Koh Chang or Koh Samet ?

[CharlieH]

Anyone got any comments or recommendations ? Which one would you stay on and why ?

Thanks for contributions.

[angsta]

Chang every day of the week. Samet is 'Bangkok on the weekend.' Awful.

[HerIndoors]

Years ago I used to enjoy Samed because it was quick and easy to get to but some of the beaches are getting dirty and as the above poster said.. like Bangkok at the weekend. Koh Chang takes longer but is probably more interesting.

[Rinrada]

Chang more interesting with places to hide...also got a nice big "paddy pub"

[craigt3365]

I use to love Samet. But I have not been back in years and have heard it's much more crowded now. Especially White Sand Beach.

But the same is true of Chang. Massive development over the years. We were there 5 years ago after not having visited for some 3-4 years. We were amazed at all the new development...and traffic.

[Spaniel]

I have been to both but neither recently. I would go to Samet, just avoid the weekends.

[Mooner]

Samet is more convenient but more to do on Chang. Avoid Sai Kaew beach in Samet

[tingtong]

Koh Chang, anytime!!

Bigger, nicer, lot more things to do, and more reasonable priced for the same things.

[gerryBScot]

If you are going to Trat what about Koh Kood small and peaceful and comparatively undeveloped? Ideal place for a rest. Was there last year and contemplating a return there for a few days next week before the new school year resumes....

[Mooner]

Ko Mak is also very nice but not much to do. All depends on what the op is looking for? Bars? Beauty? etc

[CharlieH]

Just fancy a few days break somewhere different, not interested in bars or nightlife as such.

Thanks to all so far, seems like Chang is the favorite, will also research other suggestions that have been made.

[darrendsd]

If you're not interested in nightlife then I would say Wongduean Beach on Samet, just a few bars on that stretch of beach if you do fancy a tipple

[BigRick]

Forget both go to Koh Wai, Koh Kud of Koh Mak across the back of Koh Chiang they are a lot less crowded and a lot less developed. Screw Samet unless you like paying 200baht for a third world disaster zone on the interior of the island. You can reach Koh Wai via snorkeling trips get off one day get on the next. Koh Mak is a speed boat from the piers to the east of the Island.

[DerekMarshall]

Both are great really with a preference to Koh Chang and nature beach resort in Lonely beach area for great chillax time.

[simple1]

if considering Koh Mak or Kood etc do a search on sandflies to avoid the beaches where they reside

[craigt3365]

if considering Koh Mak or Kood etc do a search on sandflies to avoid the beaches where they reside

I've heard many complain of this. We just visited a beach where a friend holidays several times a year. He said the sandflies were horrible. Nobody got a bit. Are they seasonal maybe? He brought along coconut oil to help keep them at bay.

[wellred]

Why can't the hotel staff rake the sand at this places so the sandflies don't have time to lay eggs ect... It's common sense surely.

[simple1]

if considering Koh Mak or Kood etc do a search on sandflies to avoid the beaches where they reside

I've heard many complain of this. We just visited a beach where a friend holidays several times a year. He said the sandflies were horrible. Nobody got a bit. Are they seasonal maybe? He brought along coconut oil to help keep them at bay.

Unsure about seasonal, but wife & I visited Kon Mak, one beach no problem, another beach we got badly bitten.

Edited May 3, 2014 by simple1

[White Christmas13]

Been to Koh Chang and many other places I would recommend Koh Chang

[sas_cars]

Another vote for Koh Chang.

[mogandave]

Any recommendations on a nice place to stay with a wife and kid on Koh Chang?

[JoePai]

Any recommendations on a nice place to stay with a wife and kid on Koh Chang?

Amari is nice

[MrJohnson]

Koh Chang. Stayed there last month at Siam Bay Resort - the place is a bit dysfunctional but you cannot beat the seclusion - we took a bungalow right on the beach - really quiet and not too expensive. Amari is great but not quite as secluded as the Siam Bay. Just avoid White Sand Beach - it is pretty awful. Enjoy KC.

[Livrosa]

We would like to visit koh mak or koh samet in August. Any recent updates on sandflies ?

[craigt3365]

I have not been to Samet in several years, but use to go all the time. I never had problems with sand flies there. Plenty of mozzies for sure! LOL

Mak I hear has a pretty big problem. But some report no problems at all there. We were on a beach a friend said had sand flies. We never got bit. Then out neighbors went to the same beach a month later and got stung a bunch.

I hear coconut oil helps keep them away.

[deckard]

I have been going to Samet for 10 years now . At first it was a great chill out island but over the years has gradually gone down hill . The problems seem to have accelerated over the last year . White sands is a dump now , way too commercialised with jet skis , tour boats and speed boats cluttering up the swiming areas . Rubbish every where , you can't swim in the sea without plastic bags etc. sticking to your body . Dogs are everywhere just running free . Prices for accomodation and food are extortionate , you'd be very lucky to get a basic room for under 1,000bt and the cheapest meal (fried rice ) will set you back 80bt at least (double that of the mainland) . It seems they have built some roads now eliminating the dirt track ones but now the island is plagued with motorbike rentals who's riders have no idea where they are going or which side of the road they should be on . Latest scam is if you put your towel under a tree on the beach for shade , someone will come along and ask for money as they say the tree line is private property !!! As many posters in the past say the locals are just interested in how much money they can grub from the visitors . Overall it has just turned into a commercialised dump and after my last visit the other week it will be my last . Time for pastures new.

[Lissos]

Overall it has just turned into a commercialised dump and after my last visit the other week it will be my last . Time for pastures new.

