My Trip Report Of Koh Chang/mak

[fm2002]

Just returned today from a trip to Koh Chang. Ended up staying in a beachfront bungalow at KC resort for around 3000 baht per night. You can't beat the location, as you are literally 100 meters from the water. The staff was nice and willing to assist. The included breakfast was above average and the Internet for a price was fast and reliable. Our bungalow however was very small and IMHO way overpriced. It seemed to me these were once cheap bungalows that as prices went up they attempted to make them over. The beach when compared to others on Koh Chang I personally visited was again above average. We ate out every night (3 times). First night we ate at Invito’s, which is suppose to be one of the nicest restaurants around, but turned out to be a disappointment. Second night we ate at a great little Thai owned place recommended by the dive shop I used and it turned out to be great. Of all things it was French food. I had a steak with an incredible prepared sauce, onion soup, a beer; glass of wine and the misses had a nice Thai soup all for 600 baht. Last night we ate at Taj an Indian restaurant and it was really good and mid range priced.

The next 3 nights we stayed on Koh Mak at Makathanee. I guess if I had to go to Koh Mak again I would stay there or maybe Koh Mak Resort, which we visited. The other choices around island that I visited you would be roughing it. There was no pool, decent deck chairs, or restaurant. We rented a motorbike and went around the whole island. I really didn't see a good beach and the whole time I was there never went in the ocean. From a far I could see some smaller islands that looked like they might have a good beach. There was a nice little restaurant/bar across the road from the hotel that we hung out at.

One of the reasons I went to Koh Chang was to do some scuba diving. I dove twice off of Koh Chang; Hin Luk Bat and Hin Rap. I'll sum it up by saying if you’re a diver that's been around give it a miss. It's probably one of the worst dives I've done in Asia. It must be noted that I didn't dive off Koh Rang at the Pinnacles or Horseshoe, which are suppose to be the best around that area. I tried to but when I inquired from all of the 3 dive shops on Koh Mak it became apparent that you share a boat with snorkelers and you go where the snorkelers can go which is not the Pinnacles or Horseshoe. I inquired about chartering a private speedboat and was told it would be 8000baht just for the boat. (The dive sites are about 15-20 minute boat ride and the entire charter would take about 3 1/2 hours).

To sum it up if you are a tourist new to Asia and looking for a quiet beach oriented vacation and not bothered by $100USD accommodation than you won't be disappointed. However, if you have traveled around Asia a bit or alot as I have there are much better beaches, diving and experiences to be had elsewhere.

[sibeymai]

Just been to Koh Chang myself for the first time. Stayed at KP Bungalows. 1,000Bt a night right on the edge of the beach and 10 metres to the water. Fantastic location, quiet, clean and peaceful. Not 5 star but the bungalows are clean, good size, have hot shower and UBC. No air-con, but who needs air con with an ocean breeze ? If 5 star is your style this is not for you, but i found the place perfectly comfortable, a great location and lacking nothing for essentials. No pool either....but why stay on the beach if you need a pool ?

[fm2002]

Just been to Koh Chang myself for the first time. Stayed at KP Bungalows. 1,000Bt a night right on the edge of the beach and 10 metres to the water. Fantastic location, quiet, clean and peaceful. Not 5 star but the bungalows are clean, good size, have hot shower and UBC. No air-con, but who needs air con with an ocean breeze ? If 5 star is your style this is not for you, but i found the place perfectly comfortable, a great location and lacking nothing for essentials. No pool either....but why stay on the beach if you need a pool ?

Actually on Koh Chang if you stay on or near the nicer beaches there is no need for a pool. We never got close to ours during our stay and spent alot of time in the ocean. I'm not the 5star tourist those cost 5,000 up, but with day time temps hovering around 34-37 IMHO air con is a must. My point I was trying to put forth is if you compare to other places around Thailand Koh Chang is priced high.

[Changian]

True, Koh Chang's beachfront hotels are pretty pricey. The main reason being that there are relatively fewgood ones. But 3,000 baht/night fora decade old hut at Koh Chang Resort is definitely not value for money. Compare those bungalows to the ones costing 500 baht more at Klong Prao Resort, or 500 baht less at Coconut Beach Resort - botha few hundred metres away and far, far nicer.

The crap beaches of Koh Mak, so others can see how truly awful they are:

[fm2002]

It would be a mistake to say the beaches of Koh Mak are "crap". However the beaches left and right of my hotel and left and right of Koh Mak resort and a few others we visited on the A, B, C marked trails were nice to look at, but when you are actually on them they are not really made up of fluffy sand, but a compacted mud/sand mix. If there are nice fluffy sand beaches as there are on Koh Chang than I stand corrected. I notice one of the pics looks like it was taken from Makathanee, where we stayed and it looks like the beach is nicer than what we experienced. I was told that this time of year when the wind blows onshore the beaches are not as nice. Perhaps this pic was taken at the right time of year ???

