13 Best Things to Do in Koh Chang: Travel Guide & Tips

As Thailand’s third-largest island, Koh Chang has a lot to offer. Named after its ‘elephant’ shape, Koh Chang has everything from soft sandy beaches to lush mangrove forests to tumbling waterfalls.

It’s a great gateway to visiting the other islands in the same archipelago, like Koh Mak and Koh Kood, which I also visited and wrote about on this trip. Plus, it’s home to one of Thailand’s best wreck dives, the HTMS Chang: the largest wreck dive in Thailand, in fact!

After spending five days in Koh Chang this past June (in 2024), I’ve written this guide to the best things to do in Koh Chang (and nearby).

Note: The island of Koh Chang was heavily impacted by Covid, even moreso than other Thai islands. It’s still recovering — slowly — and many businesses that were open prior to Covid are now closed. There are many parts of the island, particularly Lonely Beach, that are long-closed and virtually abandoned, given over to the jungle.

Therefore, if you’re reading guides that were written several years ago, they are most likely seriously out of date.

Personally, I found a lot of out-of-date information when looking up Koh Chang and so I’ve written this guide to rectify that, reflecting my findings from June 2024.

If consulting other resources, check when written and then maybe double-check on Google Maps to make sure it’s open.

As of August 2024, everything I’ve written about is still open and functioning. Please let me know if anything changes in the future!

Best Things to Do in Koh Chang

Have a laid-back beach day.

Koh Chang has several stunning beaches, most on the island’s west side. Here are the ones I liked the best:

Klong Prao Beach: This was my favorite beach in Koh Chang. It was quiet and super peaceful, with many swings to sit on and enjoy. There are a handful of beach clubs where you can grab lunch or a mango smoothie and watch the waves. 

Kai Bae Beach: This is definitely one of the prettiest beaches in Koh Chang in terms of sand quality, water color, and gorgeous view of some islets in the background. However, it’s not my favorite because the elephant camps bring their elephants here, and I find that really depressing.

White Sand Beach: This is the busiest stretch of beach in Koh Chang, and most of the resorts in the area are on this part of the island. That means there are many beach clubs and restaurants, but prices are higher here, and it can be quite crowded compared to other beaches.

Lonely Beach: While the southern stretch of this beach is quite rocky, the northern part has about a kilometer of sand and a beautiful jungly backdrop. It doesn’t have the bluest waters on Koh Chang but it’s still quite lovely.

Get the island’s best views at Kai Bae viewpoint.

If you want to see the most stunning view over the coast of Koh Chang, head to the Kai Bae Viewpoint. It’s just off the main road between Kai Bae Beach and Lonely Beach.

From Kai Bae, you can get great views of Koh Man Nai, a little island just off the island’s coast. There’s also a small café here where you can grab a coffee or a juice to enjoy the view—and it’s an especially great sunset spot since it’s on the west-facing side of the island.

Just watch out for monkeys here — the Koh Chang monkeys are especially ruthless, and this is one of their main haunts.

Have sunset drinks at Bar Beautiful.

Besides Kai Bae Viewpoint, Bar Beautiful is one of my favorite sunset spots on the island. 

Located in Lonely Beach, this cute little restaurant and bar has great views over Lonely Beach with a perfect orientation to watch the sun sink into the sea.

The food here is also quite nice — I recommend the pad kaprow and their delicious mango smoothies.

… or watch the sunset from the Oasis Treehouse.

My personal favorite sunset spot on the island just happened to be where I was staying, at Oasis Bungalows in Lonely Beach. While it is a guesthouse, it also has a restaurant, so even if you aren’t staying here you could have a meal here and check out the treehouse for sunset.

Just look at those gorgeous sunset views over the water. I spent nearly every one of my five sunsets on Koh Chang perched in their treehouse, watching the sky turn seemingly every beautiful hue of pink and purple that exists.

Go on a waterfall hike to Khlong Phlu waterfall.

