Want to visit some of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand but don’t know where to go? Follow along on our five day adventure in Koh Mak Island to see if it’ll be a good fit!

Thailand is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. It’s got rich culture, thousands of years of history, amazing food, and the one that seems to trump them all, insane beaches. If you’re someone who loves beaches, you’d be in heaven here because there are simply far too many types of them here for you to choose from. However, because of the crazy popularity, one problem persists usually, and it’s the problem of crowds. 

The entire point of a beach vacation is to be able to enjoy and relax without being right in the middle of hundreds of people all the time, and that’s exactly why we chose a hidden gem in Thailand, Koh Mak Island for our beach adventure! It allowed us to relax, meditate and have a grand ol’ time while also being pretty much to ourselves whenever we wanted to! 

In this post, we’re going to be doing a complete rundown on our 5 day adventure exploring Koh Mak Island in Thailand! 

 

Getting There

Generally, when you think about vacation, you just want it to be the easiest to get to so you can get your vacation started as soon as possible, but both of us know that the simpler a place is to get to, the more crowded it would be, and that’s the opposite of what we wanted. That was one of the reasons we went with Koh Mak Island in the first place! 

 

So we got to Bangkok and from there by a bus, (see how to get there) then took a speed boat to Koh Mak Islands. The journey took us around one and a half hours overall. Although, because it was in the waters of Koh Mak, it didn’t really feel like we were on the way to the main island, it felt more like we were already there!

Once we docked at the island, it was time to get to our hotel!

Accommodation

For our accommodation, we wanted to do a bit of a mix of super high end, and a bit of a budget friendly experience. So we started off with the budget friendly option and ended the week with the higher end one so we could spend the last 2 nights getting most of the relaxing time in. 

 

We started the week off with a 2 night stay at Villa Allure Koh Mak” We chose this location because the rooms were bright and airy while also being super private, and the walk to the beach was just under a minute! Because of that we were able to spend the entire day at the beach, and got to see the craziest sunrise and sunset while we were out there too! 

After the two nights here, we switched over to the more luxurious Seavana Resort, where we got a beachfront bungalow to keep the whole beachy vibe going. We got to meditate right on the beach, enjoy some amazing food at the restaurant, and even went fishing! Overall, we had a great experience at both the hotels we stayed at!

Moving Around

One of the best things about Koh Mak Island is the fact that it's only 12.4 km² so moving around the entire island is very easy! We rented bikes from our resort and were able to make it through the island without any problems, although you can book a private car too if you want that option instead. 

We just found that it was a lot more fun, and we got to do things at our own pace! 

Things to do on Koh Mak Island

While our main goal was to just hang out and meditate by the water, we did want to explore the options the island had to offer, and there were a lot of things to do here! 

Here are some of our top picks:

Attend a cooking class 

 

Both Ariel and I love exploring new foods. Whenever we visit a new country or city, we like to spend some time learning about how they make their food. This ended up working out really well here because we attended a cooking class at Smile Koh Mak! We took the half day cooking class because we really wanted to learn as much as we could without dedicating the entire trip to it, and it ended up going perfectly! There are also one hour and all week classes to choose from here! 

Get Your Yoga Time In 

Arial is a yoga instructor, so she loves traveling around the world and teaching me new yoga practices, and I love learning them! We spent a lot of time on the trip practicing yoga, but to explore things even further, we booked a class at Yoga Koh Mak, so we really get the full experience with a complete class too! So whether you like to do yoga on your own or with a whole class, you can get it done easily at Koh Mak! 

Go scuba diving 

We couldn’t just hang out at the amazing beaches of Koh Mak and not explore what’s under the water now, could we? So, we ended up at the Marine Park of Koh Rang and underwent the little course they offer and then just went for it! We spent a good 6 hours just exploring the waters and the marine life underneath, and it was one of the most special experiences one could have! The instructors were great, and the equipment was in great condition while being super cheap to rent. So the activity was accessible to everyone! We would totally recommend that every traveler tries this out on Koh Mak! 

Go kayaking

Since we didn’t really have a lot of time on the trip overall, we wanted to make sure to squeeze in all the activities we possibly could. So we’d dress up in the daytime and make sure that we could do everything we possibly could in the shortest amount of time possible. My harem pants and Ariel's super flowy dress and mini wrap skirt got us through all the activities without a problem, including kayaking! This was on Ariel’s list from the point that we first started planning this trip. That was because it wasn’t just regular kayaks, these were clear kayaks so you could still see the beautiful waters and marine life underneath, and it was one of the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen! 

 

We did this on the same day as the scuba diving, so it was the same waters, only one of the activities was a little more chilled out than the other. That way, we got to do both activities without having to spend an entire day on each of them!

 

Food Galore

 

 

We couldn’t have the perfect Thai vacation if we didn’t go all out in terms of the food options, so we made sure to explore all of our options in this case. We started off with Kon Ginsen on Ao Kao Beach, and we literally couldn’t get up for hours because the food was just so good! There were other options we explored along the Ao Nid road and the M.A Bistro for the times we wanted a vegetarian or a western option. The food options were quite literally endless and it made the entire trip even better! The price was amazing, and the entire experience was unforgettable. We were even able to pack some food to take back to our rooms and had it under the stars in the middle of the night. Since the ingredients everywhere were great and fresh, everything stayed just as good all day long! 

 

Koh Mak Island — A Slice of Perfection

Koh Mak Island served as the perfect grounds for the type of vacation we were looking for. The island was small enough that we were able to explore it at our own pace, and the perfect weather throughout meant that we could spend day and night outside without having to plan for emergency weather changes. With that, the food and the incredible sunsets were just the icings on the cake! We finished the night off by dancing away on the beach, and it just brought the vacation to the perfect end. Our vacation to Koh Mak Island was truly one we’d remember for a lifetime!