Koh Chang & Koh Kood in 7 Days: Two Islands, Two Different Worlds

Most people who go to Koh Chang never make it to Koh Kood. That's a shame, because the two islands tell completely different stories — and you need both to understand what the Thai Gulf can actually be.

Koh Chang is the bigger, more developed one. It has infrastructure, a tourist scene, and a reputation built on its famous west coast beaches. That reputation, I'll be honest, is partly deserved and partly a trap — more on that below. Koh Kood, a couple of hours further south by boat, is something else entirely: less visited, less built-up, genuinely wild in places. The kind of island where you can spend a full afternoon on a beach and count the other people on one hand.

Practical Information

Recommended Stay

Minimum 7 days and 6 nights — 3 nights on each island.

⚠️ The transfer between Koh Chang and Koh Kood takes roughly half a day once you factor in getting to the pier, waiting for the boat, the crossing itself, and settling in on the other side. Build this into your planning, not around it

Getting There

✈️ By Plane: Neither island has its own airport. Most people fly into Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang) and continue from there by bus or transfer to the ferry pier. There is a small airport in Trat, technically the closest to the islands, but I couldn't find reliable direct flights to it — in practice, Bangkok is your gateway.

👉 You can book your plane ticket here🔗

🚌 By Bus: Buses run regularly from Bangkok's Eastern Bus Terminal (Ekamai)🔗 to Trat, with journey times of around 5–6 hours. From Trat, transfers to the ferry are straightforward. This is a perfectly comfortable option if you want to save on flights and don't mind the journey.

👉 Book buses and transfers on 12Go website🔗— they also handle the boat connections between the islands, which is where the logistics get more complicated

 ⛴️ Koh Chang Ferry: The main ferry from the mainland (Laem Ngop pier area) to Koh Chang runs frequently and takes around 30 minutes. 

Koh Chang → Koh Kood: This is where you need to pay attention. The crossing takes around 1.5–2 hours depending on the boat and conditions, but it only runs on specific schedules and the timetables shift by season. Boats don't leave constantly — you need to book in advance, confirm departure times, and allow the whole morning or afternoon for the transfer. Don't leave this to chance.

👉 Book the inter-island boat in advance on 12Go 🔗

Getting Around

🛵 By Scooter: The best way to explore both islands — but with an important caveat for Koh Chang.

On Koh Kood, the roads are relatively gentle, the traffic is minimal, and a scooter gives you complete freedom to find beaches at your own pace. Recommended without hesitation.

On Koh Chang, the terrain is more challenging. The east coast roads — where the best beaches are — are paved but steep and winding in places. A standard 125cc scooter is not always enough. Rent something with more power, and only if you're genuinely comfortable riding on technical roads. Some of the east coast beaches involve descents that will catch you off guard on a weak bike.

⚠️ If you're not a confident rider, stick to the west coast or arrange a longtail boat to reach the east coast beaches — it's a legitimate alternative and sometimes the better option anyway

🚗 By Grab / local taxi: Grab doesn't function on either island. Local taxis and motorbike taxis are available, especially on Koh Chang — agree on the price before you go.

Accommodation

Koh Chang

• Luxury: Santhiya Koh Chang Resort 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🆃 Trip 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗
• Mid-range: Red Moon Hideaway 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🆃 Trip 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗
• Budget / My pick: Elephant & Castle Resort 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🆃 Trip 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗
  

Koh Kood

The island has far fewer options than Koh Chang, and the better ones fill up fast in high season. Book ahead.

• Luxury: The Beach Natural Resort 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🆃 Trip 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗
• Mid-range: Koh Kood Beach Resort 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗
• Budget / My pick: Suan Maprao Ko Kut Resort 🅱️ Booking 🔗 🆃 Trip 🔗 🅰️ Agoda 🔗

⚠️ Prices are higher on the islands compared to the rest of Thailand 

7-Day Itinerary

Three days on Koh Chang, half a day in transit, three days on Koh Kood. The rhythm is slow by design — these are islands for being on, not checking off.

Day 1 — Arrive & Head East

Settle in, get your bearings, and if you arrive with enough of the day left, rent a scooter and start exploring the east coast. The road is paved all the way to the southern tip, and the change in atmosphere as you leave the west coast tourist strip is immediate.

Long Beach (Hat Yao)🔗

The best beach on Koh Chang, in my opinion — and one of the least visited precisely because getting there takes effort. It sits on the southeastern tip of the island, reachable by a road that gets steep and technical towards the end. You need a proper scooter with some power, and you need to be comfortable riding it. The reward is a long, wide stretch of sand that feels genuinely remote, with clear water and almost nobody on it.

✨ Don't miss this

⚠️ The descent to Long Beach is steep — go slowly and use engine braking. If you're not confident, it's better to approach by longtail boat from the east coast

Ko Ngam Beach🔗

A short distance from Long Beach, smaller and even more secluded. Rocky at the edges, with a beautiful stretch of sand in the middle. Often completely deserted on weekdays. Worth combining with Long Beach in the same afternoon.

Wai Chaek Beach🔗

Further up the east coast, this one is more remote still — accessible by scooter on a rough track, or more enjoyably by kayak along the coastline. If you're comfortable paddling, the kayak approach is the better experience: you arrive from the water, the beach reveals itself gradually, and the jungle comes right down to the shore.

💡 Many guesthouses on the east coast rent kayaks by the hour or half-day — ask when you check in

Day 2 — Island Hopping by Boat

Ko Wai, Ko Khlum & the Southern Islands

Book a boat tour for the day and head to the smaller islands south of Koh Chang. This is the part of the trip that delivers on the Thai island postcard fantasy — clear turquoise water, coral visible from the surface, small beaches with no permanent infrastructure.

