At a Glance
- Likely to meet: Tourists, especially from Eastern Europe (northern end), families and flashpackers (southern end).
- The Beach: Excellent at the southern end (with the resorts) along to northern Klong Prao.
- Accommodation: Resorts and hotels, with some long stay rooms also available
500bt to 16,700bt for beachfront pool villas- Resorts: Koh Chang Paradise, Paradise Hill, Flora i Talay, Chai Chet Resort, Coconut Beach, Thai Garden Hill
- Small Motels: Luxury Guesthouse, VJ Island View,
- Bungalows/Guesthouses: Baan Fine Times, Blue Resort, Kerdmanee Resort, PP Guesthouse
- Backpacker: Pajamas, Habitat Hostel
- Restaurants: Cheap Thai, western, seafood, night market
- Signature, Nhong BBQ, Gloy, U Turn, Siam Kitchen
- Western: Amigos (Mexican), Bella Ciao, Marco, Abella – all Italian, King Pizza (takeaway), Moley’s (UK)
- Coffee Shops: Marin (Coconut Plaza), Alarm (at Signature)
- Nightlife: Beer Bars, Thai karaoke mainly
- Bars: Summer Breeze, Crazy Mojito, Third, Dodo Bar, Daddy’s Craft Beer, Malibu Bar, Flora i Talay
- Beer Bars: Rudy’s, Nanas, Trust Me, Apollo, Honey Bunnies, Cat and Get Lucky…et al
- Sports: Franky’s Road House
- Other: Plazas, ATMs, Immigration Office, Koh Chang Rescue, Koh Chang Animal Project, Minimarts, Pharmacies, Massage, Ticket Agencies.
- Highlights: The beach
- Lowlights: the beer bars area.
At an Island Pace – Chai Chet Beach
Chai Chet Beach has always been a curious mix, with a concentration of ramshackle beer bars at its northern end and plazas in the centre, both contrasting sharply with its excellent peaceful beach in the south.
Not as popular as as other areas on Koh Chang, Chai Chet tended to be somewhere you sped through en route to somewhere else and to be truthful, it felt rather soulless. Over the last few years, however, that atmosphere has changed as resorts have improved, the main plaza had been upgraded and whilst the bars and are still there, it’s definitely now well worth a visit.
Chai Chet accommodation ranges from large resorts on the sand to standard bungalow operations up by the road, practical guesthouses to backpacker hostels. Alongside them, there are some decent restaurants at the northern and southern ends, as well as a couple of other nightlife options outside of the beer bar variety. Throw in the shopping and overall, you’ll find Chai Chet Beach has plenty on offer for everybody.
Northern End | Plazas | Beach (North) | Beach (South)
The Northern End
Coming out from Pearl Beach, after passing Summer Breeze Bar (and Vintage Clothing) up the little slope on the right, you reach the base for Koh Chang Rescue. This is the invaluable island service that is always first on the scene at road accidents and on beaches when swimmers get into difficulties. There’s a good cheap Thai restaurant next door too, with Big Tree Residences and Grand Tree Bungalows just around the corner.
You now enter the beer bar area, with 20 or more bars – Nanas, Trust Me, Apollo, Rudy’s, Honey Bunnies, Cat and Get Lucky to name just a few – lining the street for the next 1,000 metres or more. Towards the end, you’ll also spot a largely unoccupied hangar-like building on the left hand side, The Koh Chang Entertainment Complex.
The complex was orginally intended as a containment zone for the bars, an of out of sight, out of mind concept, better for family tourism. Sound in theory, but not quite thought through enough as its rents were higher than those of the unoccupied land across the road…so the girls, who know a thing or two about money, set up shop there instead.
At the start of the strip, you’ll also find the highly rated King Pizza, takeaway only and the boat company, Thai Fun‘s office. Family Restaurant (once on Klong Prao Beach) and the local minibus parking lot, meanwhile are at the other end.
Opposite the bars, Kerdmanee Resort, with its bungalows lined up the hillside and the bar Franky’s Roadhouse out front, have the excellent cheap Thai diner, Gloy and the 299bt Nhong Korean BBQ as company. Another resort, Thai Garden Hill Resort, huge Lanna style villas around a central swimming pool, sits next door.
The expanded and very popular U Turn restaurant, a few more small bars, a petrol station and a three storey worker accommodation block, complete the row.
