Thailand’s Phuket Island is one of the busiest tourist destinations in Asia. People fly into its international airport from all over the world to stay in the beach resorts on its many sandy bays facing the Andaman Sea. It’s popular with all types of tourists from honeymooners to families, and especially with those looking for plenty of nightlife.

It’s popular too with many older travellers looking for an easy-to-reach destination for a tropical beach holiday, and there are dozens of 4- and 5-star resorts on secluded coves which will meet their needs. But some say they find Phuket too touristy, too crowded, or too noisy.

There is a quieter alternative that takes no longer to reach than some of the southern resorts on Phuket Island. And that’s Khao Lak in Phang Nga province, 80 km to the north of Phuket. Khao Lak takes only one hour and 15 minutes to reach from Phuket airport on a traffic-free main highway, whereas the southern beaches of Phuket Island (which are half the distance) can take just as long because of traffic congestion in peak periods.

There are no high-rise condos, theme parks or shopping malls at Khao Lak, or Hooters or Hard Rock Café, but there are some excellent resorts and other accommodation options along this unspoiled stretch of coastline that has a verdant green backdrop of forested hills with hiking trails and waterfalls.

After a week on Phuket Island, I headed up to Khao Lak for three days to see what this alternative holiday destination has to offer. The easiest way to reach Khao Lak is to drive yourself. Rental cars can be picked up from the airport for around US$40 a day for a mid-size sedan. That rate will include insurance with a 10,000 baht excess (about $275). Most of the larger companies will remove the excess for an additional premium.

If you’ve not driven before in Thailand, you may be nervous about renting a car, but driving from Phuket airport to Khao Lak is so easy, anyone with overseas driving experience will be able to manage it. Renting a car to drive into Phuket town is a different story. I would only recommend that if you’ve had previous driving experience in Asia.

If you don’t want to drive yourself, you can take a private taxi for around $45 or a scheduled minibus for $15. But when you reach Khao Lak you’ll need some local transportation as everything is spread out along a 20 km stretch of coastline. You can hire a car locally, or a motorbike or pushbike, or if you are not planning to travel from your resort a lot, use the local taxis – of which there is no shortage.

Khao Lak has a wide range of accommodation ranging from 5-star resorts like the JW Marriott for $140 a night down to rustic beach bungalows for $15 a night. The vast majority of accommodation is in the three to four star range, and there are dozens of Airbnb options as well. Most of the resorts are either on the beach or within easy walking distance.

The main highway is about a kilometre in from the coast so access to the resorts are down narrow rural roads studded with coconut, rubber, and oil palm plantations. There are also some swamps between the coast and the main road, so bring plenty of insect repellent because mosquitoes can be a problem around dawn and dusk.

Most of the facilities are located along the stretch of coastline that’s to the north of where the Khao Lak National Park meets the coast on a headland. This is the main Khao Lak beach. There is also a smaller length of beach that some maps call the Khao Lak South Beach on the southern side of the headland, and then there’s another longer (and almost deserted) stretch of beach to the north of the main beach from Pakarang Cape up to where the Le Meridien and Grand Mercure resorts are located.

Interspersed between all these resorts, are many abandoned resorts. Some never reopened after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which resulted in over 4,000 fatalities along this part of the coast, and some are more recent casualties of the Covid pandemic. There are many reminders of the tsunami with several memorials along the coast and tsunami evacuation signs along most of the roads between the main highway and the beach.

Despite Khao Lak’s very rural feel, it has all of the basic facilities that you will find in Phuket including supermarkets, massage and beauty salons, hairdressers, and lots of Indian tailor shops! There are dozens of excellent restaurants dotted along the main road and tucked away down some of the side streets leading to the beach. Some are right on the beach too.

I had an excellent lunch on arrival at Peter Pan on the main road in the middle of town. It specialises in steaks and home-made pasta. It is the first Italian restaurant that I can recall visiting outside of Italy that has four different raviolis on the menu, and delicious home-made cannelloni with ham and spinach. They serve Illy coffee too, but most mornings I had coffee at the Duo Café across the road where the coffee is stronger.

For dinner on my first night, after checking web reviews, I chose Patty’s just up the road from Peter Pan. I was not disappointed. I had their grilled fish and a cocktail. It was a superb meal and cost me only $15. For lunch the next day I went up to the Ocean Man café on the national park headland road and had the best quesadillas I’d eaten in a long time. Things were looking up.

And they only got better that night when I booked to eat at the top-rated Pam’s Restaurant on the road down to the JW Marriott. It gets good reviews because not only does it serve excellent Thai and international food, but it is probably the best value for money in Khao Lak. The spread of food (two appetisers and two main dishes) in the photo below cost less than $20. It seats about 60 people but is almost always fully booked, so it’s wise to make an advance reservation.

For lunch on my third day, I chose Krua Thai which is right on the beach towards the northern end of Khao Lak. It also gets good reviews for value for money, and I wasn’t disappointed. I actually had the whole beach to myself because I was visiting in the middle of the rainy season. It’s commendable that these restaurants stay open through the off-season as you still have as many choices as in the busier times of the year.

The only restaurant that disappointed was the Andaman where I had dinner on my last night. It had some good reviews on the web as a seafood restaurant, but I was surprised to discover it had no grilled fish on the menu. Most of the fish dishes were deep fried. My food was delivered half cold, and the music was way too loud. I felt like I was back at Patong Beach on Phuket Island.

As I was visiting in the rainy season, there wasn’t a lot to do aside from eat, drink, and relax by the beach when it wasn’t raining. During most of the rainy season (late May to early November) the sea is too rough to swim unless you are a strong swimmer and used to swimming in surf and dealing with rips. This time of the year is popular with surfers though, who tend to congregate near the headland at the northern end of the middle beach.

Of course, the resorts all have their swimming pools, and the weather is pleasantly warm (and it rarely rains the whole day), which is why Khao Lak is still popular with tourists during the so-called ‘off-season’. And prices of everything from accommodation to massages are often discounted at that time of the year.

The region is much busier during the high season from late November to early May. As is the case throughout most of Southeast Asia, the best months to visit are December and January. The last three months of the dry season from mid-February to mid-May can be very hot which is another reason why many enjoy visiting during the rainy season.

The one big advantage of visiting in the dry season is that you can swim in the ocean, participate in water sports, and take a trip out to the Similan Islands which many rate as amongst the most beautiful tropical islands in the world. The islands, with their white sand beaches and crystal-clear aquamarine waters, are part of a national park which is closed from May to October, so this gives the islands the opportunity to ‘rejuvenate’ minus tourists for a good part of the year.

Khao Lak is also a base from which you can visit another of Thailand’s most beautiful nature destinations throughout the year, and that is the Khao Sok national park – a little over an hour to the north. Although many visit Khao Sok on day trips from Khao Lak or Krabi (and even Phuket) it really is worth spending a night or two at Khao Sok to fully appreciate the natural beauty of this region.

There are many accommodation options available at Khao Sok including floating bamboo bungalows on Cheow Larn Lake from which you can take boat trips and guided rainforest hikes to see the local wildlife including wild deer, gibbons, giant hornbills, a dozen species of kingfishers and four different types of monkeys.

If you are done with the theme parks, shopping malls and noisy bars of Phuket, and looking for a place to relax and unwind that still has access to good restaurants, coffee shops and resort facilities, then you don’t have to travel far from Phuket to find it. Khao Lak fits the bill and offers the bonus of being a great base for a wide range of nature activities.

All images: © David Astley