KHAO LAK · THAILAND
Reefs at sea, rainforest at your back.
Khao Lak is the slow base camp for southern Thailand’s Andaman coast. Similan and Surin Islands by speedboat, Khao Sok rainforest an hour east, Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island just south, and long quiet beaches the whole way home.
Only out of Khao Lak
Three regions you can’t reach from anywhere else.
Most of southern Thailand can be reached from a half-dozen towns. These three really can’t. The Similan archipelago is a Khao Lak speedboat day. Khao Sok is an hour east. Phang Nga Bay sits just south. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
Out at sea
The Similan Islands
Nine granite-and-jungle islands sixty kilometres off the Khao Lak coast, sitting in water that holds 25 to 30 metres of visibility from October to May. The boulder-and-reef geology around the Similans does not really repeat anywhere else in Thailand. Reaching them is a Khao Lak speedboat day.
- 1 Khao Lak: Wow Andaman Snorkeling Trip to Similan Islands
- 2 Best Seller – Similan Islands Snorkeling Trip From Khao Lak
- 3 Phuket: Wow Andaman Snorkeling Trip to Similan Islands
Into the jungle
Khao Sok Rainforest
Khao Sok is older than the Amazon, one of the oldest evergreen rainforests on earth, and Cheow Lan Lake at its centre is ringed by limestone karsts that rise three hundred metres out of the water. The IMAX crews keep coming back. From Khao Lak it is a one-hour drive east into a different world.
- 1 Sok River: Bamboo Raft Ride, Monkey Temple & View Point Tour
- 2 Khao Sok Wildlife 2 Days
- 3 Khao Sok: Full Day Bamboo Rafting Tour from Khao Lak
In the bay
Phang Nga Bay
The bay south of Khao Lak is a forest of vertical karst islands and hidden tidal caves locals call hongs. Sea canoes paddle in through gaps that close at high tide. Koh Tapu, the leaning limestone needle that played a Bond villain's lair, is one of dozens, but it is the famous one.
- 1 Khaolak: Phang Nga Bay, Tapu Island, and Panyi Village Tour
- 2 James Bond Island Adventure Tour from Khao Lak including Sea Canoeing & Lunch
- 3 Phang Nga Sunset and James Bond Island
Base camp
Out from Khao Lak.
Most travellers don’t come to Khao Lak so much as through it. The town is the launching point; each direction is a different day. Pick a heading.
The Similan & Surin Islands
Sixty to a hundred and twenty kilometres offshore. Speedboat days; departures from the Khao Lak piers at dawn. Best from October to early May.
Reef days →Khao Sok & Cheow Lan Lake
One hour inland. The oldest evergreen rainforest on earth, a hundred-square-kilometre lake ringed by limestone karsts, and rafthouses if you stay over.
Jungle days →Phang Nga Bay & Phuket
Forty minutes to Phang Nga Bay's limestone hongs; two hours to Phuket and the Phi Phi launches beyond. Day trips and airport runs both head this way.
Limestone days →Takua Pa & the Surin Islands
Thirty minutes north for Takua Pa Old Town's Sino-Portuguese shophouses, Sunday market and the tsunami museum. Further on, the road runs out at Kuraburi pier.
Old Town days →The base-camp boat
Start with the one every hotel desk in town can sell you.
If Khao Lak only gets one full day, this is the boat you’ll see on every operator board along Bang Niang Road. The day Khao Lak is set up around.
The classics
Khao Lak’s Most Popular Day Trips
The Similans, Khao Sok, James Bond Island, elephant sanctuaries. The days travellers come to Khao Lak to book.
By place
Pick a day out of Khao Lak.
Each place is its own day. The Similans for the reef water. Khao Sok for the jungle and the lake. Phang Nga for the limestone hongs. Surin for the quieter version of the Similans. Phi Phi for the famous beaches. Takua Pa for the old shophouses.
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Reef snorkelling if you want the famous water clarity. Sea canoes if you want the limestone hongs. An ethical elephant morning if you want a slow start. A cooking class if it rains.
The quieter reefs
The case for the Surins.
A hundred kilometres north of the Similans, with looser regulation, fewer day-boats, and the Moken sea-gypsy villages that still call the archipelago home. The water is the same Andaman blue. If we had to pick three Surin boats, these are the ones.
An ethical morning
Time with the elephants.
Khao Lak has built one of the better ethical-sanctuary clusters in the country, leaning observation-only over the riding/bathing model. Slow walks, feeding, a bath you watch rather than join. Three sanctuaries that get this right.
The slow days
Old Town, temples, markets.
Takua Pa Old Town’s Sino-Portuguese shophouses and Sunday market sit a half-hour north. The tsunami museum and Boat 813 are a few kilometres beyond. Two-temple morning loops fill the same kind of day. Three picks for the slower side of the coast.
The rainy-day plan
A Thai cooking morning.
Market first, wok second. Most Khao Lak schools start at the local market for the night’s ingredients then head back to riverside kitchens. A four-dish lunch is the usual finish. Three cooking mornings we’d send anyone to.
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