Staying in Thong Nai Pan: luxury resorts and family bays on Koh Phangan's north-east coast

Who should stay in Thong Nai Pan?

Choose Thong Nai Pan Noi for a honeymoon or a luxury stay: the resorts here occupy the whole beachfront, with private pool villas, spas and beach restaurants, and the bay is calm and sheltered for most of the year. Choose Thong Nai Pan Yai for a family or a longer stay on a budget that still wants a beautiful beach: the resorts are bigger, prices are lower, there is a 7-Eleven and a choice of local restaurants, and the beach is long enough to walk. Choose Than Sadet for a backpacker week by the waterfall, in simple bungalows on an off-white beach with limited shade and no shops.

Thong Nai Pan is the wrong choice if you want nightlife, a scooter-free stay with lots of restaurant choice, or easy day trips: it is at the far end of the island, the road back is steep, and there is nothing after dark beyond the resort bars. It is also the coast most exposed to the north-east monsoon, so from late October to December the sea can be rough and swimming is sometimes off for days.

Resorts, villas and bungalows in Thong Nai Pan

Of the 40 properties listed here, the five-star resorts and beachfront villas on Noi start at about 9,000 THB a night in low season and run to 25,000 THB and beyond at Christmas and New Year, when they are booked out weeks ahead; behind them, a few hillside villas with pools sit at 5,000–12,000 THB. Yai has mid-range resorts with pools at 1,500–3,500 THB (US$47–110), beachfront bungalows at 1,200–2,500 THB and guesthouses in the village from about 800 THB. Than Sadet and Thong Reng have fan and air-conditioned bungalows at 600–1,500 THB and one or two small boutique resorts. Distances between the two bays, the village and the waterfall are given on each listing, and so is whether the property is on the beach or on the hill.

How do you get to Thong Nai Pan?

From Thong Sala pier a songthaew costs about 300 THB a person and takes 30–40 minutes on the cross-island road from Ban Tai; private transfers are 800–1,500 THB, and most Noi resorts arrange a pick-up at the pier if you send your ferry time. The road was once the worst on the island; it has been concreted in stages and is now fully paved, but it is still steep and winding, and the side road down to Than Sadet is one of the notorious scooter descents, where a 4x4 taxi is safer. Long-tail boats connect Thong Nai Pan with Than Sadet and, in calm weather, with Bottle Beach and the east-coast beaches. From Koh Samui, take any ferry to Thong Sala and continue by road; there is no direct boat.

What is there to do in Thong Nai Pan and Than Sadet?

The beaches are the reason to come: swimming and snorkelling off the rocks at both ends of Noi, long walks and kayaking on Yai, and the headland path between them with views over both bays. Than Sadet waterfall, 20 minutes south, is a 2.5 km series of falls and rock pools inside the national park, where King Rama V carved his initials during visits that began in 1888; the pools are best after rain, and the walk down to Than Sadet beach ends at a bungalow restaurant. Boat trips go to Bottle Beach and around the north cape to Chaloklum, and the Thong Nai Pan road passes the trailheads for the interior. Practicalities are better than the isolation suggests: three ATMs in Noi, a pharmacy, small supermarkets and a 7-Eleven in Yai, restaurants in both villages, but no hospital, so serious cases go back across the island.

When to stay in Thong Nai Pan

The calmest, clearest sea is from February to April; June to September is mostly fine with short afternoon storms and the lowest resort rates outside the monsoon. From late October to mid-December the north-east swell arrives, the bays turn rough and some resorts drop their rates by a third; by Christmas the weather has usually cleared and the peak season begins, running to mid-February. Because the coast faces east, sunrise over the bay is the daily show; for sunsets, drive to the west coast.