[Digital007]

Overview

About 3 hours drive south-east of Bangkok in Rayong Province is the tiny island of Koh Samet. You can hire a motorbike and drive from one end to the other in about 20 minutes, just to give you an idea of its size. Surprisingly despite the small size of the island, it has around a dozen beaches, all of which are white sand and no waves. It has some decent restaurants and is generally a good option for a short beach break away from Bangkok, whether you're on the pull or taking your girl.



Getting there

The boat trip from the mainland takes about 40 minutes or you can take a speedboat that gets you there in 20. Before that though, you'll need to get to the pier at Ban Phe, the nearest mainland town to the island. To get to Ban Phe you can take a flight to the nearest airport (Utapao - UTP) and then mini bus to Ban Phe, or drive/take a taxi. For a taxi from Bangkok (airports or otherwise), taxikohsamet.com are good. Do note that you can't get a flight from either of the BKK airports to UTP, but you can fly there from other Thai cities.

Girls

If you're going to Koh Samet to pull, go on the weekends. That's when you get lots of groups of normal Thai girls (no hookers) heading there on a weekend break from Bangkok. I've only been with my girlfriend, but the opportunity to meet chicks there was obvious, if you're there for that.


When to go

As I said above, if you're on the pull go on weekends. If you're with a chick, go Sunday to Friday to miss the weekend hordes. In terms of time of year to go, November to February is the driest but also the busiest (westerners head to Thailand to escape their winter in those months). October is probably a sweet spot for best month to go there.


Sight seeing

Hire a scooter and hit up all the beaches over a few days. Personal favourites of mine are Ao Nuan (for lunch), Ao Wai (for a whole day at the beach) and Ao Karang (for early evening meal).




Lodging

I find that it's better to stay in or near to the main village, rather than stay in resorts in remote locations on the island. Reason for that is that the quiet resorts lose their value at night when it gets dark, and they tend to have worse facilities than places in town. If you're in a more built up area you'll get the advantage of better facilities as well as the nightlife being nearby, meaning it'll be less dangerous when you drive that scooter home in the dark after a few drinks. I found a place with 2 swimming pools, good poolside beats and modern, spacious apartments for about 2000 baht per night. It's called Pandora resort (pictured below). It's not right in the middle of the nightlife (you can't get those facilities at that price otherwise), nor is it right on the beach, but the roads are well lit. 5 minutes drive from the nightlife.




Day game spots

Sai Kaew beach on the weekend. People leave on Sundays and many probably arrive on a Friday, so Saturday is gonna be your best chance to do day approaches. Sai Kaew beach is the most popular (and you could say "ruined" in terms of the numbers of people on it) beach on the island and will have the highest number of girls on it out of all the beaches. Given the setup of the island and the way the nightlife seems to work, you should meet girls on the beach during the day and then arrange to hang out with them at night. For night hang outs you'll be best off with a wing since girls you meet will almost certainly be on the island with their friends. I wouldn't go to this island on my own if I was looking for hook ups.


Nightlife spots

Sai Kaew beach is very active at night also with several bars and restaurants. For low key bars to chill at (if you take your girl to the island), try the 2 bars at either end of this beach. The restaurants all do more or less the same food along the beach.

There is a small club on Sai Kaew beach that only really gets going during high season (November to February) and that's mostly because of the influx of farang (foreigners). It may get busy enough that they open the dance floor on weekends too but don't quote me on that. It's easy to find. Head down to the beach and it'll be the place on your right with the loud music.

Silver Sand resort, which is 5 minutes from Sai Kaew Beach, also has a bar/ small club (image below), but it'll probably only really get going on Fri/Sat nights, and tends to attract gays also. You're better off building leads during the day than relying on the nightlife. I would have to admit the island is a better spot to take a girlfriend than go on the pull, but single girls on a beach break are always going to be pullable (some of them anyway).

Nightlife is all done by 2am when it's busy, and as early as midnight at other times.




Ease of approaching:

Everyone visiting the island is on vacation, so it's pretty easy. The language barrier is going to be the same as Bangkok, which there's threads about already. Girl/guy ratio is quite favourable. I saw more groups of girls than groups of dudes.


Restaurants

Try the green curry pizza at Perfect Dough restaurant. Best pizza I've ever had. None of the other restaurants had standout food in my mind, although Jep's restaurant has a big menu and decent Thai/international food, and it's between the 2 nightlife spots I mentioned above.


