Thong Nai Pan is one of the beautiful coastal strips in Koh Phangan. It can provide vacation in luxury hotels as well as a low budget backpacking trip. It is one of the most popular destinations in Koh Phangan that tourists are drawn to.

It is divided into two big beaches: Thong Nai Pan Noi and Thong Nai Pan Yai, when a small ridge separates them. 

Thong Nai Pan Noi

It is the northern and more prestigious beach. On Thong Nai Pan Noi beach, you can find some of Koh Phangan’s deluxe hotels.

Where to sleep

In addition to Santhiya Resort & Spa, which is located on its own stretch, norther to Noi Beach, you will find the Anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan Villas, Buri Rasa Koh Phangan and the particularly luxurious Panviman Resort. 

Where to eat

Surely you can dine in any of the resorts mentioned above. Most of them have high standard restaurants and cuisines. But it would probably be on the pricier side.

If you feel like your budget requires some tightening then you can find some options in the village on the back of the southern part of this beach, behind the hotels, with a street of shops and restaurants.

Recommended

That’s Amore – Pizzeria Trattoria – a very good Italian restaurant. Their pasta is fresh and homemade with a variety of sauces to combine with. The Pizzas are really good. We ate there more than once.

Food stalls – At the first corner of the street coming from the beach through Buri Rasa path there is a stand that serves Thai food. It is simple but good. 

Next to it are a crepes and a fruit shakes stands. You can hop from stall to stall and combine a whole tasty meal.

Can skip

Jip Shop – a restaurant that you can definitely skip. We got a recommendation from guests in our hotel, tried it and really did not enjoy it. The dishes look good but the taste is very weird. We ordered Thai dishes, maybe the Western food is different.

Thong Nai Pan Yai

It is the southern part of Thong Nai Pan bay and a more casual one. There are plenty of hotels and guest houses suitable for all budget levels. 

Where to sleep

Longtail Beach Resort – “Resort” is too big of a word for this hotel. Its rooms are very basic. But there’s some magic at this place that once you get there you just want to stay and feel at home.

When we stayed in Santhiya we looked for our next place. Thong Nai Pan Yai Beach was the view from our rooms and basically from every location in Santhiya and we decided to check out the area. We went on a day trip around Koh Phangan and among other things we arrived at Thong Nai Pan Yai to check the atmosphere and the possible hotels we can stay in. 

I marked in advance the hotels that looked most appealing to me in Booking.com and we went and checked them one by one. The beach seemed calm and quiet but there was also something sad and lifeless and we thought we would give up and maybe go back to Haad Yuan.

I filtered Longtail out of my list because of the appearance of the rooms. The hotel was at the end of the beach and we were not even planning to walk in its direction. Before we left the beach Yonatan decided to take a walk with Itay to the end of the beach anyway. I took advantage of the moment and stayed to chill on the beach.

20 minutes later they came back and told me that I have to see the place, that it has a really nice atmosphere and that we might want to stay there. The truth was that he really had to persuade me to come with him. I mean, I’ve seen the pictures of the hotel in Booking.com and I already know in my head that I don’t like it. In the end, he convinced me and I followed him. We found ourselves spending the rest of the day there.

The place is really simple and in overall not fancy in any way, but it has a happy, relaxed and homey atmosphere. Because the hotel is at the edge of the beach right next to the cliff, the cliff creates a sense of intimacy. 

The employees are friendly and very quickly make you feel at home. On Sundays they have a casual Sunday, meaning a day without the uniform, and after some time spent there, during which the staff get to know your family, you manage to get a peek into their lives.

Along with all the simplicity the hotel offers everything a person needs on holiday in Thailand. It has a good and comfortable restaurant for sitting under large trees that make a natural shade. Once a week arrives fresh catch from the sea and the restaurant holds a grilled seafood evening.

There is a spacious pool overlooking the beach and convenient for all ages. The hotel has a traditional Thai-style spa center. 

The bungalows are simple, as mentioned, but the hotel has a variety for every family composition, with one or more bedrooms.

But the thing we enjoyed the most, so much that we couldn’t leave, was the wide beach. Beach games for kids are placed all over the beach so all the little ones simply occupy themselves for hours – something I hoped to find in Srithanu, which didn’t happen. In the afternoons the locals organize a soccer game on the beach and in general all lie on the beach and chat with the neighbors.

