Koh Lanta
Updated: 6 days ago
A beautiful island off the west side of Thailand in the Andaman Sea that I visiting in April 2019.
Dates: April 14 – April 19 Number of days: 4 days (+1 for travel day to island) Weather: 100’s (f), sunny
Koh Lanta was the island I was most excited about visiting when I was researching for the trip. It was one of the “more affordable islands” and was quite large.
Accommodation
Food
Rentals & Activities
Day 1 – Travel Day
It took half of the day to get to Koh Lanta from Koh Yao Noi. When we arrived we were greeted by tons of Tuk tuk drivers and red truck drivers trying to get us to go with them. We couldn’t check in to our hotel until 3pm so we bought some sodas and sat at a restaurant right next to the pier. We continued to be approached by multiple tuk tuk drivers while we were sitting drinking out drinks. There was a cat that snuck up on me and rubbed against my leg. It scared me pretty good. It was a rather sweet little thing.
When we were ready to go to our hotel we tried bartering with a tuk tuk driver and a red truck driver. We were only able to get them down 50 baht. There doesn’t seem to be very much room for bartering on this island. We rode in a tuk tuk to our hotel. It was quite the experience… almost more terrifying then riding in the red trucks. When we arrived at our hotel we were both in awe of how nice it was. When we checked in they gave us cold wash clothes and some apple juice. After having been overheated all day it felt so refreshing.
We explored the resort grounds, then we went down to the beach and walked while trying to find a restaurant called Veeds View. We ended up walking way past it and we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to find it. But we were thankfully able to find it on the way back. I got a delicious strawberry pineapple shake. There wasn’t anything else on the menu that jumped out at me. My dad got some green curry. I had a few bites, green curry just really isn’t my favorite taste.
Day 2 – Rest day
I was worn out so we just stayed around the hotel all day doing our own things. My dad went out to the beach for a while while I stayed in my room. The one exciting thing we did was we went to a minimart and got 4 sodas and some unique snacks to try for our supper.
Day 3 – Motorbike around island
After eating our breakfast we decided we wanted to explore the island today. We went to the motorbike rental place to rent a motorbike. We also bought 2 tickets for the next day for the 4 Islands Tour.
I hopped on the back of the scooter behind my dad and we took off for our day of exploring. It was definitely busier than Koh Yao Noi and we had to be very cautious. We just followed the main road for quite a ways. We went up a very steep hill and then at the peak there was a restaurant called Viewpoint Hill Restaurant. I had a map pulled up on my phone and was directing my dad where to go. (Maps.me is the best thing ever for navigating in Thailand. We didn’t need wifi or internet to use it.)
We went down the other side of the hill and then the road T-ed. One arrow pointed to the right and said Old Town was 3.6 km away. That’s when I was like “we are definitely on the other side of the island.” We decided to drive down to Old Town. The road was bumpy on and off, but there were less vehicles on the road.
Once we got to Old Town we stopped by a 7/11 for some snacks, gatorade, and AC. We decided to go to the other side of the island and along the ocean to the National Park at the tip of the island. We stopped for bottle of gas for 35 baht on the way over to the other side. Yes, they have gas in bottles here and that’s what the gas stations are. There are very few “real gas stations” with a pump and everything.
We found the turn off for the road down to the National Park. The drive was incredible down to there. There was a lot of going up and down steep hills and around sharp turns. There were definitely more cars on the road but not as much as the North end of the island. We looked at the beaches as we passed but didn’t stop at any of them.
We decided to go to the end and then stop at places on the way back. We went clear up to where the National Park gate was and then we turned around. We stopped at Bamboo Beach. We parked and then walked to the waters edge. The beach and water were beautiful. There was a pretty strong undertow so I didn’t fully get in the water. We hung out on this beach for a while taking pictures and just enjoying the gorgeous scenery. But we both started to overheat so we decided to go back to our bike and keep going.
As we got ready to go a monkey came out and wandered across the parking area. I got some quick bad quality pictures with my phone and then we left. We were both hungry so we tried to find a restaurant. We had a hard time finding some of the restaurants I had marked on the map to check out. We were finally able to find one called Happy Veggie. Best freaking find on this island. After eating we headed back to our hotel to just relax. Riding on a motorcycle for a long length of time is pretty tiring.
Day 4 – 4 Island Tour
My next blog post is going to be all about this! Here’s the basic run down. The 4 Island Tour is a snorkeling tour that goes to 4 different islands south of Koh Lanta. Multiple tour companies off the same “tour package,” as in they all go to the same places and do the same things. We got to snorkel at each island, they provided lunch and snacks, and we got to swim through a cave to a lagoon. This was one of the most incredible experiences for me on our trip.
Day 5 – Rest Day
We were both exhausted after snorkeling the day before. We worked on finding the next place we were going to stay and figuring out what transportation we needed to get to the next island. We rented a motorbike for 2 hours so we could go get food from Happy Veggie again. We stopped by 7/11 to get some snacks for our travel day the next day. In the evening we finally agreed on a place to stay and bought the travel tickets we needed online.
Map & Purchases
Drawn Map from my journal
I drew this in my journal to show where some of the main things on the island were and where we went.
Food
Transportation
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