There are a number of waterfalls on Koh Chang (although Koh Kood has the most scenic ones in this island archipelago, as well as some of the best resorts) but the largest and most worthy of visiting is Khlong Phlu in the hills above Klong Prao Beach.

From the parking lot, you’ll walk about 20 minutes to reach the waterfall. You’ll pass a (wonderful) swimming hole that I recommend stopping in on your way back, after hiking to the waterfall. Note that once you reach the large river area, past the swimming hole, you should look to your right side up on the hill; this is where the trail to the waterfall continues.

Sometimes, you can swim in the waterfall pool area. However, since I was visiting in the rainy season and there had been a lot of water, the pool area was closed off and there was a lifeguard enforcing this. Keep in mind that you may not be able to swim in the waterfall pool, but the other swimming hole was open and shouldn’t be as impacted by the rain as it is downstream quite a bit from the waterfall.

To enter, you have to pay 200 baht (about $6 USD) since the waterfall is part of Mu Koh Chang National Park. Locals pay less, about 40 baht (about $1 USD).

One quick rant: Please don’t be immature and spam the waterfall with bad reviews for having a dual price system. If you are foreign, you have the privilege of vacationing somewhere where, most likely, your money goes a lot further than locals.

Accept that this is simply one way that the Thai government keep the national parks accessible to locals while ensuring they have enough revenue to protect and maintain the land. I thought the parks were kept up well, with trails well-maintained and litter taken care of. That’s where your money goes.

If you can afford to travel, you can afford to pay a little more for a national park, and if you can’t, luckily there are plenty of free places on Koh Chang you can enjoy instead, like every single beach on the island!

Dive Thailand’s largest wreck dive.

To dive the HTMS Chang, you’ll need your Advanced Open Water certification, as the deepest part of the dive is at 30 meters and the deck area is about 23 meters down.

But if you have your certification, it’s absolutely a must-do dive: it’s Thailand’s largest wreck dive, after all! The best dive shop on the island is BB Divers. I booked a 3-tank dive with them (you can book it online here) with the intent to dive the HTMS Chang. 

Unfortunately, since it was the off-season and there had been storms in the area, the waters were too rough to dive the Chang safely, and we instead dove in Mu Ko Chang National Park (note there is an additional 200 baht — $6 USD — fee for this, which is paid directly to the park)

While usually that would be a lovely replacement, unfortunately, when I visited Koh Chang, the reefs in the area were undergoing a bad bleaching event. The reefs had just started to bleach, so they may recover — keep your fingers crossed for their health.

Still, despite less-than-stellar conditions, I have only positive things to say about the BB Divers team.

They were up front about the challenges we were facing, such as possibly not being able to do the wreck dive and what the reef was like, and they did their best to have us enjoy the day despite the adverse reef conditions.

Book a 3-tank dive here!

Snorkel around Koh Yak Lek and other islands in the marine park.

Like I mentioned above, I got the chance to dive in Mu Ko Chang National Park where unfortunately there was some bleaching as of June 2024. However, it’s still a beautiful area with really clean and crystalline waters.

Since the reef is just bleached and not dead yet, there is still a lot of fish life here, it’s just that the coral is devoid of color because the algae living inside it has been expelled due to stress in the high temperatures. Only time will tell if the coral can recover from the bleaching event, but in my opinion, it’s still worth checking it out and snorkeling here anyway.

You’ll see animals like turtles, pufferfish, gobies and shrimp sharing the same burrow, parrotfish, tang, and other interesting marine life, so it’s not a waste of time. Plus, look at that beautiful blue water — it’s worth it for the boat rides around the islands anyway.

Book your snorkeling tour here!

Go island hopping around Koh Chang.

If you’re visiting Koh Chang, you should make sure you save at least one day to go island hopping to at least one of the smaller islands around it.

One of the prettiest is Koh Wai, which you can visit by speedboat from Bang Bao Pier. There’s a boat that connects Koh Chang to Koh Kood, with stops along the way at Koh Wait as well as Koh Kham, Koh Mak (which I dedicated a few days to), and Koh Rayang.

