Choeng Mon
A scenic cove with shallow waters lined with restaurants
Choeng Mon is situated in the north-east corner of Koh Samui and is a large, sheltered cove of soft white/gold sand with bars and restaurants along the length.
Behind Choeng Mon beach is a small village area with more bars, restaurants, massage places and shops that suits all budgets and preferences.
Choeng Mon has a perfect beach for families with a gentle slope of sand into the sea, the cove ensures that the sea is more sheltered from prevailing winds, so the water is usually calm.
Bangrak
Popular with expats and tourists - great variety
Bangrak beach, or better known as Big Buddha beach thanks to the huge and impossible to miss Big Buddha statue! The Big Buddha and ferry piers are what Bangrak is well known for, runs from east to west on the northern coast of Koh Samui.
Bangrak is a diverse village, with a mix of higher-end 5 star resorts, private villas and smaller boutique hotels. There is a large variety of restaurants and bars and several beach clubs.
Bangrak is a long stretch of beach with golden, deep sands and water is quite shallow going to very deep.
Bophut
Greats views to Koh Phangan from dining to beach bathing
Home to the famous Fisherman’s Village, Bophut also runs east to west from the end of Bangrak beach on the northern coast of Samui. Crammed full of heritage Thai fisherman’s houses, there is a huge choice of bars and restaurants, some overhang the beach on stilts with breathtaking views at sunset across to Koh Phangan. Most of the hotels here are high-end, 4-5 star or boutique smaller hotels.
The main street through the Fisherman’s is mostly pedestrian and Bophut is famous for it’s Friday night ‘Walking Street market’, where the street is taken over by market stalls selling everything you could ever wish for.
A new addition to the far western end of Bophut is the Wharf shopping centre. A lot of shops are still empty here, but there are some nice restaurants and bars here.
Bophut is a long stretch of beach with golden, very deep sands and water which gets deep very fast.
Maenam
A long stretch of palm tree lined fluffy beach
Maenam, again on the north coast of Koh Samui runs from the western end of Bophut to the east. This is a very, very long stretch of beach with a different feel depending on which section you go on!
The section closer to Bophut is quite a narrow beach, the middle part where Maenam village is situated is a little wider, then a little further on the beach is very wide and almost deserted apart from a few resorts grouped around here.
Towards the far western end of Maenam beach, is Lomprayah’s Pralarn pier.
Maenam is more reminiscent of ‘old Samui’ with simple beach huts still available for accommodation. Most of the bars and restaurant are situated along the main ring road, but Maenam village itself (which also has a nice Chinese temple) has a nice Thursday night market.
Maenam has golden, very deep sand and water which gets deep very fast.
Bang Por and Baan Tai
Quite Seclusion
Bang Por and Baan Tai complete the beaches on the northern coast, these are very quiet beaches.
Towards the eastern end of these beaches are patches of white sand are found to the east, but the further west you go, there is darker sand and mud flats. Where the ring road meets the beach, there are a few good seafood restaurants.
Chaweng
Busier nightlife with a world class beach
Moving to the east coast of Koh Samui, Chaweng is Samui’s longest and most popular beach and is home to bars, restaurants, hotels of all types.
Chaweng offers 5km of beach with soft white/golden sand with a real mix of hustle and bustle as well as more relaxed areas. The northern part of Chaweng is very sheltered with a reef which makes it difficult to swim around the larger hotels here. The very busy section of Chaweng beach starts where this reef ends, around the area of Ark Bar – this is the very busy section! Walking a little further, you come to Soi Green Mango where the famous club is and a little further again the one way system starts. A short walk from here is a lovely partial open air shopping centre called Central Festival.
Once past Central Festival, Chaweng starts to get quieter and there is a fabulous ‘Food Night Market’ just past ‘The Library’ hotel which serves excellent Thai food along with other types of cuisine.
Travelling further south, the beach becomes nicer, softer and quieter until the beach road turns back up towards the ring road.
Chaweng Noi
Posh hotels on a perfect shallow beach
From the far south of Chaweng beach road, there is a walk through to Chaweng Noi where the road turns.
Chaweng Noi is often described as a shy little sister of Chaweng, ‘Noi’ in Thai means small, so it’s name is ‘Small Chaweng’.
A gorgeous stretch of beach, soft white sand and quite shallow to start with but gets deep if you like to swim. Chaweng Noi is home to some very high-end 5+ star resorts like Starwood’s Vannabelle resort, the Shangri La and the Impiana. There isn’t much on Chaweng Noi in the way of bars and restaurants, but it’s definitely worth a day trip to enjoy the beach.
Coral Cove
Small intimate photogenic cove
Further south on the ring road from Chaweng Noi is Coral Cove.
Coral Cove is a very quiet but nice beach with some large rock formations which means that there is some snorkelling to be done here. Only one resort on the beach, others are nestled in the lush vegetation
Silver Beach / Crystal Bay
Sheltered cove with very shallow water
Travelling south again you will find Silver Beach/Crystal Bay which is a small sheltered cove with gold/white sand. The water here tends to be shallow and there are quite a few rocks on the floor, making it difficult in places to get into the water.
Silver beach only has a couple of hotels, bars and restaurants but has become popular for day visitors.
Lamai
Popular beach with interesting nightlife
Lamai isn’t as long a beach as Chaweng, but it’s a very popular location. The centre part of the beach is a great swimming area, where the softer sand slopes into the water but the northern end of Lamai beach isn’t as nice. There are busy and quiet areas of Lamai with some beach bars dotted along the beach. There is a little village area and there’s a Sunday Market.
From Lamai, you can follow the ring road around the southern end of Koh Samui and you eventually reach…
Taling Ngam
'Get away from it all' with stunning sunsets
Not the best location for beaches, but Taling Ngam is popular for ‘get away from it all’ resorts, and the south west or north western tips has some classy but very, very remote hotels.
The Sky Bar at the Intercontinental hotel on Taling Ngam is reputed to have stunning sunset views.