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.

📍 Coordinates · 9.56637, 99.91983🧭 From Chaweng · ≈ 16 km🛣️ Getting there · Short side road off the ring road🎟️ Entry · Free🕒 Allow · 1 h 30🌤️ Best time · sunset

Why go

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.

What you will find

There is no real beach — a strip of coarse sand between boulders — and no beach service. What there is: a couple of viewpoint restaurants, a fishing hamlet, and the track that climbs towards the disused lighthouse further west.

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.

Worth knowing before you go

The lighthouse track is rough and unlit; it is a daylight, dry-season, four-wheel-drive proposition.

Place

On the map

On the map…

Open the full island map · Driving directions · Google Maps · © OpenStreetMap

Places

Nearby

The closest places on the map, straight-line distance.

Old lighthouse, Laem Yai

A disused light on the north-west tip, at the end of a rough jungle track. The reward is the sunset over the mainland with nothing built in between.

Nathon Pier

The main passenger and vehicle pier on the west coast, and the crossing to Surat Thani on the mainland.

Nathon old town

Samui's administrative town and its only real streetscape: three parallel streets of wooden Chinese shophouses, a morning market and the ferry pier.

Read more

The island guide · The beaches of Koh Samui · Koh Samui map

See it with us · Sunset Cruise

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