Phuket Beaches

[Kimera]

This post has been replied to in the Phuket Gazette this week, by a government official, It is not a private beach , BUT some are? now thats interesting if they belong to the king.

[LivinginKata]

This post has been replied to in the Phuket Gazette this week, by a government official, It is not a private beach , BUT some are? now thats interesting if they belong to the king.

Often 'charges' relate to using the access road over private land or using private land to park. Beaches are considered 'private' if there is no public access road.

[Kimera]

Often 'charges' relate to using the access road over private land or using private land to park. Beaches are considered 'private' if there is no public access road.

Yes I understand that! but some of the posts refer to sailing in ! and again, what is this private beach thing then, if they belong to the King, do they or dont they ?

[LivinginKata]

Often 'charges' relate to using the access road over private land or using private land to park. Beaches are considered 'private' if there is no public access road.

Yes I understand that! but some of the posts refer to sailing in ! and again, what is this private beach thing then, if they belong to the King, do they or dont they ?

I too thought all beaches up to the high water mark (or is it low water) belonged to the crown and is considered public land. Don't know anything about private beaches. But it's a bit like public parking on the beach road. If someone lounging about says it's his space for hire cars and you ignore him, when you get back the tyres will have no air. But that's another topic.

[Old Croc]

I suppose a couple of beaches in front of remote high end hotels could be classified as private.

The Merlin (near Paradise) and Meridian for examples.

[markg]

Often 'charges' relate to using the access road over private land or using private land to park. Beaches are considered 'private' if there is no public access road.

Yes I understand that! but some of the posts refer to sailing in ! and again, what is this private beach thing then, if they belong to the King, do they or dont they ?

They just arent private. You can sail in and there is nothing that the land owner can do about it.

Ever wondered why there are no permanent structures below the high water mark? (Houses on stilts for example?)

It's because they are not allowed to build on it because the land is OWNED by the King. 'private' beaches cannot be built upon because the landowner does not own them!

Some beaches may 'appear' private. Some may even advertise that they are private. But they are not. To all intents and purposes they seem private because there is no public access to them, but they cannot stop a sailor, kayaker or swimmer from entering from the sea - which is a public right of way!

Of course, you have to be careful. No point upsetting a large group of Thai people if you are on your own just to prove the principle that you are right and they are wrong.

Public can gain access to the Meridian in Patong though they have to pay a fee for use of the private access road. You can sail into it though and as long as you stay below the high water mark chanote marker post, and don't use any of the facilities, then you can stay all day for free. If there is an argument, just find the chanote marker post and ask what it is there for? (It marks the end of their land and the start of the King's land)

Hope this helps.

[phuketrichard]

All beaches are "free". Just the rental of the chairs and umbrellas are 100B.

Some places will also try to stick you for parking. They can charge for parking in some "zones" on the street which is regulate by the local city. And that person is in an offical uniform. Tuk-Tuks drivers also try to take over parking control and they can not. Call a BiB if needed, they will actually come to your defense. Surprise... surprise.

All Beaches are free. BUT at Laem Singh they will make u pay to park your car or motorcycle on the PUBLIC road. I live in Kamala and have been in Phuket for over 24 years and the only time i went to laem Singh was a few days after the Tsumani to see what it looked like. If u don't pay u come back and ur tires are flat.

Haven't been to Paradies beach since the early 80's and see no reasonn to ever go there.

Good luck with 100 baht for two chairs now. Spoke with my friends that run a chair service at Kamala and they get 150/set while at Patong they ask for 200!!

There are a few places where they have tried to block access (like the Meridian and also past Phuket Yacht club) but its illigeal.

[mikebike]

Whenever I go to Paradise Beach, which is not too often but several times, I just park my bike down there, go to the restaurant and have a drink there and then enjoyed the beach. Nobody ever charged me some money for parking or a chair. And if you eat a snack or fried rice or whatever, no problem at all.

Not anymore, and maybe our story will illustrate this further...

Given that the owner of Paradise Beach has repeatedly rejected substantial offers to sell his land to hotels/developers and is on public record as saying he wants to keep the beach natural and open to all, paying 100 baht to help him do that, doesn't seem totally unreasonable.

Not sure on the truth in this after reading LivinLOS' response, but this was our impression as well. In fact there was a two page feature article about this and the owner of Paradise Beach a while back but it doesn't come up in their site-search...

So my wife and I are expats and had a couple visiting from home. For an afternoon out we decided to longtail from Rawai (home) to Paradise Beach and back. We've always enjoyed our time there (usually arriving by road) but it had been about 10 months since we'd been.

We arrived around 1pm and headed straight to the restaurant for lunch. After eating and drinking copiously (and pleasantly) we paid the 1400 baht tab and our friends went and rented snorkeling gear (400 baht) for a swim. My wife and I didn't feel like it (been there, done that...) so we said we'd walk/hang on the beach while they were exploring.

We walked from the restaurant around the rock outcrop to the smaller beach and didn't even make it halfway to the other end when we were accosted by a beach-boy demanding 200 baht for us to stroll the beach. Smiling and in our semi-competent Thai my wife and I explained that we had arrived by longtail, eaten, drank, and our friends were now snorkling with rented equipment. Although understanding all of this the kid became more and more animated demanding baht. We said we'd stand in one spot until our friend's swim was done then be outta there... tout de suite!

He eventually and grudging left us there. We waited patiently for about another 15 minutes and a different beach-boy with exactly the same patter and attitude came and started again... By this time our friends were swimming in and we were able to extricate ourselves and beat a retreat to the longtail.

Needless to say a potentially stunning afternoon was tainted for us and we won't be returning to Paradise Beach until we've heard the policy/attitude has changed.

[phuketrex]

I used to go there a lot when it was just the rough trail over the hills but now it has become mega commerical and the last time I went 3 of us got the "treat like sh1t" treatment. We ate first at a table under the trees so they got 600 baht out of us for that. Then we wanted a swim so walked down to a shaded area of the beach at the east end and were changing on some rocks when the "owner" came along and demanded that we pay 100 baht each for a sunbed...but we didn't want beds. He then starts going on about the beach being private and that they clean it every day and we had to pay.

We argue back at him that we've just spent 600baht at his restaurant; we don't want beds and the beach is not private. He says us eating at the restaurant had nothing to do with it as it and the beach are "seperate"...now we were on the beach we had to pay. Then he asks where we'd parked our bikes and we pointed where they were with all the others..."private" he says again and the road to the beach is private property too.

The arguing went on for about 10 minutes, we refused to pay and finally he went off only to be replaced by his wife or partner and we had the same argument again till she went off.

OK I understand they've invested a lot of money putting the road in and building the restaurant but trying to charge people for something they don't want is not doing themselves any favours for future business.

We had our swim for an hour and I think we were lucky he didn't trash our motorbikes.

While we were there also saw a woman on her own come down onto the beach and sit on a towel near the waters' edge. Down HE came and started giving her hassle because she hadn't paid for a sunbed.

Never been back since.

Here's the ***** PRIVATE BEACH sign nailed to the tree>>>

It is a stunning beach but it's spoilt now with the masses going there and the hassle from the staff>>>

Edited November 23, 2009 by phuketrex

[LivinLOS]

OK I understand they've invested a lot of money putting the road in and building the restaurant but trying to charge people for something they don't want is not doing themselves any favours for future business.

The thing is with these location driven businesses, they simply can rely on hordes of new arrivals and not on customer service or feedback. How many badly run things continue to roll along and make money, because of the location and amount of new people they see.

In a normal economy thats not as workable.