Koh Phangan Island is a small Island about 55 km from mainland of Thailand and 15km from its sister Island Koh Samui, which is the largest Island of the Archipelago. Koh Phangan Is world famous for the once a month wild, crazy and massive Full Moon Party which is based on a beach called Haad Rin. This Island is not only about one bug party it’s also a natural paradise island that is one of the leading destinations in the Southern Gulf of Thailand for deserted beaches, scuba diving, jungle trekking, mountain biking, and a wide range of tours like elephant riding, zip rides, waterfalls and temples. Not far from Koh Phangan is one of the most beautiful national parks in all of the Gulf of Thailand, the National Marine Park Ang Thong Islands which is made up of over 40 Islands with superb beaches, natural caves and the most famous salt water lake which was filmed in the movie the ‘The Beach’. This tour is a must do when visiting Phangan.
The Island of Phangan is very mountainous in parts and is around 168 sq km. The Island is 71% mountainous jungle with the rest being beaches and coconut groves. The Island has a number of waterfalls which become more active with running water during the months of October to January. Koh Phangan has a main capital village called Thong Sala where you will find most government buildings, banks and shops which include Tesco Lotus, Big C and Makro. The rest of the Islands villages are more quiet and simple apart from Haad Rin which is aimed at the tourist. Most villages around the Island have a number of bungalows and hotels around them which has gave them steady growth with restaurants, bars and shops.
The South Coast you will find the main town Thong Sala, Ban Tai and Ban Kai and then the popular tourist resort and home of the full moon party Haad Rin. The East coast of the Island heading north from Haad Rin you will find the two bays of Thong Nai Pan with two beautiful beaches fronted with five star hotels. The villages of Thong Nai Pan have significantly grown over the past 5 years with more shops and restaurants.
The North coast you will find the bottle beach which is only really accessible by boat then onto the next bay where you find Chaloklum Bay with the Islands main fishing port. This whole bay has some really beautiful beaches. This is the main area for scuba diving centers which is the closet point to famous dive spots like Sail Rock and more. Continuing on around the Island you will find Koh Ma a small Island just of the beach of Mae Head beach resort. Then you find beaches such as Haad Salad, Had Yao and finally Shrithanu where Phangan Cove is located.
The West coast which has a lot of small bays and beaches that are mainly broken up by rocks and dense jungle as we are heading back round to Thong Sala we find a number of small fishing ports and natural rocky coastline.
The Island has a nice road network which has been improved over the past three years and 75% of the roads are concrete.