The exact fare depends partly on how many other people share the boat with you and which island you go to, but anticipate spending around 300-500 baht ($8-12 USD) depending on which island you go to. Personally, I paid 500 baht to go to Koh Mak.

Check out Koh Chang’s mysterious Ghost Ship.

For one of the more offbeat things to do in Koh Chang, the abandoned Galaxy Ghost Ship on Ghost Ship Beach is a must-see, loaded with so many conflicting stories of lore that it’s hard to know what’s real.

Some reports say it used to be a cargo ship; this sounds very unlikely, and the story that it’s a former cruiseliner makes a lot more sense given the layout of the ship, which has traditional cabins that you’d find on a cruise ship.

What’s certain is that it was meant to be repurposed into a luxury hotel as part of a larger resort, which then mysteriously shut down. The Galaxy has sat there ever since, growing increasingly dilapidated and accumulating superstition and rust at equal rates.

You can’t enter the ship, but you can walk in the area — just pay the security guard a fee of 100 baht. You can also walk on the beach area, but watch for sandflies; they’re rampant on this part of the beach.

Pro Tip: Coconut oil does a better job at repelling sandflies than bug spray, because it creates a layer they can’t bite through.

Wander through Bang Bao Pier.

Formerly a fishing village, this pier has turned into a tourist mecca. It was pretty quiet when I visited in the off-season, but I’ve heard it gets crazy packed in the peak months. 

Still, it was a nice area, with a cute cafe, tons of souvenir stores, several dive shops, and some seafood restaurants.

Check out the Bang Bao Lighthouse.

At the end of the covered section of the pier, you can keep walking to the end and you’ll reach the iconic Bang Bao Lighthouse.

It’s recently been repainted in an even cuter red and white stripe design, which I happened to match when I visited! You can’t go up the lighthouse, but it’s still a really cute sight to see when you visit Koh Chang. 

If you’ll be at Bang Bao anyway, you might as well see it. The Bang Bao area is also kind of close to the Ghost Ship area, so you could do these activities together.

Visit the serene Wat Salek Phet.

One of the most calm and peaceful places in Koh Chang is the scenic Buddhist temple of Wat Salek Phet on the southeastern side of the island, tucked away on its wilder side.

You can bundle a trip here with a visit to the fishing village of Salekphet and the nearby mangrove forests, where you can kayak or explore the boardwalks. 

It’s easiest to trek to this side of the island if you have a motorbike, but if you can’t drive one, you can get a private songthaew for the entire day for about 2,500 baht, about $70 USD — rather pricy if you’re alone, but not bad if you have a couple of people to share it. 

If you’ve seen other Thai temples, it may not be insanely impressive, but if you’re planning to visit this part of the island to see the mangrove forests, it’s definitely worth stopping since it’s right there.

There is a small entry fee of 20 baht (about $0.50 USD), but there isn’t always someone there to collect it. Still, you should have some small change available just in case.

A word about driving in Koh Chang: Be aware that it is really hilly (especially between Lonely Beach and Kai Bae, where the terrifying S-curves are), and the roads are somewhat slick, especially if it’s rained recently. 

Personally, I rode a motorbike on both Koh Mak and Koh Kood, but I was too nervous to do it on Koh Chang. Only do it if you have a lot of experience and always drive with a clear head (no Chang beers before driving!). 

Visit the mangrove forests (by boardwalk or boat!).

If you’re looking for a peaceful thing to do on Koh Chang, going for a walk through the mangrove forests of Salak Phet is a must-do! These beautiful boardwalks bring you right into the heart of the mangroves without any trekking needed. But bring bug spray!

Entry to the mangrove forest is free; just pay 10 baht for scooter parking if you came by scooter (cars are 20 baht). Note that the planks on the boardwalk are a little worse for wear these days so keep an eye out as you walk so you don’t trip.

