Tempting Thailand: Five Idyllic Beaches To Suit Every Taste
Head east with Sue Perkins and discover five idyllic beaches to suit every taste.
Ed Grenby - 14 May 2024
Abseiling 230 feet into a limestone cave – like Sue Perkins does in her Channel 5 show Lost in Thailand – isn’t everyone’s idea of a relaxing holiday. In fact, it’s not even Sue Perkins’s idea of a relaxing holiday. “I don’t love heights,” says the presenter. “But it was going well until I smacked my knee. Then I just hung there like a sack of potatoes.” More viewers, it’s probably safe to say, will want to follow in Perkins’s sandy footprints along the exquisite beaches of the island of Phuket (as seen in episode two). That’s just one of Thailand’s many seaside hot spots, however – and we know one to suit every taste…
NAI HARN, PHUKET GOOD FOR PEACE AND QUIET – Good for peace and quiet.
Phuket’s reputation as a party island is based mainly around Patong, where there are indeed enough bars and nightclubs to make/ruin any holiday (delete according to taste). Take a taxi just 20 minutes south, though, and you’ll find Nai Harn – not much more than one hotel, a few stalls selling coconuts and chicken skewers, and a small village where the chicken-skewerers live. That hotel – the Nai Harn (thenaiharn.com) – is the same one Roger Moore stayed in while filming The Man with the Golden Gun locally, and it’s a beauty, all white decor and wide windows to make the most of the views. Those are even better: you’re right on top of a perfect, palm-frosted crescent of sand, with a calm, boat-spotted bay before you.
HUA HIN, MAINLAND GOOD FOR MIXING WITH LOCALS – Good for mixing with locals.
Hua Hin is a favourite of royalty, both real and tabloid-crowned: Thai monarchs have summered here since the early 20th century, the Beckhams and Liz Hurley are regulars at super-luxe spa resort Chiva-Som (chivasom.com), and Ryan Gosling stays at the InterContinental (huahin.intercontinental.com). What do they see in the place? Oh, just a two-mile curve of dazzling white sand, with a Barclays-blue sea lapping alluringly at it. They share it with no shortage of civilians, though: Hua Hin is a highly popular weekending spot for well-to-do citizens of Bangkok – which means you might find a few jet-skis pounding through the waves. But if you don’t fancy that, there’s always Ban Krut an hour south – To receive emails with our latest news and offers, visit radiotimes.com/email it’s where the Thais come for family picnics rather than anything more raucous.
TUBKAAK, KRABI GOOD FOR VALUE – Good for value.
Those towering limestone karsts perched just offshore make Krabi’s beaches some of the most photogenic in Thailand – and thus, in peak season, some of the busiest and priciest, too. (The months between December and March are particularly bad.) Only half an hour west along the coast, meanwhile, it’s a very different story: Tubkaak is as cheap and chilled-out as its near-neighbour is costly and crowded. Here, there’s just a sprinkling of inexpensive hotels (try the beachfront Amari Vogue; amari.com/ vogue), a gorgeous swathe of creamy soft sand, perfect turquoise waters, precious(ly) little nightlife – and, of course, out in Phang Nga Bay, those giant columns of limestone to liven up your selfies.
HAAD YUAN, KO PHA NGAN GOOD FOR NATURE – Good for nature
Peel yourself off the beach for an afternoon (it is possible, trust us), and you’ll find a very different Thailand. Just behind Haad Yuan’s half-moon of pearly-white sand on Ko Pha Ngan island is a swathe of virgin jungle laced with zigzagging footpaths that will carry you to pretty little waterfalls – and the inviting pools that form at their feet. Can’t quite be bothered? Just pop on a snorkel and mask and plop into the sea instead: the beach is framed by granite rocks where an entire Blue Planet episode’s worth of neon-hued fish bob just beneath the surface. And if you can’t even be bothered to do that, just lie back on your lounger and listen to the cicadas. Pariya Resort (pariyahaadyuan.com) is perfectly poised between the beach and those forested hills. You’d never know you’re only a ten-minute boat ride from Haad Rin, Ko Pha Ngan’s famously boisterous party beach.
AO POH, KO PHI PHI GOOD FOR MOVIE-STAR LOOKS– Good for movie-star looks
Ko Phi Phi is the pin-up island that featured not just in the Leonardo DiCaprio film adaptation of Alex Garland’s The Beach, but – long before that – starred in every Thai tourism ad campaign ever. That’s thanks to the three Ls: limestone cliffs, Listerine seas and longtail boats, those elegant wooden watercraft that make any beach look beautiful. Much like DiCaprio himself, however, the island has lost a lot of its fresh-faced looks in the last couple of decades, and when you dock at Ao Ton Sai, you may be tempted to turn straight round and go somewhere else, such is the profusion of neon and noise pollution. Instead, climb aboard the first boat making the 15-minute journey to Ao Poh, which is still not much more than a handful of thatched huts among the coconut palms, and where rooms can be had at what are bargain prices even by Thai standards (try The Beach Resort; phiphithebeach.com). The beach here is as gorgeous – and as slender – as Leo in his Romeo + Juliet prime.
