Koh Samui in 3 Days: Ang Thong Marine Park, the Big Buddha and the Island Loop

Koh Samui is small enough to drive around in three hours and interesting enough that you should not try to do it in one. The island is a rough circle with a single ring road, which makes planning unusually forgiving: almost nothing is more than forty minutes from anywhere else, and you can reorder a day on the morning of it without losing anything. That geography is why this plan is shaped the way it is. One day is given entirely to the sea, and the two either side of it loop the island in opposite directions so you are never repeating a stretch of road. Day one is arrival and Chaweng. It is the island's longest beach and its busiest, six kilometres of white sand on the east coast with the calmest swimming water on Samui inside the reef. Give it an unhurried afternoon and nothing else. In the evening, drive twenty minutes north to Bophut for Coco Tam's — beanbags directly on the sand, lanterns, a fire show after dark, and the sunset the north coast is known for. It is the single most photographed evening on the island and the right way to start rather than end a trip. Day two is the reason to come. Mu Ko Ang Thong is an archipelago of forty-two limestone islands about ninety minutes north-west by boat, protected as a national marine park since 1980. The centrepiece is Talay Nai, an emerald saltwater lagoon sitting inside a collapsed limestone crater, reachable only by a steep staircase cut into the rock — and the view down into it is the image most people have in their head when they picture the Gulf of Thailand. The day also includes kayaking, a viewpoint climb on Koh Wua Talap and snorkelling stops. It is a full eight hours door to door and it is worth every one of them. Day three loops the island. Wat Phra Yai first, in the north-east: a twelve-metre golden Buddha seated on a small tidal island connected by causeway, built in 1972 and visible from the plane on the way in. Go early, before the tour buses and before the heat on the steps. Then inland and south to Na Muang, a thirty-metre waterfall falling over purple-tinted rock into a pool you can swim in — the upper fall is a walk and worth it. Finish on the south coast at Hin Ta Hin Yai, the grandfather and grandmother rocks at the end of Lamai, which are exactly as suggestive as their names imply and have been a Samui landmark for as long as anyone has been visiting. Samui's one real cost trap is the airport: it is privately owned and served almost entirely by Bangkok Airways, so flights in are noticeably more expensive than to Phuket or Krabi. The ferry from Surat Thani is a fraction of the price if you have the half-day to spare. Budget roughly 12,000–25,000 THB ($335–$700) per person for the three days, mid-range, including the Ang Thong trip. Come between December and April — the Gulf coast runs on a different monsoon to Phuket, and October to December is Samui's wettest window, not its driest.