Koh Phangan Travel Guide – Where’s My Full Moon?

Located on the eastern coastline of Thailand, there’s a perfect trio of islands. Their names are Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, and Koh Phaluai. After our journey to Bangkok, we explored the beautiful Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. In this post, I’ll share our fantastic three days on Koh Phangan with you.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: How to Get There?

We flew from Bangkok Airport to Koh Samui Airport with Bangkok Airways. Then, we hopped on a ferry from Koh Samui, and after about a 45-minute journey, we reached Koh Phangan. We purchased our ferry tickets, including the transfer from Koh Samui Airport to Thongsala Pier, from this site. We had no issues with transportation and tickets.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: When to Go?

The best time to visit Koh Phangan is between November and March because the weather is pleasant, and there’s minimal humidity. Our visit to Koh Phangan was in April. Honestly, the temperature and humidity were a bit challenging during the day. However, since we could jump into the sea and relax anytime, we managed just fine. 🙂

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: Where to Stay?

Settlement areas are generally located in the west and south regions of Koh Phangan, while the east remains quite isolated. We chose to stay in the western part of the island because we enjoyed sunsets and there were peaceful and beautiful accommodation options. Being close to everything made our stay convenient. We stayed at Zama Resort, where we had breakfast included in our sea-view rooms. You can check the details of our hotel stay here.

Besides the beauty of the rooms, I believe the best part of this hotel was the unlimited breakfast between 9 am and 5 pm. During these hours, you can eat and drink as much as you want from the breakfast menu, and there were plenty of delicious options. You can check other accommodation options on the island here.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: Transportation

Getting to Koh Phangan is done by ferry. After getting off the ferry at Thongsala Pier, we hopped on a minibus-like pickup truck, paying 200 Baht per person to reach our hotel. This shared vehicle, carrying 5-6 people heading in the same direction, dropped us right at our hotel.

In general, we explored the beaches around our hotel by walking. After a while, we realized that we needed to rent a vehicle to fully explore the island. Hotel staff specifically warned us not to rent motorcycles. They mentioned that locals often drive motorcycles very fast, causing difficulties for tourists, and tourists often have accidents. Therefore, on our second day, we rented a car for 1800 Baht for a day through our hotel. Yes, even though traffic flows on the right side. 🙂 A car was definitely much safer and, of course, more comfortable than a motorcycle.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: Places to Visit

Koh Phangan, a 1970s-era haven where settlements began to emerge, is a natural, postcard-like island in every corner. I’m sure you’ll enjoy exploring this hidden paradise. I hope we can preserve this natural beauty for many years. In the notes section at the end of the article, you can find the Google Maps map where I pinned all the locations mentioned in this article.

Our Beach

We stepped onto this beautiful beach just a few steps from our room on our first day. It was like a hidden paradise with tall palm trees and soft sand. If you’re looking for a quiet beach, you can visit here. I’m calling it “Our Beach” because it doesn’t have a name on the map. 🙂

Secret Beach

We woke up early in the morning and came to this fantastic beach, just a 10-minute walk from our hotel. The sea was both very calm and very clean. When you enter the sea and turn your face to the island, the lush green landscape truly mesmerizes you. There’s also a sweet café on the beach; you can have your morning coffee and breakfast here. Secret Beach was beautiful between 8 am and 10:30 am. However, after 11 am, tour boats started arriving, and the beach became crowded. If you really want to enjoy this beach, be sure to come early.

Mae Haad Beach

After renting a car, our first stop was Mae Haad Beach. It’s located at the northwest point of the island, with Koh Ma Island directly across. There’s a beach where you can walk from Koh Phangan to Koh Ma. In other words, you can walk from one island to another. If you go at a time when the sea level is not too high, you can see this beautiful beach where waves hit from both sides.

In addition, Mae Haad Beach is quite long. The sea was beautiful and clean. This beach was recommended to us for sunset, but we chose another beach for that. 🙂

Haad Khom Beach

A beach located at the northernmost point of the island. When we went, the sea had receded a lot due to the tide, and the beach was both very rocky and not very clean. I don’t know how it is during the season, but I didn’t particularly like this beach.

Haad Yao

This beach, located on the west side of the island, became one of my favorites. This beautiful beach adorned with long palm trees had a gorgeous sea. I think this is one of the best beaches on the island to watch the sunset; the sun sets directly over the sea. ❤️ Also, there are many cafes and restaurants here.

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Haad Rin

The famous Full Moon parties take place here, located at the southernmost beach of the island. Our period of visit did not coincide with Full Moon or Half Moon parties, so we couldn’t experience that.

We easily reached here in the evening with the car we rented. If you won’t rent a vehicle, no problem; there are transportation options like minibuses to get here. When we arrived at Haad Rin, we knew there wouldn’t be any moon parties. However, we still thought there might be some liveliness. But we encountered a very quiet and calm beach. We found it a bit challenging to imagine 30,000 people having a party on this beach all at once. 🙂 Overall, it was a beautiful beach, and I’m sure it’s even more beautiful during the day.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: Dining & Food and Drink

Heaven Bar

Located at Our Beach, this place offers excellent food. Whether you want to enjoy the sunset or have dinner, it’s perfect under the palm trees. The barbecue looked fantastic, but we missed it because we arrived a bit late. We tried Thai dishes like som tam, glass noodle salad, yellow curry, and they were all delicious. I highly recommend their passion fruit margaritas.

Lost ‘N Found Beach Bar

A sweet spot located on Secret Beach. If you come here, you can stop by Lost ‘N Found Beach Bar for a nice coffee or fruit cocktail.

Moon House

The place where we sat when we went to Haad Rin. We only tried their appetizers, and they were average, not outstanding.

Koh Raham

Located in the cove just beyond Secret Beach, Koh Raham is in a very beautiful location. The restaurant uses trash collected from the sea as decoration. We tried Pad Thai here, and it was quite good. If you want something different from Thai dishes, they also have a very extensive international menu.

Bluerama

Recommended by our hotel as a place with a beautiful view. We decided to visit here on our last day while waiting for our ferry time. Getting to the place is a bit challenging; you have to climb about 1 km, and no vehicle can enter. After a challenging climb in the heat, the view refreshed us, of course. If you’re looking for a beautiful, scenic place around here, you can visit Bluerama.

Koh Phangan Travel Guide: Notes & Recommendations & Conclusion

• I pinned the places to visit and restaurants on Google Maps in order. If you save the map below, you can easily access the locations even without internet.
• If you really want to explore the island, it’s a good idea to rent a vehicle; otherwise, finding transportation to every region can be challenging.
• I recommend starting your day early and enjoying the sea before the beaches get crowded.
• In hotels, mosquito repellent is usually provided. If not, there are many Seven Eleven stores on the island where you can go and buy some.
• Interestingly, activities on the island are organized through Facebook. Residents communicate and follow events through groups on the platform. This reminded me of Europe in the early 2000s.
• It’s good to buy ferry tickets in advance through this site, just in case.
• You can find my other articles about Thailand here.