• Thailand Guide

  • Introduction to Thailand
  • Weather
  • Things Not to Miss
  • Getting around
  • Money
  • Public holidays
  • Entry requirements

• Explore Thailand

  • The central plains
  • The north
  • The east coast
  • The northeast: Isaan
  • Southern Thailand: the Gulf coast
  • Southern Thailand: the Andaman coast
  • The deep south

• Cities

  • Bangkok
    
  • Chiang Mai
    
  • Chiang Rai
    
  • Chumphon
    
  • Hat Yai
    
  • Kamphaeng Phet
    
  • Nakhon Si Thammarat
    
  • Pattaya
    
  • Phitsanulok
    
  • Surat Thani
    

Thailand Guide

Southern Thailand: the Andaman coast

Khao Lak

• Accommodation
• Food and drink
• Nightlife and entertainment

Handily located just an hour north of Phuket International Airport, KHAO LAK has established itself as a thriving, mid-market beach resort with plentiful opportunities for diving and snorkelling, easy access to the supreme national park reefs of the Ko Similan islands, and a style that is determinedly unseedy. It lacks sophistication, and is mostly a bit pricey for backpackers, but is ideal for families and extremely popular with Scandinavian tourists. High season here runs from November to April, when the weather and the swimming are at their best and the Similan Islands are open to the public.

The area usually referred to as Khao Lak is in fact a string of beaches west off Highway 4. Khao Lak proper is the southernmost and least developed, 5km from the most commercial part of the resort, Nang Thong, which throngs with shops, restaurants, dive centres and countless places to stay, both on the beachfront and inland from Highway 4. North again about 3km (5min by taxi or a 45-minute walk up the beach) is lower-key, slightly more youthful Bang Niang, a lovely long stretch of golden sand that's backed by a developing tourist village whose network of sois is away from the highway and feels more enticing than its neighbour. Removed from all this commerce, Laem Pakarang, 12km further up the coast, is where you find the area's most exclusive accommodation.

There is, thankfully, little obvious evidence these days of the area's devastating experience during the December 2004 tsunami, when the undersea earthquake off Sumatra sent a series of murderous waves on to Khao Lak's shores (and the rest of the Andaman coast), vaporizing almost every shorefront home and hotel here and killing thousands. Following a huge reconstruction effort, rebuilding was completed within a couple of years, though for many survivors recovery will probably take a lifetime. Inland from the highway at Bang Niang, a beached police boat has become a memorial to the extraordinary power of the tsunami waves – it was propelled up here, 2km inland, while patrolling the waters in front of La Flora resort.