Yes well I've been saying the same to myself since 2004 or so - "It's time to call it a day, they've ruined it. No more" etc. Trouble is, the proximity to Bangkok as opposed to other places makes it so convenient, so I return against my better judgement / sucker for punishment / laziness.

Like others I have quite a history with Samet going back to the late 90s. Many formative experiences, either in solo retreat or with my latest LBFM. About two years ago it was simultaneously amusing and heartbreaking to find that I can no longer afford to stay in the areas I once did, areas that were once generally backpacker zones where beach view huts in wood with a fan, compromised mozzie screens and a scoop toilet and scoop shower (with rust coloured water) were around B100-B150.

Now, as with Samui, I've been priced out and pushed to the periphery and into side streets half way from the main pier instead of beach front areas. What I find amusing though is that the very same huts are still in that prime territory (huts which I've been told were bought up by Chinese), but now 10 times the price. On about 5 or 6 subsequent visits since the late 90s, I would say there have indeed been plenty of negative introductions (rental motorbikes, massive building going on by the year inside their totally 'pseudo' national park, noise and dirty beaches, sealing roads etc).

On the other hand, the introduction of things like 7-11 have released everyone from being held hostage by overpriced breakfasts and drinks, the quality of some of these new concrete rooms is very good - high speed wifi,etc, a fridge which is a game changer, etc. Internet was always 2 baht compared to everywhere else it seemed. Now WiFi frees us.

Hat Sai Kew is indeed a sight to behold now, largely Chinese, Korean and Thai all having a good time but noisily and in a congested way. Two years ago I went on my favourite coastal hike, to come across heaps of ditched rubble and paint in the forests, wire trying to seal off parts of the walk and a large digger tearing up a beach 'as' people swam in it (I doubt this matched the idyllic image they expected)

Accommodation costs are indeed horrendous in busy periods but at other times I'm still finding it possible to bargain (though the days where nightly costs could be reduced a lot if you said you were staying several days, largely vanished long ago). For me the real rip off is the food. What was once 45-80 baht tops, is now 120 / 130 (before adding rice). I can understand it in certain zones, but even crummy mom and pop places are asking that for hardly taxing meals. Why?

Because they can, that's why.

I think I came to a point where it was no longer painfull, because it is too far gone to halt things. Money talks and there is considerable conversation going on. Anyone who is still paying the 'National Park Fee' has 'sucker' written on their forehead. I think the cash either went to building that utterly pointless concrete monstrosity at the arrival pier or has been paying for local boom boom. Whenever I'm on Samet looking out to sea I often feel deep waves of nostalgia and some sadness about the younger me visiting.

[flossiebear]

Ko Samet is awful, very tiny, overbuilt, ruined, nothing to do there, I was so disappointed when a Thai friend took me their and so was she. It was beautiful once but unrecognisable now.

[Greasystick]

Did Koh Samet and Koh Chang in different months of 2013. Stayed at AO Vonduen in March for a couple of days Pros were it was close to Bangkok and a good place to chill after a few weeks of travelling northern Thailand. Not a lot to do except relax and swim and eat and drink. Good weather. Expensive though.

Koh Chang was a week in August 2014 on White Sand Beach. Lot bigger island with a fair bit more going on. Longer trip from Bangkok to get there, and at that time if year it sure knows how to rain on Koh Chang! Accommodation was less than half the price of Koh Samed though.

I guess the answer to which is best really depends on what you're looking for, when you're going, and how long you want to stay.

[Lissos]

Ko Samet is awful, very tiny, overbuilt, ruined, nothing to do there, I was so disappointed when a Thai friend took me their and so was she. It was beautiful once but unrecognisable now.

Depends what factor you believe ruined it, because there used to be far far far less to do in the late 90s to mid 2000s. It was always a quiet evening on the verrandah of a wooden bungalow, trying to keep those vicious mozzies away, followed by an early night, woken the next morning either by the sea or the trundling of the big blue metal water truck going around desperately trying to supply different areas.

If visitors were lucky, the electricity kept going during the night for the fan. Often it would cut off and the bungalow sleeper baked. I was in my mid 20s when I first went there, and didn't miss busy evenings. If people did congregate, it was to watch a movie at Naga Bungalows.

Currently there is far more to do on Koh Samet than at any other time previously. Massage joints, quite a number of busy bars in the pier road and beach fronts, all manner of things like jet skies, parasailing, etc. For me, the 'ruining' factor is how much blatant building (road and buildings) has taken place in the so called 'national park'.

It insults people's intelligence (and wallet), has done for years and now is at a level which rubs salt into the wounds.

It is a slow but sustained creep of building back into the forest. Trash / Rubbish wise, this has come full circle I would say. In the late 90s it was a bit scruffy at the back of beaches, as there were some locals living in a kind of squatting situation. Somewhere in the mid 2000s there was a nice balance of cleanliness and development, but around 2008 or so something changed again. In 2013 I was shocked at the scale of development not only from the main pier up to the checkpoint, but in the high interior which was also experimenting paving a section of that upper dirt track

As you notice, I must have kept coming back to be able to see the various changes so although one cannot help but comment on them (sometimes lament, sometimes applaud a few improvements) when all is said and done the island can still fulfill the basics of providing a fairly convenient beach off shore from the mainland and that's why I return. It's the same with me for Samui (though I never saw it first time in undeveloped form, by any stretch of the imagination). As on Samui, even with a multitude of changes it is quite possible to lay on the sand, look out to sea and capture the initial attraction no matter what has taken place around it.