Things To Do in Khao Lak

Khao Lak’s national parks are laced with foamy waterfalls and chilled jungle pools. One of the best is the Chong Fah fall in Khao Lak Lam Ru. Water spills 10 metres down a series of rocks into a pool below. It’s a great swimming spot for sticky days. Lam Ru is another photo-ready fall – the water froths over 5 tiers of moss-covered rocks, framed by lush greenery.

Just north of Nang Thong Beach you’ll find the pillow-soft sands of Bang Niang – this beach is a great spot for swimmers and snorkellers, thanks to its calm waters. The sands face west, so stick around to catch a textbook Thai sunset.

The Similan Islands aren’t this area’s only diving hotspot. The waters around Khao Lak are brimming with corals and creatures. But it’s shipwrecks that are the real underwater attraction. There are 3 to pick from, including a huge, deep-water wreck that has barracuda and ghost pipefish on the to-spot list, and a beginner-friendly cargo ship that counts scorpionfish and moray eels as residents.

White-water rafting is the new kid on the block in these parts. Most trips will take you to the Ton Pariwat Wildlife Sanctuary, about an hour and a half from Khao Lak, and will launch you down a 5-kilometre stretch of the Khlong Song Phraek stream. The rapids are graded class 2 and 3, so they’re great for first-timers, plus you get impressive jungle views as you navigate down river.

Toasty hot springs bubble up from the ground at 2 different spots in Khao Lak. Conveniently, they’re both close to national parks, so are just the ticket for soaking tired limbs after a hike through the jungle. The hot pools at Kapong are close to Khao Lak Lam Ru, while the mineral-packed Ban Bor Dan springs are just down the road from Thai Muang National Park.

This week-long festival takes place at Thai Muang Beach, just south of Khao Lak. For protection reasons, the local fisheries department usually looks after turtle eggs that are laid on the beach. Once they’ve hatched, they’re released onto the beach, where they flipper their way through the sand to the sea.

Although the Turtle Festival is called a festival, it’s less of a knees up and more of a conservation exercise. For 7 days every year, the Fisheries Department enlists the help of volunteers to help the turtles on Thai Muang Beach make it back into the water once they’ve hatched.

Casuarina and palm trees back the beach at Nang Thong. And, apart from a few sand-side bungalows, that’s how the beach’s land lies. The sand is a very short walk from the village of Ban La On, where you’ll find a selection of restaurants and a couple of easy-going bars.

There’s a land-before-time-began look to Cheow Lan Lake. It’s framed by towering limestone cliffs and the water streams on into the distance until it’s hard to tell where it ends and the sky starts. Most people take a boat trip along this waterway. Others spend the night in the stilted bungalows that edge the water, listening to gibbons calling to each other in the jungle beyond.

An arm of coral protects Pak Weep Beach from the tides, so it’s one of the calmest places to swim in the region. This 4-kilometre band of sand is also one of the best places to hear yourself think, because motor boats are banned.

This national park clocks up more than 700 square kilometres of limestone caves, bright green lakes and ancient rainforest. It’s home to a huge mix of monkeys, elephants, bugs and birds, and the setting’s ideal for hiking and river rafting. In short, it’s an all-natural adventure playground. The park’s about 90 minutes’ bus journey from Khao Lak and a day-trip could include a forest walk, elephant trek and a waterfall dip.

Over the past few years, Khao Lak has started to make a name for itself as a golfing destination. From putting greens and driving ranges to 18-hole courses with pars of 72, you name it this region has it. The greens at Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa, 30 miles from Khao Lak, were even designed by Jack Nicklaus.

The Khao Lak countryside springs a leak at several locations, but the most visited waterfall is Chong Fa. The frothy white water here cascades down over 5 tiers. Sairung waterfall is just as photogenic. This one falls from a height of 20 metres and the spray that comes off it often acts as a prism to the sunlight, creating rainbows.

Anchored in the grass, 2 kilometres from the coast, Police Boat 813 is a living history record of the Boxing Day tsunami. This navy boat was guarding the son of a former royal prince while he jet-skied on the day the tsunami hit. The area around the boat is slowly being turned into a memorial and museum, but it’s still possible to come here to pay your respects.

This long white ribbon neighbours Nang Thong Beach. The sand here is uncluttered by sunloungers and parasols – most people use their beach towels to stake a claim on the sand. Most visitors here rely on the restaurants in the hotels that edge the sand for their lunch and snacks.

Khao Lak shares this tradition – in which people eat a vegetarian diet for 10 days as a way of spiritual cleansing – with Phuket in the south. The celebrations centre on Takua Pa old town. Parades trawl through the street and firecrackers are set off to draw attention to them. The date of the festival is decided by the Chinese lunar calendar.

This 13-kilometre beach is harboured inside the Thai Muang National Park. Between November and February, you’ll hear it called Turtle Beach, thanks to the leatherback turtles than scramble up onto the sand to lay their eggs.

Khao Lak Lam Ru National Park is the sort of place you’d find on the pages of National Geographic. Flying lemurs, Malayan porcupine and monitor lizards are all residents in the tropical forests here. Take a long-boat trip along the Khlong Thap Liang estuary or follow the walking trails to catch a glimpse of them, then return to the visitors’ centre to dine in the open-air restaurant.

Plunge yourself into Thai culture at the Bang Niang night market, roughly 25 minutes from Khao Lak Beach. It’s open every evening, but its busiest days are Wednesday and Saturday. Every millimetre of stall space is congested with fruit, vegetables, flowers and trinkets. If you’ve never been to Thailand before, some of the wares will seem like something from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, especially the stands selling edible insects.

Khao Sok National Park is a 739-kilometre expanse of tropical jungle and rubber tree plantations. And running through the middle of it is Pokok River. Join a canoeing tour for a Pocahontas-style introduction to the out-of-this-world scenery – the surrounding banks are overlooked by soaring mountains.

This sandy spot sits right up in the north of Khao Lak. It’s a quiet place with a few sand-side massage huts, plus a handful of laid-back beach restaurants for when lunchtime rolls around. It’s next to Cape Pakarang, where divers will find a coral-encrusted shipwreck.

The builders of this Buddhist temple carved a niche for themselves – both metaphorically and literally. This unusual temple has been chiselled out of the mountainside, roughly 45 minutes’ drive from Khao Lak, and it’s made up of a series of caves. Inside, it’s as close to an Aladdin’s Cave as you can get. The temple is ornamented with huge golden Buddha statues and artistic tiles.

The fabric of this 200-year-old Thai town is stitched together with a Chinese thread. The first Chinese immigrants arrived here at the start of the 19^th century to work in the area’s tin mines. But, when the tin industry lost its legs, the Chinese community were just finding theirs. Around the town you’ll see Chinese pagodas and old-style tea shops. Plus, you’ll get to taste Thai food with an oriental twist.

Get a taste of Thai culture at this hectic evening market. It’s around 25 minutes from Khao Lak and open every night – but Wednesdays and Saturdays are usually the best time to see its hustle and bustle in action. Stalls here are crammed with flowers, vegetables and trinkets – plus a few wares you won’t be used to seeing at home, like edible insects.