Haad Sai Khao

Travel Guide

Hotel Deals of the Day

best price guarantee

One of Ko Chang's best known beaches, Haad Sai Khao lives up to its name of White Sands Beach. The most popular and consequently the most densely touristed, the beach front is packed with concrete bungalows and upmarket resorts. At night the beach lights up with seafood barbecue restaurants on the sand and some funky beach bars.

The main street that runs behind it, under the shadow of tree covered mountains, is likewise packed with restaurants, resorts, shops and tour agencies. If you're looking for a quiet secluded beach or budget accommodation this is not the spot, but of all the beaches on Ko Chang, Haad Sai Khao certainly has the most to offer in terms of variety and available amenities. It's hard to believe that just a few short decades ago there only a few places to stay, a dirt road and little to do in White Sands.

There are a few quieter options at the northern end of the beach, based around and to the north of the small rocky outcrop where the last bastions of budget in the area are clinging on. It's old school, but decidedly pleasant. As development has driven prices up, the majority of the party crowd have upped and left for Lonely Beach; these places meanwhile are for the more laid back crowd who are on a shoestring...

South of the rocky outcrop, things turn upmarket quickly. In this area the beach fills up every evening with on-the-sand restaurants, usually set up by the nearby resorts. Further south the beach turns rocky, so it's not great territory for reading a book on your beach towel, but with over two kilometres of sand to the north of you it's not hard to find a spot. A few of the resorts along the rockier stretch have man made beaches beside the pool.

Heading further south the main road curves upwards and there is a decent cluster of bars and international restaurants at this end of town.

Most of the beach bungalows and resorts also front onto the main road, and here's where you'll also find the dive shops, mini-marks, travel services and internet cafes. White Sands also has the biggest range of choice when it comes to banking services and shopping.

Get orientated with a map of Haad Sai Khao, Thailand

Haad Sai Khao reviews

Backchat from the Travelfish community

White Sand Revisited

I broke my rule of not staying at the same property on this latest trip, the 3rd - my 2nd visit in 2008 showed ROCKSAND had changed dramatically from 1998's double storey bar with a few really basic bungalows leaning against the cliff behind - and having such great memories of the place I booked a room.

THE ROCKSAND PRECINCT
All those old-time knockers who say White Sand is developed out of reach of budget travellers ain't done their research. They can still get a high season bungalow overlooking the sand for 500b in this area around the rocky outcrop in the northern section of the beach - and lower priced ones a row back.
We ended up in a spacious top floor Sea View room with fantastic terrace overlooking the restaurant deck and out to sea for 700baht (fan, outside bathroom, hot water) after one night in a cramped stuffy Beach Room With Fan, Bathroom (hotwater) and Seaview Terrace (900 baht). The good views in the restaurant attract quite a lot of passers by - nice food, prices a bit above budget restaurant average. I'll do a full review of Rocksand in the PLACES WE MISSED section of the forum.

Immediately to the north of Rocksand is the excellent MAYALAMEAN with very inexpensive and good food in the elevated restaurant and the cheapest beer and massages we found all trip. Budget beachfront rooms were 500 - cheaper ones behind 300b when we visited.
About 30m past MALALAMEAN is the very extensive WHITE SAND RESORT with attractive traditional style bungalows starting at 1700 beachfront incl aircon, and 2 good restaurants with budget level prices. This place extends for about 400m to the northern headland with sand and water the best at Hat Sai Khao. A very quiet area - a lot of people think the beach ends at ROCKSAND's little peninsula.

Immediately to the south of Rocksand is funky INDEPENDENT BO followed by LITTLE CHANG BUNGALOWS, then STAR BEACH and PENS. All have elevated bugnalows at March 2010 prices of 500 beachfront, 300 or so further back and plenty of vacancies at this time. Independent Bo has an elevated eating spot which we didn't visit, the others nice beachfront restaurants - pretty reasonable prices there too.

CENTRAL-NORTH HAT SAI KHAO
The northern-most bungalows of flash new KC GRANDE start south of PENS and run for 400m down to central Hat Sai Khao. Mostly very exxy hotel rooms, 2 pools, but those northern most bungalows going for 4200! They didn't too big a step up from WHITE SAND RESORT'S 1700 jobs.

Sand and water pretty is pretty good all the way from MAYALAMEAN-ROCKSAND to the far south end of KC GRANDE. Not very crowded.

CENTRAL HAT SAI KHAO starts south of KC. Sand pretty good along here - and a lot more than on my 2008 visit which must have had pretty bad wet season storm-wave erosion. Some nice shade. More crowded. Water getting a bit shallow lowest tide. Candle-lit beach tables at night but not as concentrated as further south. COOKIES, another place I stayed at in '98, has done a KC with a nice pool and exxy rooms.

SOUTHERN HAT SAI KHAO. The beach actually ends at attractive KACHA'S beachside restaurant - their very nice pool is a bit further south with rocks out front.
The beach is narrow along most of the southern quarter, good shade, water pretty shallow low tide. Most crowded day and night. I walked up here 4pm one afternoon and they already had heaps of beach mats/cushions/low tables with candles set up for the sand bars and lots of dining tables being put out. Some pretty concentrated resorts and other beach businesses along here.

Note that quite a few of White Sand Beach's resorts are actually further south from this, some rockside ones and a heap of newer places extending 800m+ south on the main road. Nice resorts but a long walk to the beach. Check location maps on your booking sites.

THE TOWN - starts as soon as the road from the northern mountain pass turns right at the beach alongside KC GRANDE's entrance. The business strip runs south for about 800m to outside KACHA and is very comprehensive. There is also some upstairs accommodation along here.
Further south is a discontinous strip of bars, restaurants, shops and places to stay.
- Sights & activities
- History & culture
- Scenery & environment
- Eat & drink
- Traveller's scene
- Romance
- Value for money
- I'll be back (or not)
By tezza (dabbler)
Written on 24th April, 2010 after a visit to Haad Sai Khao in March, 2010

Also reviewed by tezza: Ao Phang Nga National Marine Park, Coral and Raya Islands, Haad Nopphara Thara, Kanchanaburi, Khao Lak, Ko Bulon Lae, Ko Kho Khao, Ko Kut, Ko Lipe, Ko Maak,

Have your say

You need to be logged in to add a review.

Username: Password:

Not a member? you can join here.
Review title

Snappiness encouraged ;-)

When did you visit here?

This gives your review a bit of context - especially if you were last in Chiang Mai in 1932.

Your review

(Remotely sensible, non-ranting comments are much appreciated. If you don't like somewhere, please explain why -- it's all far more helpful for others that way.) Serial ranters, loons and spammers will be banished!
And please, no self-promotional URLs -- that's what your signature field is for.

So how does it rate?

On a scale of one to ten (with 10 being outstanding and 1 being bloody awful) how would you rate here under the following criteria?

Note: Ratings are OUT OF TEN -- not five!
Please note comments are edited for clarity, typos and style before they appear. Ranting tirades, spam and anything else that really belongs somewhere else won't make the cut. If you want to rant, go to Thorntree.

Please login and refresh this screen before writing your review -- thanks!