Because the hotel is small in size, its structure makes it possible to put the children to sleep in the room and walk out to the beach or to the restaurant with an intercom device and still be available if the kids wake up. We didn’t think of this option in advance, so we didn’t have such device, but other families had and it seemed very handy.

We ended up staying in Longtail for 9 nights and were not the only ones who stayed there for so long. Especially for families with kids the place “sucks” in and makes it difficult to leave. At the end of this period, all the families and children already know each other, sitting together for meals, going out for day-trips together and feeling sad when the time comes for a certain family to continue their trip and leave.

Where to travel from Thong Nai Pan?

You can rent a motorcycle (I’ve elaborated on the benefits of renting a motorcycle, even with small children, in this post) and travel around the island. The distances are not large and within 45 minutes you can reach the other side of the island if you want.

And there are places to reach only by a boat. They will usually be the most beautiful of those you visit.

By A Motorcycle

Haad Than Sadet – a small and very beautiful beach. Known as a beach that was once visited by many kings of Thailand. It’s a pity that the kings don’t keep the tradition, perhaps it would have affected the maintenance of the beach facilities.

The only restaurant on the beach is really not recommended. It is best to avoid visiting it and bringing snacks with you or arrive in between meals.

The restaurant’s toilets are very neglected and really unpleasant to use. This experience can also be avoided.

But, it is recommended to visit the beach and enjoy its beauty and tranquility.

Than Sadet Waterfall – On the way to Than Sadet Beach you can stop at the entry to the waterfalls and take a walk to the falls. Or start the walk from the beach where the creek scatters into the sea (at the southern end of the beach) and up the stream until you reach the falls. They are not impressive waterfalls that fall from above but more like a small river that flows along a rocky hill.

Elephant Farm (Ban Tai Elephant Trekking) – We went to show Itay elephants and let him feed them. In retrospect, I would not have gone there. I felt that by visiting there we supported a place where its goals were not so humane. They do not abuse elephants and it seems that they generally respect the animal, but still it felt wrong that these magnificent animals are held captive for tourism. 

A few days after our visit to the farm, we met a woman in our hotel who told us she had tried to pet an elephant in that same farm and the elephant did not like it and flung her with his trunk. She had unpleasant injuries. So it did not seem so safe either. Can not believe I risked my child that way.

By A Boat

Bottle Beach – is a very calm and beautiful beach. It is located in the northern part of Koh Phangan and is only accessible by boat. There is a very steep path leading to it by land and it is not recommended to try to drive through. 

This is the beach where Yonatan spent three weeks many years ago and had a lot of memories from the place. Going back there was a very nostalgic moment for him. We went to look for the hut he lived in, the simplest hut imaginable. It still stands but today it is no longer in use and it seems that the bungalows in this guest house are replaced by the new and more luxurious version. 

Yonatan also went to visit the restaurant where he used to eat and ask about people who worked there once.

The beach guesthouses and restaurants are called Bottle Beach 1 Resort and Bottle Beach 2 Bungalow and also Restaurant, Bottle Beach 1 and Restaurant, Bottle Beach 2, probably because once that all that was on the beach. Even today there are only a few other places. 

Bottle Beach 1 Resort seems to be the best place to stay. It has a swimming pool, that in September was empty of water and had not yet been used, and in the meantime, a large iguana lived inside. 

We ate at the Restaurant Bottle Beach 2, following a recommendation of a family we met. Among different Thai dishes, the restaurant serves also great Indonesian food, which was nice change from the Thai food.

We arrived at Bottle Beach with another family we met in Longtail hotel. It’s nice to make such trip with other people. The kids can play together and you can split the cost of the boat.

Snorkeling off the coast of Haad Khom – on our way to Bottle Beach we made a D-tour for snorkeling. The boat stopped at the middle of the sea and we jumped into the water. Or rather, the men jumped. The women and the children stayed in the boat to feed the fish and watch them come in crowds towards the food. 

We didn’t reach the beach itself. From there we continued to Bottle Beach.

*** And today in Yonatan’s nonsense corner: “Do I look sexy?”:

That is it for now about the eastern part of Koh Phangan and it is also the post that summarizes the series of Thailand, at least for this trip 🙂

You can find the full Thailand series here. 

Tell me in the comments below what did you love in this post and what would you like to see more in my future posts. 

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