Koh Chang Is the Island Nobody Puts on the List and It Should Be
Thailand's third largest island, four hours from Bangkok, a road you can cycle and a waterfall on the far side. It is not on anybody's map.
The list of Thai islands always starts with the same six. Koh Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Koh Chang if the writer is feeling generous, usually with two words and no further detail.
Koh Chang is the third largest island in the country, it is two and a half hours from Bangkok on a bus, it has a road you can cycle end to end, a waterfall on the far side and a diving site thirty minutes offshore that is better than most people who go to dive there will ever tell you about. It is last on the list for the same reason it is last on the list: it is not difficult, and difficulty is what sells islands.
Last verified 16 August 2026.
Where it actually is, which surprises people
Koh Chang is in Trat province, on the far eastern seaboard, close to the Cambodian border, and it is not part of the Gulf island group that people picture when they imagine the southern islands. The climate and the sea are different from Koh Samui, the landscape is much lusher, and the whole east coast of the country has a different character from the west.
Getting there
By bus and van from Bangkok, which is the main route and takes four to five hours. A minivan or coach from Mo Chit or from Victory Monument to Trat town, then a short transfer to the pier. There are also direct services to the island itself.
By boat from Trat, which is about thirty minutes across once you are at the pier, and the timing of the boat is tied to the bus and van schedules rather than being a standalone service.
By boat from the Bang Lamung peninsula on the mainland, which is closer to Pattaya and takes an hour and a half. This route has been disrupted repeatedly over recent years by pier and concession changes, and it is worth checking the current state rather than assuming.
By plane to Trat, which is a small airport with a small number of flights, and the sensible option if you want to go for a long weekend rather than a four-day journey.
And on a scooter from Chanthaburi or Trat, which is a genuinely good option if you are already in the east and want the approach road as part of the trip. The road is good, the coast is beautiful, and this is one of the nicer motorbike journeys in the country.
Which coast
The west coast is the party side. Klong Khong, Klong Thom, the beaches with beach bars, guesthouses with swimming pools, and a social scene that is loud in high season. It is perfectly good and it is not why most people should come.
The east coast is the one to go to. Bang Bao is a working fishing village with a beach, small guesthouses, a fraction of the price, and a completely different pace. It is where the island actually feels like what it is.
The interior is the surprise. The island is large enough that riding or cycling across it takes most of a day, the roads are quiet and well-surfaced, and the jungle in the middle is genuinely dense.
What to do
Klong Plai waterfall on the far side, which is the reason many people come. It is a short and steep walk in, it is beautiful, and it is a completely different scene in the wet season, when it is a big swimming hole rather than a cascade.
Snorkelling and diving. The island itself is fine for snorkelling. The genuinely good diving is at Koh Tachai, half an hour offshore, which is a genuinely serious dive site and which is regularly underrated by people who fly to the Gulf for worse.
Cycling the interior, which is flat, quiet and about as pleasant a half-day ride as the country offers.
And genuinely just doing nothing, which is the thing that makes this island work and the reason people stay three weeks when they planned four days.
Costs and the practicalities
It is inexpensive. Beachfront guesthouses on the quiet coast run from five hundred to fifteen hundred baht a night, food is cheap, and there is no resort premium anywhere on the island.
Get around by scooter. The island is too big to walk and the taxis are limited. Rentals are available in Bang Bao and at the main beaches, and a scooter costs less per day than a taxi to anywhere you would want to go.
Fuel is available in the main settlements and sparse between them. Top up in Bang Bao before you cross the island.
And the island is wet, genuinely wet, in a way the southern islands are not. The jungle gets genuinely lush, the waterfalls are at their best, and if you want a beach holiday in the sun this is the wrong island in the wrong season.
The elephant camp
There is a well-known elephant attraction on this island and it is a poor choice. The camp was established decades ago around working logging elephants, which does not change the conditions the animals are kept in now, and it has been the subject of sustained and well-documented criticism about how the elephants are handled and what visitors are encouraged to do.
It has come up in the wider ethical discussion we have written about elsewhere on this site, and the position there applies: the existence of a rescue history, or a genuine history of employment, does not by itself make an attraction ethical. There are better-informed options for anyone genuinely interested in elephant welfare in Thailand, and skipping this one costs you nothing.
The honest verdict
Koh Chang is the best-value island in Thailand for most people who are not chasing a specific dive site or a specific beach party, and it is the easiest island trip in the country to do on a short trip, which is genuinely strange given how little it is written about.
It is not dramatic. It has no famous beach, no landmark, and no story. It is a large green island on the eastern coast with a good waterfall, cheap rooms, good food, decent diving nearby and almost nobody on it.
Take the five-hour bus. Stay on the east coast. Ride across to the waterfall. Stay a week. You will have a better time than the person who flew to Koh Lanta for four days, and you will have paid a third of the cost.
