Koh Lanta at half speed: one scooter, three beaches, no boat

Ko Lanta

1. 8:15 am1

   Breakfast and a first swim at Klong DaoKo Lanta

   Klong Dao stays wide even at high tide, which is why it is the one beach on the island you can swim at any hour of the day. The sea is glass before 10:00; by early afternoon the wind is up along the whole west coast and it turns choppy and brown at the edges.

   8 min by train or taxi · 1.9 km
2. 9:45 am2

   Scooter for the day from a Saladan shopKo Lanta

   Reserve one the night before in high season; the Saladan shops are out of automatics by 09:00 and you end up on a semi-auto you did not want. 250B a day, 300B in high season, and they will ask to keep your passport — offer a photocopy and a 2,000B cash deposit instead, and most shops take it. Photograph every existing scratch before you ride off. The single west-coast road is easy; the east-coast hills past Old Town are steep and greasy in the wet.

   12 min by train or taxi · 12 km
3. 10:40 am3

   Klong Nin: the long lie-downKo Lanta

   Half an hour south of Saladan and a different island — no jet skis, no touts. A sunbed from one of the beach restaurants is 100B and comes off your bill if you eat there, so pick the restaurant first and the bed second. There is a real rip at the north end on a mid-tide; swim in front of the bars where everyone else is.

   11 min by train or taxi · 7.0 km
4. 1:15 pm4

   Late lunch at Jai Dee, feet in the sandKo Lanta

   Jai Dee and Richey Bar are next door to each other facing the beach and do the same job to the same standard — pick by which has the shadier table free. Order southern-style fish curry rather than the pad thai; the pad thai here is for people who have been travelling for six weeks.

   16 min by train or taxi · 9.8 km
5. 3 pm5

   Lanta Old Town and a coffee at Mango HouseKo Lanta

   Forty minutes east across the island and a completely different Lanta: Chinese-Thai shophouses on stilts over the water, sea gypsy history, almost nobody. Left as an idea on purpose — if the beach day is going well, do not get on the scooter.

   8 min by train or taxi · 5.0 km
6. 5:30 pm6

   Sunset drink at Big Bang BarKo Lanta

   Back on the west coast for the thing Lanta does better than anywhere else in Krabi: the sun drops into open water, not behind an island. Local craft beer, tables on the sand, fire show around 20:00 if you stay for it.

   17 min by train or taxi · 11 km
7. 7:20 pm7

   Dinner up on the road at Cook KaiKo Lanta

   Family-run, on the road rather than the sand, and about half the beachfront price for better cooking. Ask for it Thai-spicy and mean it, or you will get the tourist dial-down by default.