Cost

It's Bangkok prices pretty much. Taxi's are more expensive than Bangkok, although you can solve that one by hiring a moped (I paid 300 baht per day, and all the other rental shops were quoting about the same).


Logistics

The island is walkable in a few hours if you want to take it all in and have a good sweat while you're at it. Otherwise a moped is gonna be better. The roads are well developed for such a small island. It's only the short tracks down to the beaches that are undeveloped and bumpy. I'm not sure what time the taxis stop running, so at night I'd recommend you have a moped, stay in the built up part of the island so that when you drive home after a few drinks the roads will be lit up and it won't be far. I didn't see the police giving anyone a hard time over drinking and driving.




Overall pros and cons:

Pros:

- Best for a short getaway with a girlfriend.

- Could also be good for day approaches where you then take your wing with you at night to meet the girls you ran daygame on.

- Lovely beaches. My favourite place for beaches in Thailand and I've been all over.


Cons:

- Nightlife is fairly weak, but with some prospects from daygame you should do okay.

- The island is apparently part of a national park, which they use as an excuse to charge you a national park fee of about $5 either on arrival or if you happen to be driving past the checkpoint when they're stopping people.

- One or two of the beaches have a litter problem. One or two also have a fly problem, which only becomes apparent after you've sat down and ordered food. Ao Vong Duan is one of them (or was in May 2017 when I was there).


Final Thoughts

I go back every couple years. I'd suggest a 3 night Thursday-Sunday trip with a wing, or a 5 night Sunday-Friday trip with a GF. Sunday-Friday will mean you miss the weekend crowds but still get enough time to explore the whole island.

Do hit me up with any questions. Happy to provide more info. Cheers fellas.

[Beyond Borders]

From what I saw, Silver Sands doesn't just tend to attract occasional gays - place is gayer than a bag of dicks. Every night I passed by the place was flooded with gays and it's known as the official queer destination of the island.

I unknowingly popped in there late night once after a fight with my girlfriend and some fag there had even spontaneously stripped down to his tightie whities right there at the bar and all the other guys were giggling and grabbing his butt. At that point I fucked off to the whore karaoke down the street because I was drunk already and didn't want to drive to down the road to a more heterosexual beach.

Seemed like quite a few of the other straights staying on that beach ended up doing the same.

On the bright side, competition will be minimal for the straight girls that do inevitably show up on that corner of the island. I like Samet and will probably visit again but as OP mentioned, definitely a place to bring a girl if you can.

[Swell]

delete.

[Digital007]

Quote:

From what I saw, Silver Sands doesn't just tend to attract occasional gays - place is gayer than a bag of dicks.

Oh shit really lol. I didn't see too many when I went, but looking online now I can see you are right. Ao Prao also is supposed to be full of them.

[Beyond Borders]

^ Yeah, I think the island in general is becoming a popular destination for gays. A few of my thai friends even mentioned the reputation when I hit them up asking where I should go to find a party. Unfortunate because it's a cool little place overall. I ended up meeting some cool island locals on another beach after sending my girl back to Bangkok. There were definitely some girls passing through there. Can't remember the name of the beach I was on at that point though.

[natas305]

These beaches look nice. A lot nicer than Pattaya. Had no idea this island was there. Good info!

[Digital007]

Yeah man, a dozen decent beaches all a short drive from each other. Good place. Check it out when you get chance!

[RatInTheWoods]

Great sheet OP, thanks for the share.

Thailand has a lot of hidden treasures.

[CodyB]

If you like Koh Samet I totally recommend Koh Chang. It's another 3 hours down the road from Ban Phe but absolutely worth it. Lots of locals on there during holidays and weekends, endless supply of backpackers and really good hiking and cycling (if you don't mind hills). Huge island and very cheap as well.

[Digital007]

Quote:

If you like Koh Samet I totally recommend Koh Chang.

That’s about the last major one I haven’t been to yet. Thanks for the tip.

Anyone that wants to get off the beaten path completely and see Thai Islands as I imagine they were in the 80s and 90s should check out Koh Phayam. It’s in Ranong province near the Burmese border. There’s no 7/11s there - that’s how off the grid it is! Flying to Ranong from Bangkok Don Muang makes the journey a lot easier. Check out Chomjan resort. Right on the beach, like $30 per night, tonnes of wildlife (resident hornbills), and a solid restaurant. The whole island is super cheap for everything too.

Best to go November to April. I went outside of those months and it was almost too deserted. Half the restaurants and cafes were closed.