Koh Samui’s Poster Child: Chaweng Beach
Chaweng Beach is, without a doubt, one of the most popular beaches in Thailand, and rightly so. While beaches on Koh Samui are abundant, Chaweng stands out for several reasons. Taking its name from the largest town of Koh Samui that’s just nearby, Chaweng is the most popular beach of the island. This inevitably means that its also one of the busiest on the island too. So, the question becomes, is it worth the hype? Well, there’s a plethora of accommodation options, myriad nightlife choices and also a seemingly endless stream of restaurants available at your beck and call. Is there anything not to love?
Most importantly, Chaweng Beach is walking distance from our Hotel in Koh Samui!
How to Get to Chaweng Beach
As we just mentioned, Chaweng Beach is just a short walk away from our hostel. The easiest way to get there is going down the street towards the coast and walking through Novotel directly to the white sands. We recommend taking a right turn and walking past the first little cove, since the water is much warmer in this area of Chaweng. Tough to cool off from the heat in warm water, after all!
The Green Mango Strip
This is the, somewhat unofficial, name of the main strip where you’ll find the hub of Chaweng’s bar scene. Here you’ll find outdoors circular bamboo bars packed full of those on their backpacker journeys making new friends who they’ll love for life or forget about by the morning. This is a lengthy strip of almost 3km, and whilst there is a fairly constant stream of bars, there are also small pockets of larger activity along the way. McDonald’s plays one of these roles, alongside the ever popular Tropical Murphy’s Irish Pub.
Eating at Chaweng Beach
The area is flooded with restaurants and bars. You’ll have a lengthy choice between traditional thai dishes, western style restaurants, fast food and some great street food too. If you’re on the beach itself, you won’t need to worry about ever going hungry. The vendors come thick and fast, as with every popular beach, and if you’re not hungry, they’ll push their wristbands, sunglasses and other tourist tat.
How to Get to Koh Samui
Thankfully, Koh Samui is very well connected to both the main land and also some international flights through the airport. If you’re travelling from within Thailand you’ve got a choice between the two main options, taking the convenient but more expensive flight (direct from the likes of Bangkok and Chiang Mai) or the slower but more affordable ferries from nearby ports. The flight is highly recommended and is less than 2 hours from Bangkok end to end.