By The Sea
If you whip in by the hardware store, a narrow street leads past Baan Fine Times, bungalows and long stay houses for rent, before winding its way through the forest all the way down to the sea. This back area, once used by Koh Chang Offroad ATV Vehicles, gives you terrific views down the coastline back towards White Sand Beach. Sadly, though, the land on the hill has recently been cleared so we will watch what happens next …another new development? Incidentally, if you walked parallel to the sea here, you would link up to Chai Chet Resort below.
The Shopping Plazas
Just before you reach the two Chai Chet shopping plazas (Neighbour and Coconut Plaza), the large bar/live music venue Third opened in 2024. Beside it down the track, Blue Resort sits on a curious inland reservoir, with Dodo Bar, Siam Kitchen (formerly of White Sand Beach) and the Issan Kaikook among the options just after the turning. Luxury Guesthouse, certainly not luxury but passable, is found down an alleyway opposite them with the tour office, Coco Dee Bo on the front.
VJ Plaza was torn down and rebuilt during the pandemic, opening under the new name, Neighbour, all freshly painted in gleaming white. The supermarket has been replaced by Amigos Mexican Restaurant, with Bella Ciao occupying the old bank space on the corner opposite and Daddy’s Craft Beer (and food) behind it. In the season, there’s also been a nightly food market – time will tell how long that continues if the other units fill up with tenants.
At the rear, VJ Island View, home to island workers and long stay guests and on its ground floor, the traveller accommodation of Habitat Hostel (dorms and private rooms) are both open as before.
Next door to Neighbour, Coconut Plaza is completely unchanged, still hosting a few restaurants including the Italian Abella, the long running old school bar in Malibu and other travel and massage shops. Lotus’s and a large Marin coffee shop stand either side of the entrance.
Down To The Northern End of the Beach
Opposite the two plazas, needless to say, there’s yet another 7-11, with a small street leading down to the sea on which Coconut Beach Resort is spread out on either side.
Follow this street to the very end and you reach Chai Chet Resort, which sits on the headland, with some lovely views out over the sea and down the island. The resort is accessed by crossing over the small bridge spanning the inlet, where small tour boats and other local fishing boats are moored up.
At the rear of the resort on the hill, you can pick-up a signed jungle path around the shoreline, well worth a few minutes of your time, not least to see the 300 year old Tabor tree hidden away in the forest.
The Southern End – Chai Chet Beach
Back up on the road, Koh Chang Paradise Hill, with its water park, is the 96 room sister resort to Koh Chang Paradise Resort across the road on the beach. The older Koh Chang Resort neighbours that with their conference buildings and car parks opposite. Next to Koh Chang Resort the stylish ochre coloured bungalows of boutique resort, Flora i Talay, then dominate the final stretch at this southern end.
Located in the buildings opposite to Flora I Talay, Trat Immigation is open every week day and is good for questions as well as 90 day reporting and residence registration. It does not issue any visas, any tourist or non-O extensions or re-entry stamps – basically anything that involves taking money across the counter. For those, you need to trek across to Laem Ngop over on the mainland (and complain vociferously about how it wastes a 1/2 day for something that in most cases, takes 10 minutes).
Koh Chang Animal Rescue, PP Guesthouse (walk-in only) and the highly rated Italian restaurant, Marco’s, are in the same strip as the Immigration, with Krua Palm Beach, a decent somtam diner standing all on its own at the end.
Far End
Next door to Flora i Talay, the excellent Pajamas Hostel offers dorms, private rooms and a swimming pool. Finishing the row, Signature ranks as perhaps the best restaurant in Chai Chet. It also has an upstairs bar and coffee shop, Alarm and a chic area of thatch roofed salas at the rear.
Last but not least, there is also a public beach access, from where a very pleasant stroll down the sand takes you past the fronts of all the resorts mentioned above ending at the little bridge to Chai Chet Resort.
Going the other direction (Klong Prao) is also well worth a wander, with the beach continuing on past an undeveloped section until the coffee shop at Waree and then the sprawling 3 star Klong Prao Resort. Past them, you ultimately reach Vanilla Sky’s beach bar area, Koh Chang’s beach tennis centre and the Ray Rai grilled chicken restaurant. Cut through behind it and you gain access to Koh Chang Seafood, which itself sits on the mouth of the river outlet (klong).
The klong itself is too deep to cross, so to get to the rest of the beach, which stretches tantalisingly into the distance, you must return to the main road and head to the Santhiya Tree area. That lane also gives you access to the businesses on the right bank. For the restaurants on the left bank, you need to turn in earlier off the main road at Annika Resort (the old Ramayana) .
UPDATED JUNE 24
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