Samae San Island
The best beach near Bangkok that no one knows about
This winter trip to Bangkok was our fourth return to Thailand, which goes to show how much we love it, not just because of Yuki’s family, but because of the food, culture, weather, and beaches. One of those beaches is on Samae San Island. Like Hua Hin, it is about a 3 hour drive from Bangkok — so it’s easily reachable within a day or a weekend. The difference is that Samae San Island is on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand; it is south of Pattaya.
Samae San Island is actually run by the Thai Navy and houses their base. Interestingly, the ferry terminal (where we bought tickets to the island) had a large display about the 12 boys and their soccer coach who were rescued from a cave in Chiang Rai last year. It turns out that the Thai Navy divers are from the base here.
Samae San Island can’t be accessed by public transit and requires a car to get to (at least to the ferry terminal), which makes it less crowded. There are two beautiful white-sand beaches on either side of the island, and a free shuttle to get between them. Several of the trees have swings hanging from them, which provided us with some good photos.
The two of us and Yuki’s dad, cousin, and nephew visited Samae San for an afternoon. Three of us went snorkeling off the coast, which was alright but not great either. The coral isn’t as healthy as it is in the Philippines or the Caribbean, nor was there as many fish in the water. Conversely, there were loads of sea urchins scattered across the sandy bottom. Getting out to the snorkeling area cost 50 baht per person and included a mask and snorkel. There’s also an option to take a glass bottom boat on a short cruise, which costs 20 baht per person. After we snorkeled out in the ocean, we did some more snorkeling right by the beach.
At the time, Bangkok was experiencing some of the worst air quality in history so there was a lot of haze on the horizon.
Like all good things, our time at the beach came to an end all too soon. I think we’ll be back though — as the beach is cleaner, quieter, and overall nicer than Hua Hin’s. The snorkeling wasn’t great, but as a beach it was fantastic. Interestingly, a few days later we headed back to Hua Hin for another family trip.
