After some eventful days and 3 days of Party during Sonkran I finally found some time to write about one of my highlights on our journey so far; our 6 days stay in Koh Yao Noi.
How to get to the island
Koh Yao Noi is one of two islands located next to Phuket. You can get there by speedboat in about 1 hour from Phuket. On your way you pass the bigger island Koh Yao Yai which we did not visit tho.
On the island itself you get around the best by yourself on a rented scooter. The island is quite small and you get around it in about 1 hour.
What to expect from Koh Yao Noi
Coming from Phuket, the vibe over there is a very different one. the island is not very densely populated and not very touristic at all. you will find a handful of restaurants and bars but not more.
So chances of meeting the same people on your stay and barkeepers recognizing you are really high.
roads aren’t busy at all and it’s the perfect place to learn to drive a scooter too.
What to do on Koh Yao Noi
Even though the list of attractions in Koh Yao Noi is not the longest, you get to do enough interesting things during your stay.
Beaches
After all the islands we saw, Koh Yao Noi was the one with the most beautiful beaches. Due to the small amount of people, we got to be the only ones on a whole beach, which was one of the biggest highlights so far for me. There are a few beaches on the islands, all accessible by scooter. My favourite beach was little beach.
Private boat tour
Another highlight was a private longtail boat tour we did with a local. On the tour we visited 6 destinations and small islands and viewpoints around Koh Yao Noi. It took a half day and it was really relaxing and interesting. The local told us some useful information about the spots we visited.
For example, it was planed to do some snorkelling, but at the time we were there the sea was full of jellyfish, which isn’t normal for the time of the year. Probably a result of the climate change, because jellyfish like being in warmer water and leave the area when it gets colder.
Restaurants, bars and locals
There are several Restaurants and bars with sunset viewpoints which give you beautiful golden hour moments, one even with a 360 degree view over the island. We even got to chat with the owner and met him later again in a pub and had a nice conversation about his visits in Switzerland.
Also besides that we met so many locals and got in touch with them, way more frequent than on the bigger islands. A big highlight on its own.
Firstly we only wanted to stay here for 3 days, but we extended our stay for a total of 6 days. It’s hard to describe the vibe of the island but I would totally recommend to visit the island, especially because it is located so near to Krabi or Phuket.
Make sure to check out the video, to see a summary of our stay 🙂