For a different kind of experience, you can also kayak or stand-up paddleboard through the mangroves or you can take a private Thai gondola cruise through the mangroves as well if you want to see the mangroves at eye-level and get a better view of them.

Another thing I’ve heard about is going on a traditional Thai boat at night and watching the fireflies light up the sky like a bunch of natural lanterns being lit and floating up into the pitch-black night sky. I didn’t get a chance to do this in Koh Chang but it sounds really memorable!

Book your Thai gondola cruise here!

Where to Stay in Koh Chang

Budget: Oasis Ko Chang

Nestled in the heart of the jungle up a hill in Lonely Beach, the budget-friendly Oasis Ko Chang is a great choice for solo travelers and low-key couples. There’s a great restaurant on-site as well as a pool bar, infinity pool, and treehouse where you can watch the sunset.

The rooms are quite bare-bones, with outdoor showers; some have A/C and some have fans. I chose an A/C room and it was good for a short stay.

Check availability and prices at Oasis Ko Chang here!

Mid-Range: Chang Buri Resort & Spa

My friend stayed at Chang Buri Resort & Spa and she loved her stay there. I saw her pictures and it looked like an incredible spot, I was so jealous of her bathtub and view.

It’s located in the central area of White Sand Beach which is probably where I would choose to stay on my next trip to Koh Chang.

Check availability and prices at Chang Buri Resort & Spa here!

Luxury: Santhiya Tree Resort

The Santhiya Tree looks absolutely gorgeous — I love how its architecture resembles a Thai temple and the pool on-site is huge and spacious, with a great location on Klong Prao beach, one of the most peaceful and quiet beaches in the area.

This is a great resort for a special couples or family getaway and it would be my top choice in Koh Chang if I had a luxury budget!

Check availability and prices of Santhiya Tree Resort here!

How to Get to Koh Chang

The easiest way to get to Koh Chang is from Bangkok via the Boonsiri bus and ferry combination, which also includes a songthaew transfer to your hotel in Koh Chang. You can check prices and book it here.

I took the Boonsiri leaving Bangkok at Khao San Road around 8 AM and we got to Koh Chang by 2 PM. It was a really smooth and seamless transfer and I highly recommend it. Yes, it takes a bit of time but it’s far easier, cheaper, and less stressful than flying to Trat, getting a taxi to the port, taking the ferry, and then finding a songthaew.

You can also get to Koh Chang from other islands, like Koh Kood or Koh Mak, if you’ll be there first.

Things to Know Before Visiting Koh Chang

Koh Chang is definitely a seasonal destination, far more so than the islands on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand which have more visitors in the off-season than Koh Chang does. 

The high season in Koh Chang runs from December through February; this is when the waters are their most beautiful but accommodations will be far more expensive and the island can be quite busy.

Koh Chang’s off season is extremely wet and cloudy. I had five days that were almost complete washouts in June. My friend just got back from Koh Chang and he also had a complete washout in August.

If you’re traveling in the wet season, be prepared that it really means wet here, unlike in other parts of Southeast Asia where I’ve been perfectly fine traveling in the wet season since it usually just means a few isolated thundershowers as opposed to all-day washouts.

Also, as I mentioned above, the islands of Trat province were also massively impacted by Covid and several guesthouses and restaurants went out of business, especially in the backpacker-heavy locations like Lonely Beach. A lot of the island can feel especially empty in the off season.

Lastly, Koh Chang has capitalized off its ‘elephant island’ name in one really unfortunate way: elephant tourism is everywhere on the island, and the elephants are kept in pretty horrid conditions.

Please do not support any of the elephant tourism activities here, or anywhere in Thailand that allows interaction with the elephants. Elephants are tortured from birth in order to accept human interaction, so you should never ride or bathe an elephant, no matter how much the place calls itself a “sanctuary”.

I say this not to be negative but just so that you visit Koh Chang with open eyes and know what to expect from your time here. It’s a wonderful destination with just a few things you ought to know before getting here.

Allison Green

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.