White Sand Beach, Koh Chang: 2011-12 Update

White Sand Beach is the first beach that you reach after heading through Klong Son and over the steep hill. As you come down the hillside you’ll get a postcard view looking down to the beach and as the road flattens after the descent you’re greeted by the welcoming sight of a 7-eleven.

After experiencing the the shock to the system that was the roadside cement works and shops with no English signs in Klong Son village, on the other side of the hill, you can now relax safe in the knowledge you are in package tour civilisation. And as such all your needs are catered for in English/German/Swedish and Russian. Check in to your resort, wake up at 4am the next morning to reserve your sunbed by the pool and you need never move for a week.

This is the most popular and therefore the most densely built up beach on the island and is the first beach the road runs alongside as you head down the west coast being only 10-15 minutes drive from the ferry piers. This is a long beach of powdery white sand or at least the northern two-thirds of it is. Thanks to large storms a few years ago the southern third is now more small stones and rougher brown sand whilst the very north of the beach, especially way up by White Sand Beach Resort, is one of the nicest on the island.

This is, by far, the most developed/over-developed beach on the island. If you can’t to do without such comforts as souvenir t-shirts, beer bars, opticians, a multitude of tailors, internet cafes, huge choice of hole-in-the-wall tour agencies, tex-mex food, Premier League football and a beer bar enclave all a stone’s throw away from your room then this is the place for you.

But, to be fair, even White Sand Beach has a long way to go before development reaches the extremes seen on Samui, Phuket, Phi-Phi or Pattaya.  If you are used to holidaying there it may even seem serene.

Places to stay vary from 300 baht/night huts to 15,000 baht/night luxury pool villas. Somewhere in the middle are the package tour hotels aimed at weekending Thais and foreigners who don’t know any better than to trust travel agents when booking holiday accommodation. Some of the older resorts are still hangovers from when the visitors were predominantly Thai, i.e. they consist of dark, featureless, unimaginative concrete bungalows or hotel rooms designed to keep cool air in and sunlight out. (Think Butlin’s Holiday Camp circa 1975 or Guantanamo Bay circa 2005)

However, things are rapidly changing and older bungalows are being replaced by new shiny new hotel blocks. Cookie Resort, KC Grande, Kacha Resort, Mac Resort, Grand View, Sabay Bar, Koh Chang Lagoona are all resorts that have been extensively remodelled or totally rebuilt in the recent past. Some of the smaller beach bungalow places still remain – Tantawan, Apple, Bamboo bungalows which all have aging beachfront bungalows that receive a lick of paint every couple of years in lieu of maintenance. They aren’t the sort of place to stay if you want some space & privacy but fine if you just have to be less than 20 metres from the beach and enjoy staring into your neighbours bungalow from yours.

If you don’t want to pay a premium for a beachfront room you’ll find some good value fan and AC rooms can be had on the inland side of the road in small, newly built but featureless guesthouses. These places are also worth a look if you’re after long term (e.g. monthly) deals for AC rooms. Places such as Arunee & Palm Garden offer basic rooms for well under 1000 baht/night even in high season and usually have signs roadside listing the room rate. Nearer the centre of the beach ‘Island Lodge’ and ‘Fisherman Hill’ both inland opposite Kacha Resort, have a range of budget rooms from basic fan to ensuite AC around 200 metres walk to the beach. A little further south, ‘Sai Khao Inn’ which is tucked away down a narrow lane opposite BanPu Resort, has good value, quiet AC bungalows and rooms up against a hillside rubber plantation.

Despite the obvious mid-range ambiance, don’t be surprised to see backpackers hop off the pick up truck taxi on White Sand Beach. For some back to basics huts, head to the northern tip of the beach, north of KC Grande Resort. This involves walking along the beach, as there is no immediate access from the main road. Here you can find a some cheap places to stay, Bob Marley blaring and a mellow, ageing hippy type of atmosphere akin to that on Lonely Beach 15km to the south. Places to stay include ‘Mylamean’ ‘Rock Sand’, ‘Star Beach’ bungalows and the one of a kind ‘Independent Bo’s’ which you will want to photograph.  It’s more an oversized work of art than a bungalow resort. These small resorts all hug the hillside and at very high tide you will find yourself getting your feet wet when you go for breakfast. But as you lie back on this empty stretch of beach & watch the world slowly go by it’s comforting to know that you aren’t more than 5 minutes walk from the nearest good pizza.

For anyone staying at White Sand Beach Resort, at the far, far north of the beach, access from the main road is down an unbelievably steep track that leads down from the main road at the top of the hill. You wont be walking this road. Much easier to just stroll south along the beach for 15 minutes to reach shops and restaurants.  And even if you aren’t staying at WSB Resort, it is worth walking up there, along the lovely beach, past the bungalows to the far northern tip of the beach.  Here you will find a little beach bar. Light meals and cheap beers served in a funky little shack by the sea.

The northern section of the roadside is the most heavily built up with all manner of places to eat, drink, sleep & shop lining the road. KC Coffeeshop is the pick of the internet cafes/coffee shops in this area and 15 Palms is a popular beach restaurant with pretty good, if ‘tourist priced’ Thai & Western food. but the nightly buffet is good value, and is always busy when live sporting events are shown.