Ko Wai is the standout. A tiny island with exceptional snorkelling, white sand, and the kind of water colour that makes you check whether your eyes are working correctly. I didn't stay overnight — the logistics of getting there and back are complicated — but a full day here on a boat tour is more than enough to understand why people come back.

Ko Khlum and Laoya island are smaller stops on the same route, worth visiting for the snorkelling and the scenery even if you don't linger.

👉 Book a boat tour to the southern islands here 🔗 

⚠️ Ko Wai has very limited accommodation — if you want to stay overnight, plan well in advance. Most people visit on a day trip from Koh Chang

Day 3 — Jungle & Transfer Prep

Klong Plu Waterfall🔗

Koh Chang's interior is dense jungle, and the island has several waterfalls worth visiting. Klong Plu is the most accessible — a short walk from the road, with a large pool at the base good for swimming. Go in the morning before tour groups arrive.

🕒 Open daily 8am–5pm

💸 200 THB (~€5)

Afternoon: rest and logistics

Use the afternoon to settle your accommodation bill, confirm your boat departure time for the next morning, and pack. The crossing to Koh Kood typically departs early, and a relaxed evening beats a stressed morning scramble at the pier.

💡 Confirm your boat ticket the evening before — departure times can shift and you don't want to find out at the pier

Day 4 — Transfer Day: Koh Chang → Koh Kood

⚠️ Allow the full morning for this. Getting to the departure pier, waiting for the boat, the crossing itself, and the arrival transfer to your accommodation on Koh Kood adds up. Don't plan anything for the afternoon beyond arriving, settling in, and getting your first look at the island

The crossing takes around 1.5–2 hours. Bring water, a book, and sun protection — the boat decks are exposed. Once you arrive, the difference is immediate. Koh Kood is quieter, greener, and visibly less developed. The roads have fewer vehicles on them. The beaches are longer and emptier. The whole pace drops another notch.

👉 Book the boat in advance on 12Go 🔗

KOH KOOD — Days 5 to 7

A word on Koh Kood

This is what people imagine when they picture a Thai island — before the resorts, before the beach clubs, before the Instagram crowds arrived. Koh Kood is less visited than Koh Chang by a wide margin, and it shows in the best possible way. The beaches are genuinely beautiful. The water is clear. The island has a pace of its own, and it asks nothing of you except to slow down and match it.

Day 5 — The Beaches of the South

Koh Kood's beaches are spread around the island and all easily reachable by scooter. Unlike Koh Chang's east coast, none of them require technical riding — this is a gentle island.

Ao Phrao Beach🔗

One of the most beautiful beaches on the island. Long, curved, with soft sand and calm water. The southern position means it catches the light beautifully in the afternoon. Rarely crowded even in high season.

Bang Bao Beach🔗

A wide, open beach with a relaxed atmosphere and a handful of small restaurants and guesthouses on the shore. Good for spending a full morning without an agenda — swim, eat, read, repeat.

Haad Khlong Hin Beach🔗

Smaller and more sheltered than Bang Bao, with rocks at the edges and a patch of very clear water in the middle. Good for snorkelling directly from the shore.

Day 6 — The North & the Secret Spots

Secret Sunset Beach🔗

A small, tucked-away beach that lives up to its name in atmosphere if not entirely in geography — the sun doesn't actually drop clean to the horizon from here, so don't come expecting that classic postcard moment of a fireball meeting the sea. What you do get is beautiful: the light softens, the sky shifts colour, the beach stays quiet. It's the kind of place where you arrive an hour early, find a spot in the sand, and stay until the light is completely gone. Worth it absolutely — just go with the right expectations.

✨ Don't miss this

Ao Yai Fisherman Village🔗

A short ride from Secret Sunset Beach, this small fishing village is one of the most charming corners of Koh Kood — wooden houses on stilts over the water, longtail boats moored along the shore, and a pace that has nothing to do with tourism. Walk through it slowly.

For dinner, eat at Noochy Seafood🔗 — a tiny, unpretentious restaurant right in the village that serves some of the freshest seafood on the island. No frills, no English-language theatre, just very good food at honest prices. The kind of place you'd never find without a tip from someone who's been.

💡 Go for sunset at the beach first, then walk or ride over to the village for dinner — the timing works perfectly

Ao Taphao Beach🔗

A quiet, largely undeveloped beach in the north/centre of the island. Few tourists, no beach clubs, just sand and water and the sound of the jungle behind it. This is Koh Kood at its most elemental.

We Ao Jark Bay🔗

A secluded bay with exceptionally clear water, good for snorkelling and swimming. Gets more afternoon shade than the southern beaches, which makes it a good choice for a later-in-the-day visit after Secret Sunset Beach.

Day 7 — Last Morning & Departure

Go back to whichever beach hit you hardest. Spend the morning there. Don't try to squeeze in something new on the last day — Koh Kood rewards repetition, and a beach you've already been to once feels different the second time.

⚠️ Book your return boat well in advance — departures are limited and fill up. Allow the same half-day buffer on the way back as on the way there

👉 Book your return journey on 12Go 🔗

Final Thoughts

Koh Chang and Koh Kood work together in a way that neither one does alone. Chang gives you scale, boat trips, the wilder east coast adventure — it asks something of you. Kood gives you the release, the empty beaches, the sense that you've reached somewhere the world hasn't entirely caught up with yet.

The transfer between them is the only genuinely logistical part of the trip. Get that right — book ahead, give it the time it needs — and the rest largely takes care of itself.

Go before Koh Kood changes. It will.

👉 Planning a longer trip through Thailand? Read my complete 3-week Thailand itinerary 🔗 for the full route, from Bangkok to the north and back down to the islands.

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