Koh Mak Travel Guide: Where to Stay, Play & Eat!
The smallest of the three main Trat islands, Koh Mak is a quiet and peaceful paradise with some of the bluest waters in all of Thailand. Not as visited by Koh Chang and not as expensive as Koh Kood, Koh Mak is a wonderful offbeat place to visit in Thailand.
With almost no car traffic, Koh Mak is the perfect place to rent a scooter and zip around to the the island’s best beaches and restaurants on a laidback, low-key beach trip. Koh Mak is not the kind of place you go to with a checklist: it’s the place you go to with an open schedule and a blank map and explore.
| ✅ Planning your trip in a hurry? Here are my quick picks for Koh Mak! 🏝️ Where to Stay 1. Lazy Day Resort (best for romantic getaways, in central part of island) 2. Koh Mak Resort (best for island hopping, best beach) 3. Naivacha Tent Koh Mak (glamping, best for budget travelers) ⛴️ How to Get There: I recommend transferring via Boonsiri from Bangkok or from Koh Chang or Koh Kood if you want to visit one of those islands first. Personally, I prefer Koh Kood! I use the website 12go to book all my overland travels in Southeast Asia. |
Be sure to make a point to visit the smaller islands off the coast of Koh Mak as well — they’re even more beautiful, if that’s possible.
This guide will give you an overview of the best things you can do in Koh Mak as well as where to eat, where to stay, and how to get to Koh Mak from various points in Thailand. Enjoy and happy travels!
Table of Contents
Best Things to Do in Koh Mak, Thailand
Enjoy the beautiful beaches.
Easily the best thing to do in Koh Mak is just have some lazy beach days enjoying the soft white sands and clear blue waters.
There are a few different beach areas in in Koh Mak, here is where I recommend:
- Ao Kao Beach: Full of beach clubs with places to lounge, this area is where I stayed during my trip to Koh Mak and I loved this beach a lot. There’s a really long stretch of beach, which is sort of split in two by The Ocean Rooftop Bar, but you can access both parts of the beach on foot.
- Ao Soun Yai: This is one of the best sunset spots and just one of the all-around best beaches on the island any time of day.
- The deserted beaches on neighboring islands like Koh Kram and Koh Kradan.
Be aware that there is a serious plastic pollution in this part of the world and unfortunately I saw a ton of plastic especially on Ao Kao Beach. It was stormy for much of my stay which may have contributed to even more plastic than usual.
Perhaps in the high season, there’s more frequent beach clean up and fewer storms washing up waste, but that definitely put a damper on how beautiful the natural scenery was. I suggest you bring your own bag and do a little beach clean up if you can!
Enjoy a scenic sunset.
The island’s shape with multiple “fingers” reaching out into the sea means that there are several different west-facing parts of the coastline where you can see an epic sunset.
One sunset area in Ao Soun Yai Beach, near the Seavana Beach Resort and Happy Days Resort. There are a few places you can grab drinks, like I Talay, as well as the restaurant Thai Sabai where you can get dinner with a beautiful sunset view.
Another sunset spot is the Lae Chan Sunset Viewpoint, which you can also see at Banana Sunset Bar if you want to have a drink while enjoying the view.
You can also check out the sunset from Cinnamon Scenic Boardwalk — more on that below.
Visit the stunning white sands and black rocks of Koh Kram.
While Koh Mak is gorgeous, the islands that surround it are perhaps even more beautiful. One of the most stunning islands neighboring Koh Mak is Koh Kham.
It’s known for its unique beach that has brilliant white sands against which some rounded volcanic black boulders make for a completely unique landscape. It reminds me a bit of some of the beaches in the Seychelles.
Apparently, the white sand is imported and is not a natural feature… but it sure looks beautiful regardless, especially juxtaposed against those black rocks.
To get to Koh Kham, go to Koh Mak Resort and take a boat to Koh Kham, which costs 300 baht (about $8 USD). This includes a roundtrip transfer, a beverage, and an entry fee to the island (since the island is private).
Once on the island you can rent a kayak or you can also go snorkeling (BYO gear) off the shores where there is some reef close to the beach. There’s not much in the way of amenities so bring all that you need for the day just in case, including plenty of water.
Visit the island of Koh Kradan.
Another private island you can visit for the day is the beautiful small island of Koh Kradan. You can get a boat over from Cinnamon Resort Pier for 250 baht (about $7 USD) which includes transport, entry, and a beverage.
Like Koh Kham, you should bring all that you need for the day, including snorkel gear, food, and drinks.
Snorkel or dive in Koh Rang Marine Park.
One of the best things about snorkeling or diving in Koh Mak compared to the other Trat islands is that the marine park is located right near Koh Mak, meaning there’s a lot less travel time to get to some of the most scenic parts of Koh Rang Marine Park.
I did my scuba diving when I was staying in Koh Chang because I was hoping to the see the plane wreck dive, the HTMS Chang shipwreck. Unfortunately, the water conditions were far too rough and we ended up aborting trying to reach the wreck dive and headed to Koh Rang instead.