A little way further south on the beach Cookies Resort have well-appointed rooms and also one of the most popular beachfront restaurants – although it is a bit more touristy now than it used to be.  I.e. higher prices, toned down Thai food and prices that don’t already include the tax and service charge.  So, maybe not as good as it once was though but the portions are large. Better beachfront food can be had at the nearby Sangtawan Resort restaurant – 50 metres to the north or Bamboo Bungalows restaurant 200 metres south. In the same area ‘The Beach’ also has a reputation for very good value food on the beach.

Next door to Cookies, Sabuy Bar is an attempt at a ‘tiki bar’ with large Easter Island statues and a music policy which involves the Filipino house band playing everything from hard rock to disco to AOR to 90s boy band pop in a single set. Early on the band plays outdoors and then moves indoors for a late night set. Plus there are the nightly fire shows on the beach for which the bar is famed – although these haven’t really changed in the past few years, so if you’ve seen one fireshow, you’ve seen them all. The bar is comparatively expensive and also the place to go to pick up freelance hookers – some of whom are female, many of whom aren’t, but are hoping to be in the future.

The most luxurious accommodation on offer in the area is in KC Grande where the new hotel block includes seaview rooms with private jacuzzis on the balcony. Pretty damn sexy if you are on the top floor, but maybe slightly embarrassing if you are on the ground floor and hoping for a bit of fun in the tub.  If that is too posh or pricey, Kacha Resort, in the centre of the beach, opened a new annex in 2009 which houses some good value  3* family rooms and a large pool ideal for kids.

Other places of interest on White Sand Beach are the popular ‘Oodies Place’, on the inland side of the main road just north of Cookies, this is where you’ll find live music and steaks and has been a popular tourist hangout for years. But for tourist food, again you have to expect to pay tourist prices. More than the equivalent meal would cost in a good Bangkok or Pattaya restaurant for example.

If you want to skip the music and just need a cold beer and some red meat then Buffalo Bill’s is the place to check out. Buffalo Bill’s also has a mechanical bull for customers to ride whilst waiting for their food to arrive – best to ride it before you eat, rather than after.

For anyone looking for a beach bar which doesn’t feature ear splitting music, Thai rasta staff or have a fire show, but instead does have a handful of brightly coloured tables and chairs, mellow background music, excellent cocktails, a few snacks and cheap beer then try ‘Tapas Bar’ a small, semi circular bar, right on the beach adjacent to Tantawan bungalows. A great place for a quiet drink at sunset or after your meal.

And if you want to simply enjoy cheap Thai food in a clean roadside restaurant, rather than paying a premium for eating on the beach and being bitten alive by sandflies, take a look at either of the two small restaurants, who’s names I can never remember, located opposite Banpu Resort. They both have menu’s in Thai & English and whilst they sell mainly Thai dishes they also do some European food for those who like to travel half way round the world but who think foreign food is a bit dodgy and so prefer something, anything, that is deep fried and served with boiled vegetables and mashed potatoes.  ( There are a couple of Indian restaurants at the south end of the beach for Brits wanting a taste of ho

Also on the roadside, in the area near Mac Resort and Koh Chang Lagoona Resort, there is a ‘Chester’s Grill’ fast food franchise. They do all manner of chicken by-product based meals, so a good option if you have fat kids who eat crap and need to be bribed with junk food.

Other useful, rather than interesting, shops and services nearby are the Kodak Shop, for passport photos, spare memory cards or a new camera to replace the one dropped in the sea during a drunken night out; and also branches of several Thai banks – Bank of Ayudya, Bangkok Bank, Thai Military Bank and Kasikorn Bank. (A couple will allow tourists to open bank accounts easily. Just need your passport and 1,000 Baht, 15 minutes later you will be out the door with a bank book and ATM card you can use anywhere in Thailand or abroad.  Very handy if you are staying longterm or travelling throughout Thailand and need to keep your cash safe but easy to access.)

Also keep an eye out for the 6 foot tall scrap metal ‘Predator’ that stands guard outside a nearby art gallery. Bring your zoom lens as there is a sign saying ‘No photos’.

The fact that every hotel / bungalow resort has a restaurant and bar on the beach means that in the evenings the street-side shops lining the main road are pretty deserted until after everyone has eaten.  Although you will find the cheap foodstalls that spring up in the evening along the on the 100 metres of undeveloped roadside just north of Kacha Resort busy with workers and hotel staff from 6pm onwards. There are a few arty/crafty small shops but on the whole most of it is the generic souvenir junk you can find anywhere in Thailand and there’s very little that you won’t find cheaper in any market in Bangkok, do your souvenir shopping there if you have time.

But a couple of places that are worth searching out are Portobello and Klin Mali. Portobello, adjacent to Kacha Resort, is the only high end souvenir / gift shop on the island and sells a range of handmade nice paper lamps plus other tasteful knick-knacks e.g. jewelry, silk bags etc. Klin Mali, adjacent to BanPu Resort, have a small but unique collection of hand-made silver rings, bracelets, anklets etc. Nice designs that you won’t see elsewhere, made by the Thai owners who will also custom make something if required.

Google Map of the White Sand Beach area

Details and Reviews of hotels and resorts in the White Sand Beach area

Next: On to Southern White Sand Beach