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.
Open≈ 0.6 km
The main passenger and vehicle pier on the west coast, and the crossing to Surat Thani on the mainland.
The main passenger and vehicle pier on the west coast, and the crossing to Surat Thani on the mainland. If you arrive on Samui by bus-and-boat from Bangkok, this is where you land.
The pier is a working port: ferries, cargo, the fresh market a few streets back, and Nathon's old town around it. Allow forty-five minutes by road from Chaweng — the pier is on the opposite coast from the beaches.
The pier is the west coast: allow 45 minutes from Chaweng.
Ferry departures thin out in the late afternoon and stop in the evening. Do not plan a same-day mainland crossing around a late flight.
On the map…
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The closest places on the map, straight-line distance.
Samui's administrative town and its only real streetscape: three parallel streets of wooden Chinese shophouses, a morning market and the ferry pier.
Open≈ 0.6 km
The shrine of the Hainanese families who settled Samui's port town, red and gold behind the old shophouses of Nathon.
Open≈ 0.7 km
A chain of small falls and pools twenty to thirty minutes up a jungle path that starts behind the temple, just inland from Nathon.
Open≈ 3.2 km
Half of these places are easier with a driver who knows which hill road is paved. Tell us which ones you care about and we will build the day around them.