[Nickthegreek]

I am just in the process of trying to decide to go the Koh Chang or Koh mak,for a well deserved holiday!!!!

I am now not sure what to do,I am looking at the picture that you show for Koh Mak and they look ok to me!

I was looking at the bungalows of bann koh mak,but booking this over the phone all seem to be too expensive,not sure if they choose there prices from telephone directories?

However,I would welcome some good advice about either Island,somewhere good to stay for about 1000 per night with a nice beach fr swimming and not too many people looking for some peace and quiet...

Nick

[fm2002]

I am just in the process of trying to decide to go the Koh Chang or Koh mak,for a well deserved holiday!!!!

I am now not sure what to do,I am looking at the picture that you show for Koh Mak and they look ok to me!

I was looking at the bungalows of bann koh mak,but booking this over the phone all seem to be too expensive,not sure if they choose there prices from telephone directories?

However,I would welcome some good advice about either Island,somewhere good to stay for about 1000 per night with a nice beach fr swimming and not too many people looking for some peace and quiet...

Nick

Nick,

Actually we planned and booked Ban Koh Mak, but after arriving let's just say it wasn't as nice as the pictures on their website. So we ended up moving down the beach a bit to Makhantee which was expensive at 3000 baht. If you decide on Koh Mak I would recommend Koh Mak resort.

I would say stay on Koh Chang, nicer beaches and better chance of finding a place to stay in your price range. Unfortunately I cannot recommend a hotel in Koh Chang for you. As my post mentions the place we stayed at wasn't good value.

One thing I would add is on our slow boat ride from Koh Mak back to Koh Chang we stopped in at Koh Wai to pickup additional passengers. It looked from my limited view that the beaches and water were better than on Koh Mak.

Hope this helps.

[Seapok]

I will be making my 4th visit to Koh Chang in 2 weeks, I've had great times each time I've been, staying twice at Aiypura Resort and once at Koh Chang Resort. This time we will be staying at Koh Chang Kacha Resort. I can't wait, always look forward to going, never had a bad experience except for me and the missus coming off the bike in the dark and slippery wet roads! Ooops

[Beardog]

Koh Mak is the armpit of the Koh Chain. Very boring, overpriced.

Ko Kood is 1000 times Solitude. We were forced to stay in Koh Mak for 6 hrs for our Boat to do repairs to get us to Koh Kood. Couldn't wait to get out of there(like waiting in Taipea to get the flight to Thailand)

Koh Chang lonely beach goes on forever & has a lively atmosphere as well as going to remoter areas to get away. Koh Kood is Beautiful. We only paid up to 500 baht a night. I love spending money but the Dusit (or similar) comon. The islands are more for the rugged. Stay in Pattaya if you need the 4-5 star accomodations. Otherwise IMO it takes away from the actual vacation aspect of going to Koh Chang area.

If you are a serious scuba diver, You want to go to Ko Phi Phi -outside of Koh Samui. It is the crem de le crem of Thailands scuba . I would give all Thailand a miss other than Ko Phi Phi . I used to teach for a good many years in Maui Hawaii. Koh Phi Phi is like the Virgin Islands, Jamaica -Florida& Hawaii & Austrailia & is considered to be the top of Thailand for diving.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Beardog

[Sourdough Al]

We made out first trip to Koh Chang three weeks ago. KC is a beautiful island, but I can say I was not impressed with its beaches. The nice beaches we have come to expect in LOS were in limited supply on KC. The price of accommodation seemed rather high for what you got. After a couple of days on KC we moved over to Koh Wai and were very happy with what we experienced. The beaches were very nice. You can snorkel from the beach and there is a lot to see underwater. In future trips, I am going to skip KC and go directly to Koh Wai, Koh Kood, etc.

[TinaKohChang]

I am living and working on Koh Chang for 6 months now after 4 years Samui.... KC is indeed a very beautiful island but those, expecting many nice sandy and palm fringed beaches such as Phuket, Samui...do wrong, we have just a few really paradisic ones over here, that is fact! The most nicest beaches are definetely in the Klong Phrao area... there a few very nice and cheap "resorts" on an approx. 2 km long strip. Those looking for a Beach Vacation, definetely should go there.