Abseiling 230 feet into a limestone cave – like Sue Perkins does in her Channel 5 show Lost in Thailand – isn’t everyone’s idea of a relaxing holiday. In fact, it’s not even Sue Perkins’s idea of a relaxing holiday. “I don’t love heights,” says the presenter. “But it was going well until I smacked my knee. Then I just hung there like a sack of potatoes.” More viewers, it’s probably safe to say, will want to follow in Perkins’s sandy footprints along the exquisite beaches of the island of Phuket (as seen in episode two). That’s just one of Thailand’s many seaside hot spots, however – and we know one to suit every taste…
NAI HARN, PHUKET GOOD FOR PEACE AND QUIET – Good for peace and quiet.
Phuket’s reputation as a party island is based mainly around Patong, where there are indeed enough bars and nightclubs to make/ruin any holiday (delete according to taste). Take a taxi just 20 minutes south, though, and you’ll find Nai Harn – not much more than one hotel, a few stalls selling coconuts and chicken skewers, and a small village where the chicken-skewerers live. That hotel – the Nai Harn (thenaiharn.com) – is the same one Roger Moore stayed in while filming The Man with the Golden Gun locally, and it’s a beauty, all white decor and wide windows to make the most of the views. Those are even better: you’re right on top of a perfect, palm-frosted crescent of sand, with a calm, boat-spotted bay before you.
HUA HIN, MAINLAND GOOD FOR MIXING WITH LOCALS – Good for mixing with locals.
Hua Hin is a favourite of royalty, both real and tabloid-crowned: Thai monarchs have summered here since the early 20th century, the Beckhams and Liz Hurley are regulars at super-luxe spa resort Chiva-Som (chivasom.com), and Ryan Gosling stays at the InterContinental (huahin.intercontinental.com). What do they see in the place? Oh, just a two-mile curve of dazzling white sand, with a Barclays-blue sea lapping alluringly at it. They share it with no shortage of civilians, though: Hua Hin is a highly popular weekending spot for well-to-do citizens of Bangkok – which means you might find a few jet-skis pounding through the waves. But if you don’t fancy that, there’s always Ban Krut an hour south – To receive emails with our latest news and offers, visit radiotimes.com/email it’s where the Thais come for family picnics rather than anything more raucous.
TUBKAAK, KRABI GOOD FOR VALUE – Good for value.
Those towering limestone karsts perched just offshore make Krabi’s beaches some of the most photogenic in Thailand – and thus, in peak season, some of the busiest and priciest, too. (The months between December and March are particularly bad.) Only half an hour west along the coast, meanwhile, it’s a very different story: Tubkaak is as cheap and chilled-out as its near-neighbour is costly and crowded. Here, there’s just a sprinkling of inexpensive hotels (try the beachfront Amari Vogue; amari.com/ vogue), a gorgeous swathe of creamy soft sand, perfect turquoise waters, precious(ly) little nightlife – and, of course, out in Phang Nga Bay, those giant columns of limestone to liven up your selfies.
HAAD YUAN, KO PHA NGAN GOOD FOR NATURE – Good for nature
Peel yourself off the beach for an afternoon (it is possible, trust us), and you’ll find a very different Thailand. Just behind Haad Yuan’s half-moon of pearly-white sand on Ko Pha Ngan island is a swathe of virgin jungle laced with zigzagging footpaths that will carry you to pretty little waterfalls – and the inviting pools that form at their feet. Can’t quite be bothered? Just pop on a snorkel and mask and plop into the sea instead: the beach is framed by granite rocks where an entire Blue Planet episode’s worth of neon-hued fish bob just beneath the surface. And if you can’t even be bothered to do that, just lie back on your lounger and listen to the cicadas. Pariya Resort (pariyahaadyuan.com) is perfectly poised between the beach and those forested hills. You’d never know you’re only a ten-minute boat ride from Haad Rin, Ko Pha Ngan’s famously boisterous party beach.
AO POH, KO PHI PHI GOOD FOR MOVIE-STAR LOOKS – Good for movie-star looks
Ko Phi Phi is the pin-up island that featured not just in the Leonardo DiCaprio film adaptation of Alex Garland’s The Beach, but – long before that – starred in every Thai tourism ad campaign ever. That’s thanks to the three Ls: limestone cliffs, Listerine seas and longtail boats, those elegant wooden watercraft that make any beach look beautiful. Much like DiCaprio himself, however, the island has lost a lot of its fresh-faced looks in the last couple of decades, and when you dock at Ao Ton Sai, you may be tempted to turn straight round and go somewhere else, such is the profusion of neon and noise pollution. Instead, climb aboard the first boat making the 15-minute journey to Ao Poh, which is still not much more than a handful of thatched huts among the coconut palms, and where rooms can be had at what are bargain prices even by Thai standards (try The Beach Resort; phiphithebeach.com). The beach here is as gorgeous – and as slender – as Leo in his Romeo + Juliet prime.