Little-known mainland beaches: 14 of my favorites in Thailand (Part I)

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Thailand’s mainland beaches tend to play second fiddle to the sandy expanses of the islands, and for good reason. If I were ranking the country’s 20 or 30 most beautiful beaches overall, nearly all of them would be in the islands. And the best known mainland beaches — Ao Nang and Hat Pattaya, for example — are mainly popular thanks to their proximity to bustling tourism enclaves.

Yet the country’s roughly 2,800 km of mainland coastline contains hundreds of beaches, or possibly well over 1,000 if tallying them all. If a traveler assumed that the the finest of Thailand’s mainland beaches are well accounted for by guidebooks, travel blogs and chatbots, that would be reasonable.

It would also be wrong.

One of the more rewarding, if time-consuming, activities during my research for the Thai Island & Coastal Directory has been comprehensively exploring the mainland shores of all 24 coastal provinces. Traveling by car or motorbike and occasionally on a bicycle, I’ve turned down many a sandy lane to lay my eyes on countless beaches.

This process has been akin to a survey, but also a treasure hunt. Discovering a special beach that I’d never heard of before is such a joy.

Honestly, I wouldn’t call any of the mainland beaches forgettable. Even those of grainy sand and murky water often reveal something special, be it a skilled boat maker at work or a breezy kitchen run by a family who’ve been quietly preparing the freshest seafood in the most delectable flavors for generations. Heck, on any given beach, you might even strike it rich by stumbling on a hunk of whale vomit.

Yet there’s no question that I’ve found a fistful of Thailand’s little-known mainland beaches to be extra impressive, for one reason or another. Stunning or unusual natural aesthetics is largely what I mean by that, although in a few cases the allure revolves more around a particular setting or community.

I’ll now share 14 of the recondite mainland beaches that I’ve found most captivating. A few are at least partly overseen by national parks, but I’m not including beaches that I’d call primary attractions of such coastal parks. (In the future I might write another post spotlighting my favorite national park beaches, such as Hat Thai Mueang in Phang Nga and Hat Wanakorn in Prachuap Khiri Khan.)

Also, all of the mainland beaches that I consider reasonably well known — think Ban Krut in Prachuap, Chao Lao in Chanthaburi, Thung Wua Laen in Chumphon and Khlong Muang in Krabi, among many others — do not appear in this list. I’m also not including any of the primary beaches on capes — such as Laem Talumphuk in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Laem Ta Chee in Pattani — since I’ve already written a set of three articles dedicated to Thailand’s mainland capes.

The focus here is on beaches that are unlikely to be on any kind of typical travel itinerary. If they host any lodgings, it’s likely a small number of modest bungalows or homestays, or perhaps a campground. A few are accessible only by day and require an admission fee, but most are freely open to the public.

All of these beaches are quiet. Some are rather remote, though a few hide almost in plain sight of mass-tourism areas. All are possible to reach without the help of a boat or parachute (spots like that might appear in another future article showcasing the more isolated beaches). Still, I hope that even the most dedicated of Thai geography nerds will find a beach they’ve never heard about here.

Most of these little-known beaches are found along the Gulf of Thailand’s shores, simply because the Gulf hosts the majority of the country’s mainland sands. But you will find some beaches from the Thai Andaman coast as well.

The first seven of these special beaches are covered below, with the remaining seven slated for Part II of the series. As always with these types of “extraordinary spot” articles, my personal favorites appear at the end.