I am running a small Guesthouse my self in Ban Bangbao on the Pier, the unique Fishermen' s Village at the very end of the southern part, passing Kaibae, Lonely beach, Bailan etc... here on the Pier it' s a very unique and nice experience as we are all stilted in the water, having superb views to the sea and mountains watching seaeagles hunting for food... really amazing! But beacheners who want to get a tan are here in the wrong location, except they do not mind having a 5 min. Motorbike or Songkaew ride to a real beautiful, secluded beach with white sand and hundreds of palmtrees...My house guests love it there...There are some foodstalls and a restaurant aswell, where one really can enjoy cheap, but very good food and drinks..a perfect retreat for beach lovers but at the beach is no accomodation, except one large resort at the very end of it, what is called "Grand Lagoona" a unique built one, but overpriced!

Anyway, my first personal choice when it comes to relax, swim and enjoy the beach however is always Klong Phrao! I just explored that part of the island, it is a hidden secret...Highly recommendable is the Aana Resort (higher priceed) or very laid back but simplest accomodation type, the Thale Bungalows or the KB Resort with beautiful stilted wooden Bungalows in first row to the sea...

A very unique experience is also the "Mangrove" designed, owned and run by a bangkogian Thai Lady who used to live abroad most of her life, she runs a true hideaway with stunningly built simple but very comfortable bungalows, added to a very good restaurant and her own private beach, the place is located between Lonely Beach and Bailan and fortunatley easy to miss as she is not doing aggresive promotion, a small and simple signboard from wood opposite her place saying "Mangrove" is all she does to be found... Very nice, stunning, with good views, clean, laidback and the prices are also very ok, 1000 THB in main season...cheaper in low!

We made out first trip to Koh Chang three weeks ago. KC is a beautiful island, but I can say I was not impressed with its beaches. The nice beaches we have come to expect in LOS were in limited supply on KC. The price of accommodation seemed rather high for what you got. After a couple of days on KC we moved over to Koh Wai and were very happy with what we experienced. The beaches were very nice. You can snorkel from the beach and there is a lot to see underwater. In future trips, I am going to skip KC and go directly to Koh Wai, Koh Kood, etc.

[MistyAustralia]

We just spent 3 weeks on Koh Mak. Stayed at 4 places and visited many others.Here's mine and my travelling companions idea of Koh Mak. Firstly the beaches were full of rubbish and no-one seems to clean it up.Not to mention the awful sandflies.We stayed first at Tk Huts.Was basic and the breakfast was grosse.Then we moved to Makathanee.Was clean and nice.Very expensive for what it is and the staff are miserable and rude.Then Monkey resort , which was ok , except for the terrible smell behind their restaurant which put us off. Finally we moved to coco cape , which was overpriced but had great views and a cool jetty to sit on all day .

Just accross the way from makathanee resort is a groovy little bar called Saabay where we spent alot of time.The food was great , the staff friendly and the atmosphere inviting.We met some great local foreigners there too.

We rented a bike to explore and found a few beautiful places , however after the rain it's impossible to drive your bike around and you slip and slide in this terrible rust mud that covers the island .I think that we must have met 8-10 people who vowed never to come back to Koh Mak because of the terrible road situation.Personally we feel that if the island is gong to attract foreign people then they need to fix the roads.

We ate at quite a few restaurants , Fantasia does great smoothies , but awful food.We both got sick after eating there.Good Time does great food , but the owners children were so badly behaved that it made us want to leave.The owners are german and the woman was so snooty and rude when we were asking questions about the place that it put us off.

Then we got stuck in the mud trying to get out of there and a really great french lady helped us push our bike out the mud and her english neighbours hosed us down and gave us a tip for a short cut back to the main road.

There are quite a few new houses being built there by the same snobs who own the goodtime resort.They all look like they are 20 years old but actually are only 2 years old.We heard that they are all full of water and the owners are going mad.

Balls Cafe on Ao Nid pier do a great coffee and cheese cake and the owner Ball and his wife Oi were very helfull and gave us a bike map to sight see round the island.But alas , most of the roads were impassable which made the whole thing impossible.

We met a great New Zealander building a really beautiful resort above the Buri Huts , it doesn't have a name yet , but it is lovely , made from Bamboo with all mod cons and he was so helpfull and nice that we actually ended up staying a couple of extra days even though we'd had enough of koh Mak because he was so interesting.

All in all , there are some great people on Koh Mak and a few lovely spots.It's overpriced for what it offers and to sum it up we rekon if you are charging over 100 aussie dollars for a room then you better at least have a road to get there safely , or it's not even worth 10 dollars !

Don't go to Koh mak if you are expecting pristine beaches and coral , or even a clean beach for that matter , do go if you enjoy adventure and like meeting mad foreigners with big dreams.Our stay at koh Mak was made memorable by the local farrangs we met , who looked after us and showed us the way.We would go back just to see them again !

