Things to do in Koh Phangan: travelling with a toddler

Another gorgeous island of Thailand, known to most as the party island of the full moon and half moon parties, Koh Phangan. Approximately 30min Ferry ride from Koh Samui (depending which pier you're departing from).

Koh Phangan will be our 6th stop of eight. This will be our first Multistop holiday. Booked 9 months in advance, it is still not long enough to perfect my itinerary. The more research I do, the more things get added to my itinerary and not enough time spent in one destination. Maybe I was too ambitious in stopping in eight destinations in 6 weeks. I had to try to fit Koh Phangan into my itinerary and in doing so lost 2 days spent in Koh Samui. Fingers crossed I get everything ticked off the list. Our first stop will be Bangkok, followed by Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, Koh Samui and then Koh Phangan. We will be spending 1.5 days here but definitely wish we could stay longer.

Staying at Phangan utopia resort for $30.38 aud booked through hotels.com makes it super cheap to stay on the island. If you're not interested in the full moon or half moon party, try to stay when the event is not on as accommodation will be more expensive surrounding these dates.

We will be coming from Koh Samui via Ferry. There are a few departure times which you can choose from. Make sure you check which pier the ferry is departing from. Bangrak pier will be the closest from Chaweng (where we will be staying). Approximately 30min via ferry won't cut too much time out of our day. Our ferry will depart at 8am to arrive in Koh Phangan at 8.30am.

Phangan utopia resort offers a pick up service for 200thb pp from Thong sala pier. They also offer a free shuttle bus service to Mae haad, Chaloklam and Khom beach departing at 11am and 2pm and returns at 4pm and 6pm.

Here is what I'd like to tick off the bucketlist if time permits:

• Thong nai pan noi beach
• Long tail boat around the island
• Ko ma
• Had rin nok and had rin nai (sunrise and sunset beach, home to the full moon/half-moon parties)
• Ao ban tai and ao ban khai beach
• Haad yao and haad salad
• Mae haad beach
• Bottle beach (Had khuat)
• Haad yuan
• Leela beach (haad seekantang)

With only 1.5 days to fit all of this in, I need to make sure we don't miss that last ferry at 4.20pm. Otherwise it will be a night on the beach for us (actually doesn't sound that bad😀).

I have printed out a map and marked all these places so we can work our way around the coastline.

Wish us luck! Back to Koh Samui for a few days, then we will be heading to Koh Tao. Follow us on our journey through Southeast asia. You can also check out and follow us on Instagram @born2explore