Thailand forum

We'd like to stay in a small semi-rural location in the north with access to walks and in a quiet beach with some snorkelling and walking.

A quiet beach with some snorkelling in the north??

You mention Pai, Chiang Rai and Ko Lanta. Are you looking at any particular part of Thailand or just somewhere fairly rural?

Ah sorry. I read your post too quick. You're looking to stay in more than one place. Apologies. Lanta doesn't have much snorkelling from the beach AFAIK but offhand I can't think of anywhere suitable that does.

What sort of budget were you thinking?

"in a quiet beach with some snorkelling and walking."

When I stayed at Luboah Hut on Ko Jum I noticed they had a family bungalow. Lovely laid back beach, fantastic hostes. Note Jum aint up there as a top snorkelling spot - if you are used to Red Sea/Great Barrier Reef you may be disappointed. Can walk the whole length of Jum's east coast when the tide is right.
Can get more info in Luboah on TRAVELFISH'S Jum page, below, and here
http://www.kojumonline.com/.

Not good snorkelling, not great beaches, but one of the nicest, most welcoming resorts I've been to, with a range of HOUSES not beach bungalows for rent - http://www.siboyabungalows.com/
Nice rural-orientated island to walk around.

One sweet place with good snorkelling off the beach is the less visited east coast of Phi Phi - Toh Koh Resort had a big bungalow with 2 king sized beds I stayed in last visit and was building a new family bungalow at the time. See TRAVELFISH reviews for more info and contact details. Some great walks up throught the jungle into the eastern highlands, along the beach/rocks to other east coast beaches and across to Ton Sai town.

Railay Beach Club has family houses but you are looking at fairly expensive joints. Railay is no better than Jum for snorkelling off the beach but has some good stuff around the nearby offshore islands. I enjoy the short walk over to Phra Nang beach and the longer one across the ridge from East Railay to Ton Sai, the climbers' beach.

Hi Tezza, thanks for your beach/island tips. We'll definitely look into them. Koh Jum and Railay might have potential by the sounds of it, if there are any affordable houses to rent at Railay. Sounds like the good beach without the high-end resort at Railay might be a bit noisy from the Travelfish guide? We don't expect amazing coral off a beach with resorts. Any survival seems almost a minor miracle. We spent a few weeks on Koh Whai last year and the coral there was good enough to have available for just walking out into the sea.

Hi the Quinlines, thanks for your post. It's great to get some info from someone who lives in a place and knows it well. We're planning to arrive at wherever we go to in the north in mid-October. If we like Pai we'll stay between 1 and 2 months. We'd like to ring a couple of places to check prices, facilities and availability. Do you have any places you'd recommend - or is it a case of arriving in Pai and investigating?

What is it about Pai that you like? As well as bringing up our baby we'd love to be in nature, go for walks, catch up on some yoga, meet a few people, swim.

Thanks, Bill

Hi Tezza, aha, that's really good local info to have. Thanks. Do you know if the Beach Club have sole use of that end of the beach or might there be any more affordable accommodation. You mentioned the Beach Club is fairly expensive. It looks like they've some great houses on their website but if the prices are per night then yep its way beyond our budget. It looks like a pretty high end service they offer and would love to be able to afford that.

Down south you might also consider Chanburi. I've heard it's quite a nice little city and close to the water.