[Beardog]

3 weeks in Koh Mak would bore me to tears. Koh Kai or one of the outlaying islands are not only more scenic- but better overall.

Nothing beats Koh Chang. But I am only 52 & like House- Hip Hop Rock & Roll so Koh Chang at lonely beach Nature beach huts

500 baht a nite Awesome beach & endless choices on food!

Just be careful driving there.It is easy to have a wreck or witness a wreck if you let your eyes drift while going up or down the mountain!

If you really need 5 star accommodations ......try Singapore

[onlooker]

Koh Kai

?? If you mean Koh Wai, then hard to see how that would be more exciting than Koh Mak as there are only 3 ( if memory serves correct ) places to stay/eat/drink on the island.

[chinkles]

Koh Mak is the armpit of the Koh Chain. Very boring, overpriced.

Ko Kood is 1000 times Solitude. We were forced to stay in Koh Mak for 6 hrs for our Boat to do repairs to get us to Koh Kood. Couldn't wait to get out of there(like waiting in Taipea to get the flight to Thailand)

Koh Chang lonely beach goes on forever & has a lively atmosphere as well as going to remoter areas to get away. Koh Kood is Beautiful. We only paid up to 500 baht a night. I love spending money but the Dusit (or similar) comon. The islands are more for the rugged. Stay in Pattaya if you need the 4-5 star accomodations. Otherwise IMO it takes away from the actual vacation aspect of going to Koh Chang area.

If you are a serious scuba diver, You want to go to Ko Phi Phi -outside of Koh Samui. It is the crem de le crem of Thailands scuba . I would give all Thailand a miss other than Ko Phi Phi . I used to teach for a good many years in Maui Hawaii. Koh Phi Phi is like the Virgin Islands, Jamaica -Florida& Hawaii & Austrailia & is considered to be the top of Thailand for diving.

sorry to correct you my friend but i live on samui and phi phi is no where near samui you have got koh phanang then koh toh .phi phi is the other side of thailand krabi side

[wilko]

Koh Mak is the armpit of the Koh Chain. Very boring, overpriced.

Ko Kood is 1000 times Solitude. We were forced to stay in Koh Mak for 6 hrs for our Boat to do repairs to get us to Koh Kood. Couldn't wait to get out of there(like waiting in Taipea to get the flight to Thailand)

Koh Chang lonely beach goes on forever & has a lively atmosphere as well as going to remoter areas to get away. Koh Kood is Beautiful. We only paid up to 500 baht a night. I love spending money but the Dusit (or similar) comon. The islands are more for the rugged. Stay in Pattaya if you need the 4-5 star accomodations. Otherwise IMO it takes away from the actual vacation aspect of going to Koh Chang area.

If you are a serious scuba diver, You want to go to Ko Phi Phi -outside of Koh Samui. It is the crem de le crem of Thailands scuba . I would give all Thailand a miss other than Ko Phi Phi . I used to teach for a good many years in Maui Hawaii. Koh Phi Phi is like the Virgin Islands, Jamaica -Florida& Hawaii & Austrailia & is considered to be the top of Thailand for diving.

sorry to correct you my friend but i live on samui and phi phi is no where near samui you have got koh phanang then koh toh .phi phi is the other side of thailand krabi side

I would seriously dispute some of the other observations made about Koh Chang too! - lonely beach - lovely?????

Edited May 26, 2008 by wilko

[cowbs]

Last year we spent 3 weeks on Koh Smaui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Loved it all! This year spent a quick 10 days on Koh Chang and Koh Mak at the beginnning of April 2008.

As always, you get what you pay for in terms of resorts. One had bed bugs at THB2,300 per night. But we had a good stay at KC Grande, right on lovely long white soft sand beach, with pool and good restaurant.

Also spent 3 days on Koh Mak which takes 1 hour by speed boat from Bang Bao on Koh Chang. Stunning! The above photos tell it all. Very remote and quiet. Stayed Cocoscape. Variety of rooms and prices. Mostly Thai guests. Great setting, and really lovely staff. I have heard that sand flies can be a problem, but we didn't find that. Took a long walk along the beach to the end; about 3kms. A real tropical paradise - but don't let on! Not very sophisticated island, so be prepared.

Went snorkelling on a day trip, and were amazed at the fish and clarity of water. Very commercial when we stopped for lunch on what started as a remote island until about 20 other snorkelling boats did the same! All part of the experience I suppose.

East coast of KC is really interesting and worth a visit if you want the more traditional Thailand and tranquility. Mangrove forests. Kayaking.

Hopefully this part of Thailand stays this way and doesn't become over exploited.