Koh Chang Thailand Guide

South of Klong Prao on Koh Chang's west coast, the road climbs, dips — and drops you into Kai Bae, the beach village with the island's best sunset address. Kai Bae's sand is narrower than White Sand or Klong Prao and parts turn rocky at low tide, but it has something they do not: a scatter of small islands sitting just offshore, close enough to kayak to, turning every evening into a layered silhouette show. The Beach Itself Kai Bae runs for roughly a kilometre and a half of pale sand broken by rocky sections, backed by a compact strip of resorts, beach bars, restaurants and small shops along the main road. The southern end is the sandiest for swimming; the northern end is quieter and rockier, good for rock-pool wandering at low tide. Because the beach faces almost due west and slightly south, it catches the sunset full-on — and the offshore islets, Koh Man Nai nearest among them, give the sun something interesting to set behind. Photo: Dykins, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Co...

Costs of Staying on Koh Chang: What a Day, a Week and a Month Really Cost Koh Chang has a reputation for being the affordable big island, and in broad terms that reputation is earned. It is not the cheapest island in Thailand, and it is not a place where money disappears without explanation either. What it rewards is a traveller who can tell a fair price from an inflated one, and who knows which costs are seasonal and which are fixed. The figures below are typical ranges for 2026, gathered from the island rather than from a booking site, and both the English and Thai versions describe the same island, the same prices and the same trade-offs. The honest version of the question is not "How much does Koh Chang cost?" but "How much does Koh Chang cost for the way I travel?" A solo backpacker sleeping in a fan room, eating at markets and riding a rented scooter will spend a fraction of what a family in a beachfront resort spends, and both will have had a good trip. Thi...

Koh Chang Elephants: Elephant Island, Its Camps, and the Welfare Questions Worth Asking Koh Chang means Elephant Island, and almost every visitor arrives expecting elephants the way they expect beaches. The name is on the ferry ticket, in the hotel logos, on the carved statues outside the cafes. So it surprises people to learn the honest starting point for any guide to elephants on this island: there are no wild elephants on Koh Chang, and there never have been in any recorded history. The elephants you see here — at a handful of camps in the island's valleys — were brought from the mainland, each one an individual animal with a working past, living a life that depends entirely on the choices visitors make. This guide treats those elephants, and you, with respect. It explains where the name really comes from, how elephants came to be on an island they are not native to, what the island's camps actually offer today, and the welfare questions worth asking before you pay for a...

White Sand Beach — Hat Sai Khao — is the front door of Koh Chang. It's the first big beach you reach from the ferry, the longest stretch of sand on the island's west coast, and the place most visitors see first. It's not the prettiest beach on Koh Chang, and it's not the quietest — but it's the most useful, and it's the best place to start an island trip. The beach is about 3 kilometres long, and it changes as you walk it: the north end is quiet, with a few resorts and a village feel; the south end is busy, with restaurants, bars and shops; the middle is a compromise. This guide covers the whole beach, and how to choose where to stay on it. What Is White Sand Beach? White Sand Beach (หาดทรายขาว) is the main beach on the west coast of Koh Chang, about 15 minutes by road from the ferry piers at Ao Sapparot. The sand is white and fine, the water is clear and calm, and the beach is backed by a road of restaurants, shops and resorts. It's the most developed be...