six kilometres of white sand facing east, deep enough to swim off most of its length, and backed by everything you might need. It is also the loudest part of the island, and that is the trade — you are never short of a restaurant, a pharmacy or a dive shop.
Good to know · Go north of the Centara for the widest sand and the fewest jet skis.
Open →From Chaweng starting point
🏖️Chaweng Noi
The small cove just south of Chaweng, cut off from it by a headland. Same sand, a fraction of the crowd, and a steeper drop into the water.
Chaweng Noi — « little Chaweng » — is the cove immediately south, separated from the main beach by a rocky headland. Same white sand, a fraction of the people, and a seabed that drops away fast enough to swim properly a few strokes out.
Good to know · Reachable on foot from Chaweng at low tide, by road the rest of the time.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 2.1 km
🏖️Lamai Beach
The island's second beach, four kilometres of sand with a slower pace than Chaweng and cheaper food. The southern end turns rocky, which is where the snorkelling is.
Lamai is Chaweng's slower cousin: four kilometres of sand on the same east coast, a third of the traffic and noticeably cheaper food. It suits people who want a real beach day without a beach club soundtrack.
Good to know · Sunday evening is the Lamai walking street, two minutes inland.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 7.0 km
🏖️Silver Beach (Thong Ta Kian)
A 200-metre pocket of sand between Chaweng and Lamai, hemmed in by granite boulders. The clearest water on the east coast and a reef you can reach by swimming.
Silver Beach — Thong Ta Kian on the road signs — is a two-hundred-metre pocket of sand between Chaweng and Lamai, closed at both ends by granite. It has the clearest water on the east coast, and a reef close enough to reach by swimming out from the sand.
Good to know · Tiny car park, full by 10 a.m. — come early or come by scooter.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 5.2 km
🏖️Coral Cove
More rock than beach: a cove of boulders where the coral starts a few metres out. Good at high tide, awkward at low tide.
Coral Cove is more rock than beach, and that is the point: the coral starts a few metres out, in water shallow enough to see everything without a boat. It is the easiest snorkelling on Samui that does not involve a day trip.
Good to know · Reef shoes help. The cliff restaurants above it have the view.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 3.7 km
🏖️Choeng Mon
A sheltered bay on the north-east corner, shallow and calm — the beach families end up on. A small island sits offshore, walkable at low tide.
Choeng Mon is the bay families end up on: a sheltered horseshoe on the north-east corner, shallow for a long way out and almost always flat. Ten minutes from the airport, which makes it a sensible first or last day on the island.
Good to know · Ten minutes from the airport, which makes it a good first or last day.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 6.0 km
🏖️Bang Rak (Big Buddha Beach)
A long, shallow, muddy-at-low-tide stretch under the flight path. Nobody comes here to swim; the view across to Koh Phangan and the sunrise are the reason.
Bang Rak, which everyone calls Big Buddha Beach, is not a swimming beach — it is shallow, and muddy when the tide is out. It is on this page for the hour after sunrise, when the light comes up over Koh Phangan and the fishing boats come back in.
Good to know · Walk it at sunrise, then breakfast at the Bang Rak fish market.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 4.5 km
🏖️Bophut Beach
Darker, golden sand on the north coast, calm water and almost no jet skis. Fisherman's Village sits at its eastern end.
Bophut has darker, golden sand, calm water and no jet skis, and Fisherman's Village sits at its eastern end. It is the best beach on the island for the sort of evening where dinner starts with your feet in the sand.
Good to know · Best beach on the island for a sunset drink with your feet in the sand.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 6.2 km
🏖️Maenam Beach
Four kilometres of quiet north-coast sand, the cheapest place on the island to sleep by the water, and Koh Phangan on the horizon.
Maenam is four kilometres of quiet north-coast sand, and the cheapest place on Samui to sleep within sight of the water. Koh Phangan sits on the horizon, close enough to make out its beaches.
Good to know · The pier here is where the Haad Rin boats leave from.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 9.9 km
🏖️Bang Por
The north-west coast: shallow, glassy water and a row of seafood shacks built out over it. Very few hotels, very little noise.
Bang Por is where islanders go to eat fish. The bay is shallow and glassy, and a row of open-sided restaurants is built out over the water on stilts — the best value seafood on Samui, at a table with the sea underneath it.
Good to know · Come for lunch — the whole grilled fish here is the island's best value.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 13 km
🏖️Lipa Noi
The west coast's swimming beach: flat, shallow, warm water with no waves, and the sun going down in front of you rather than behind a hill.
Lipa Noi is the west coast's swimming beach: flat, shallow, bath-warm water with no waves at all, and the sun going down in front of you. If you have small children and one afternoon, this is the beach.
Good to know · Sunset side of the island. Bring mosquito repellent for dusk.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 15 km
🏖️Taling Ngam & Pang Ka
The quietest coast on Samui, looking out at the Five Islands. Sand is coarser and the tide goes a long way out, but at 6 p.m. nothing beats it.
Taling Ngam and the Pang Ka coves next door are the quietest coast on Samui, looking west at the Five Islands. Nobody comes here for the sand — they come for six o'clock.
Good to know · Sunset here, dinner at Thong Krut, ten minutes further south.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 15 km
🏖️Laem Yai
The north-west headland, all rock and coconut. No swimming to speak of — this is a place you drive to for the last twenty minutes of daylight.
Laem Yai is the island's north-west headland: rock, coconut plantation and one of the two or three places on Samui where the sun sets over open water with nothing built in the way.
Good to know · The track to the old lighthouse starts near here and is rough; don't take a scooter up it in the wet.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 16 km
🏖️Bang Kao & Thong Krut
The south coast, where the sea turns into a sand flat at low tide and the longtail boats to Koh Tan and Pig Island are moored.
The south coast is where Samui stops being a resort island. At Bang Kao and Thong Krut the sea turns into a sand flat at low tide, the longtail boats to Koh Tan and Pig Island are moored, and the restaurants serve what came in that morning.
Good to know · Not a swimming beach. Come for the boats and the seafood.
Open →From Chaweng ≈ 14 km