Thank you all for your additional comments. I am going to try to reply to as many as I can. The main reason I started this topic was because I haven't been to the beaches in Thailand for many years. I guess that's because I remember the islands back from a time when many of them generally weren't overcrowded yet and Thailand had less than 25% of the number of annual tourists it has now. For example, the first time I drove past Karon Beach on a motorcycle, it was just a lazy fishing village and not even a place for tourists to visit yet. This was also well before the big influx of East Asian tourists from India and China. So the prospect of returning to any of those islands now doesn't really grab me, knowing how nearly all of them, except for the very distant and remote ones, are filled with vendors, tourists, and touts, many of whom weren't even born yet when I first visited some of these places. So I was thinking, after seeing the short video linked below that was posted by KhunLA the other day, that maybe there are still some ways to enjoy walking along the ocean in Thailand by sticking to the much less touristy coastal and mainland beach areas. I also remember that old boat pier at Samet being kind of rickety as you walked past all those pungent-smelling tables selling dried fish snacks and other stuff as you approached the boat pier. The whole experience wasn't particularly pleasant, but back then none of it really resonated with me as much as the good times to be had on the island. I think the attraction of Samet back then was that it was an easy getaway if you only had a weekend to recharge your batteries. I even took some of my family there once or twice when they visited from overseas, and they loved it. I am sure Samet can still be a nice time, and you can probably find some reasonably priced places if you hit it at the right time when it isn't overcrowded. But just the heavy commercialization of all these places over the last 25 years takes the allure of it all away for me, and perhaps that's the main reason I am not so inclined to return. Back then, most of the accommodations on Samet were pretty atrocious, but the average cost was between 150–300 baht a night if I remember correctly, so it wasn't expensive and you went there for the island experience more than anything. I think what it had going for it mainly was the easy access from Bangkok, the lack of tourists and overcrowding, the idea that it could still give you a tropical island experience, and the fact that it was good value. It never really compared to going farther south in Thailand, if you had the time, but it nicely filled the gap for a weekend. Even then, though, on the weekends, the few places on Samet very close to the park entrance were filled with Bangkok Thais also coming down for the weekend, so it could get a bit crowded in that area. But as you went down a bit farther toward Ao Thub Tim, the crowds quickly thinned out. Yes, now I remember. First there was Ao Phai, then came Ao Thub Tim, and then there were two or three more beaches like Ao Nuan and Ao Wong Duean, which I never visited. I guess the island still continues on south for a while, and then there are probably another four or five beaches before you reach the southern tip of the island. But back then, nobody ever talked about those places because I don't think there was even anything developed beyond Wong Duean. The rest were just fishing villages. I think at the time the best place on the island to stay was a place run by a Swiss guy and his Thai wife that was always fully booked because everything worked inside the bungalows. He had his own speedboat and the rooms were around 500 baht a night. It was always fully booked by his regular customers from Europe who would come for long stays so I never got a chance to stay there myself, but I ate at his restaurant a few times, which was quite good. I can't remember the name of the place now. It was the last set of bungalows just before the headland, before heading over to Ao Phai. At the time, I used to take the bus down from Ekamai for the weekend, and sometimes I had access to a company car on the weekends and would drive down and park the car in a lot just opposite the pier, next to the bus terminal. Either way, it was all pretty easygoing. Anyway, it's nice to hear that there are much better accommodations on the island now and many more boat options to get across the channel, but because of all the commercialization, I somehow still don't feel inspired to go back. I think it would be hard for me to see the place the way it is now, given all the nice memories I have of it from when it was just a lazy weekend getaway. As for the comments about nice beaches around the world in general, I spent a number of years in Hawaii when I was younger, so I had some exposure to some pretty fantastic beaches. But I would say some of the most beautiful island spots I saw in Thailand were the small islands off the coast of Krabi, accessible only by day trips. Mainly because they were national parks with no development, so much of the natural beauty is untouched and still remains. The reason I didn't put Hua Hin on my original list in my OP is because I had visited a handful of beaches there and, although they were good for walking, the water was always kind of brown and brackish and never really appealed to me. It felt like a rather far drive to look at what seemed like pretty underwhelming seas. Maybe I should rent a car in October or early November, just before the high tourist season starts, and drive to some of the other beach areas in Prachuap myself. A 3-4 hour drive would be OK for me, but driving as far as places like Chumphon, Krabi, or anywhere much further south of there is probably further than I would want to travel overland.