However, just to get your expectations adjusted: as of June 2024, there’s some pretty bad bleaching going on. I did three dives in Koh Rang Marine Park and sadly the reefs were starting to bleach and everything was pretty ghostly white. There was still a lot of turtles and fish life, so the reef system hasn’t fully collapsed yet. There’s still a chance that they can recover, as they’re not dead, just stressed. Keep your fingers crossed for Koh Mak’s beautiful coral ecosystems!
I paid 4,500 baht ($125 USD) for 3 dives in Koh Chang and I saw those same prices around Koh Kood and Koh Mak as well. You can book your diving through Koh Mak Divers.
Eat delicious curries and fresh seafood.
Koh Mak doesn’t have a ton of restaurants, but the ones it does have serve up some really amazing food. One of the best meals I’ve had in Thailand was at Home Hug Restaurant, where I ate a delicious massaman chicken curry with potato and onion (just watch out for the whole spices!) and homemade roti. I’m still dreaming about it and it was only about 150 baht (less than $4 USD).
The island’s best-known seafood spot is Koh Mak Seafood. Get the pla tod ya tam krai, a deep-fried fish with lemongrass and fresh herbs. It’s absolutely delicious and the portion is pretty generous for the price (about 400 baht for “small” and as much as 700 baht for “large” which feeds at least two — about $10-18 USD).
I also really liked Purple House Kitchen which is on the way towards Cinnamon Resort and its pier.
Walk the Cinnamon Scenic Boardwalk.
While the Cinnamon Resort at Ao Tan Beach is permanently closed, there’s still an on-site restaurant and a pier that you can access for 50 baht per person. It’s also a great sunset spot, too!
Disregard old Google reviews saying that it’s in bad shape; it’s been fixed up as of June 2024, so any reviews prior to that time don’t reflect the fact that it’s now new and perfectly safe to walk.
Where to Stay in Koh Mak
There are a number of beautiful beach resorts in Koh Mak which have beachfront bungalows for affordable prices given how beautiful the scenery is. Here are my top picks:
Located on what I think is the best beach on the island, Koh Mak Resort is the perfect pick for mid-range travelers. This resort also organizes boat trips to the smaller islands around Koh Mak so it’s super convenient.
Another mid-range choice, the luxe Lazy Day Resort is a great option for families and couples with its beautiful location near Ao Kao Beach.
For travelers on a budget but who still want a nice stay, you can go glamping at Naivacha Tent Koh Mak which has beautiful canvas tents as well as standalone bungalows for an affordable price.
Personally, I did the glamping tent option at HomeHug & Beach Club. While the staff was incredibly nice, I wouldn’t recommend it because the tent smelled overwhelmingly of offgassing plastic from the faux-wood floor. It was overwhelming to the point that I cut my stay early and left because I was getting headaches. I wish I could recommend it because again, they were super nice, but it just didn’t work for me.
Best Time to Visit Koh Mak
The best time to visit Koh Mak is during the high season. Koh Mak doesn’t have as many issues with overtourism as other parts of Thailand so you might as well enjoy the best season and the best weather, although the prices will be slightly higher than outside of the peak season.
The best time to visit Koh Mak is between December through March, when the beaches will be at their most beautiful and the water the calmest, with little chance of rain disrupting your plans.
Personally, I visited Koh Mak in the off-season, in June… and that was a mistake.
Honestly, while I still loved Koh Mak, I can’t say that I really recommend it in the off season because a lot is closed. Plus, if it’s rainy, you can’t see exactly how beautiful the waters around you are.
How to Get to Koh Mak
There are regular boats between Koh Chang and Koh Mak, as well as from Koh Mak and Koh Kood. These run year-round, even in the low season.
On the boat between Koh Chang and Koh Mak, we went on a speedboat. Since the weather was really bad on the day I left Koh Mak, they canceled the morning speedboat and instead had a catamaran-style boat which was better equipped to handle the waves.
If you’re coming from Koh Chang or Koh Kood (which has some of the best resorts!), you can book a ticket via Boonsiri which will include pick up in Koh Chang or Koh Kood and then drop you off at Ao Nid pier in Koh Mak, where your accommodation should offer you a free shuttle (mine did, at least!).
- Check transfers from Bangkok to Koh Mak here
- Check transfers from Koh Chang to Koh Mak or from Koh Kood to Koh Mak here
If you’re coming from Bangkok, you can book the Boonsiri shuttle bus and ferry combo which leaves from Khao San Road or the BKK airport. I used this shuttle to get from Bangkok to Koh Chang (including drop off at your Koh Chang hotel), and it was super comfortable and affordable at 950 baht ($26 USD).
From there, I transferred to Koh Mak from Koh Chang and onwards to Koh Kood also via Boonsiri for 500 baht ($14 USD) each way.
They’re a great company and all my transfers with them between Bangkok and the Trat islands were super smooth and seamless. You can also use Boonsiri to travel between the Trat islands and Cambodia; I met fellow travelers who did this and found everything pretty seamless and easy.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. Her blog posts merge her background as an educator with her experience traveling to 70+ countries to encourage ethical, meaningful travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. Now a full-time traveler, she has lived in Prague, Sofia, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
