Celete Kato, 129 TCCS

TRAVEL DESTINATION

• Koh Samet, Rayong Province

MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

• Car

TRAVEL TIME (FROM BKK)

• 1-3 hours. I live in Rayong and everyone kept telling me that I needed to visit Koh Samet. I was lucky enough to get dropped off and picked up at the pier, which was about an hour drive from my site. From BKK my friends took a van and the trip was about 3 hours.

THE COST FACTOR

• Mâi pɛɛng

HOW WAS THE WEATHER?

• Beautiful!

HOW LONG DID YOU STAY?

• A few days

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS DESTINATION?

• You betcha!

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR TRAVELS…

We decided to spend New Years Eve on Koh Samet so it was pretty crowded on the main beaches. The busiest area was the stretch between Na Dan Pier and the main beach, Ao Hat Sai Kaew. There is also plenty of farang food in this area and you can get your fill of pizza, burgers, and freshly brewed coffee. There were nice restaurants along the water with plenty of fire throwing entertainment in the evenings. However, if that’s the only part of the island you check out, you’re missing out! We rented bicycles and biked to the southernmost tip of the island. DON’T DO THIS. Take a song taew. The island is extremely hilly and we ended up pushing our bikes a lot. We had to stuff them in a song taew at the end of the day to get home. However, the southern parts of the island are where the best beaches are. Definitely, grab a song taew and head to Tub Tim Beach. From there you can enter a path in the woods which takes you through a gorgeous forest path that connects to various beaches down the eastern coast of the island. This was how we discovered our favorite inlet beach that had very few people and crystal blue waters. There was even a restaurant on this beach that had dishes for 80-100 baht and amazing smoothies! There is plenty of opportunity for snorkeling – although we were unable to find actual reefs, it was just sparkling clear blue water. There were also daily boat excursions you could sign up for. We opted to be beach bums, but there are other options available. All in all, it was a super relaxing trip and I would love to get back to Koh Samet again. I recommend it to anyone looking for a beautiful island get-away that doesn’t require the trip down south.