Actually, it is correct to say Si Tan, not Sritan or Sritan, but everyone says «Sri». In general, in this area of Phangan there are as many as three beaches, smoothly flowing into each other: Si Tanu beach (aka Sritanu) in the south, Ao Niad beach in the middle, and Chao Pao beach in the north. Even at the stage of preparation for the trip, reading reviews of tourists and advice from longsters, I concluded that there is always confusion with these three.
Most likely because the Longsters who live in Phangan do not use these place names, preferring to summarize all three beaches in one word - Sritana. It is possible that this is so, and the conditional fragmentation into parts appeared due to the fact that all three beaches are separated by stone placers..
I made a separate post about Chao Pao beach, because it is very isolated, and Sritanu and Ao Niad have a common infrastructure, so the description for them will be the same, only the photos are different.
The content of the article
- one Beach description
- 2 Entering the water, depth and waves
- 3 Sun beds and shade
- 4 Beach photo
- five Infrastructure
- 6 Houses and hotels on the beach
- 7 How to find the beach
- eight Beach Map
Beach description
Sri Thanu Beach will be the first to meet you if you are driving from Thong Sala to the north of the island along the coast. Sritanu starts near a cluster of fishing boats, near the well-known Orion Café, then passes by Phangan Cove Resort and Nice Sea Resort, and ends roughly opposite Laemson Bungalow .
The main feature of the beach: a canal runs parallel to the coast, which cuts off Sritana from the rest of the island and you can only get to it in certain places - more on that below..
Ao Niad beach is the second in the direction of travel and is located far from the main road (Hin Kong Road), in a kind of reserved pocket with a lake and palm groves, and therefore the beach is not visible from the road at all.
If you look at it on the map, you can see that, together with the coast of Ao Niad, it bends around the lake from the Laemson Bungalows to the Golden Rock Bungalows. By the way, Ao Niad Kopangane beach is sometimes called either Zen Beach or Naked Beach.
Chao Phao beach is a place where longsters do not go at all, and here mainly guests of local hotels live, and I have already talked about this beach wrote in detail here. Well, and the last clarification: if you stand on Zen Beach facing the sea and look to the right, there will be a part of the beach, which is called a nudist. That is, Ao Niad is Zen plus Naked, this is such beach arithmetic.
Entering the water, depth and waves
All parts of the beach are the same in terms of sand and entry into the water: fine fluffy, light yellow sand is closer to the grass, and small stones with fragments of coral are closer to the water, sometimes there are quite extensive placers of cobblestones larger.
If you are lucky enough to get to the sea at high tide, then already at a distance of 5 meters from the coast, the depth will reach your shoulders, well, in general, the depth of the sea on Sritana varies greatly depending on the stage of ebb and flow. There is no swimability here: you can lie on your back or even pretend to run in a crawl, but at any moment you can stand with your feet on the bottom and rest.
Sritanu is perfect for families with children; on ordinary days with good weather and a slight breeze, I did not see serious waves here, but we do not take the storm season into account, for obvious reasons.
Sun beds and shade
There are sun beds only on Si Tanu itself and only on the territory of the resorts. I suppose that when ordering a drink in a cafe, you can use the sun loungers, because there are always free sun loungers. I did not notice any unrealistic crowds of people on Sritana, even in the high season and during peak daytime hours. As for the beaches of Zen and Naked - here I have not seen any sun loungers, neither rental nor private.
The shadow occurs very sporadically, but firstly: trees along the water grow only on the beaches of Zen and Neyeked. And secondly: at low tide, the sea goes so far that the beach turns out to be unrealistically wide, and all the available shadow is too far from the water - you get tired of running.
That is, you have to choose - either swim or hide from the sun. Although, speaking as it is: there is still no point in swimming in Phangan at low tide - it is too shallow, and this is typical for all the beaches of the Pangan east.
Beach photo
Sritanu Beach
On the bridge we get to the path leading to the Phangan Cove resort
Path
A small life hack on the topic of baggage transportation
Passing through the Phangan Cove Resort, we get to Sritanu Beach
The middle of the beach pleases with a view
On the left - stones in the sea and so-so sand
The same edge, but in a zoom
Right view
Here the main part of tourists hangs out.
Sritanu Beach
Zen Beach
This part of Ao Niad Beach is called Zen Beach
To the left, the beach goes towards Sritanu
It will be difficult to walk to Sritanu along the coast due to the ridge of stones in the distance
On the right, the beach becomes very wide and people like to hang out there kopangana
If in the evening you see a group of people on the sand - join
Naked Beach
This part of Ao Niad Beach is called Naked Beach.
The place is quite remote and deserted
At high tide, you will not be able to walk along the coast from the Sritanu side
And at low tide, people even walk with strollers
On the far right edge of Naked Beach - cliffs
Here he is, approaching
And there is a good place for evening gatherings
Infrastructure
Sritana is full of shops and cafes, Thai and European establishments are scattered along the road, and in principle, the streets here abound with restaurants with all possible cuisines of the world. There are two yoga centers, a bathhouse, and a lot of good local cafeterias. Here the infrastructure corresponds to the colorful public, which chose Xi Tan for rest..
In this area, a lot of yogis, raw foodists, vegans, all sorts of esoterics are constantly hanging out - if this way of life is close to you in spirit, then you will definitely like it here. In my experience, the main party takes place in Orion, where people gather under one roof with laptops, immediately work on the network, have a snack and communicate.
There are well-known mini-markets 7-Eleven and FamilyMart and many purely Thai local shops. Of the attractions: Lake Sweet Water Lake, about which few people know that it is a flooded former quarry for the extraction of tin, the soil from which was dumped directly into the sea, which did not at all improve the already shallow bottom topography.
According to local centenarians, no one has ever reached the bottom of the lake without special equipment..
Wellness stands on Sritana Orion center, where you can practice yoga and go to the bathhouse; There are also yoga center Agama, and also a lot of cafes with cuisines from different countries of the world, with a range from Jewish food (for example, Taboon) to an Italian restaurant.
By the way, in Orion they make good burritos and fruit salads, and in the north of the beach there is a Belgian restaurant and amazing beer. There is a well-known establishment for vegans Macrobiotic. In short, I did not have time to visit all the establishments that my eyes saw, but this is understandable - here you can really go to a new place every night for the whole vacation. While I was living on Si Tanu, I did not eat Thai food at all - I did not have time.
Zen Beach gets its name from the adjacent bungalow complex. Sometimes it is called Zen Beach - maybe because of the fact that musicians come here, who during the high season arrange a nightly jam session. With drums and wind instruments, they roll up mini-concerts that gather a bunch of listeners..
I myself went to listen several times; they usually start at sunset, at five o'clock and continue until about seven o'clock, that is, before complete darkness. The point where these jams are collected is on my map, there is a dirt road, in extreme cases, if you miss the exit to the beach, then you can easily orient yourself by the crowd of people and music.
Houses and hotels on the beach
Si Tanu Beach is one of the areas of Phangan where not only tourists, but also longsters like to stay. There are houses for rent here, right on the beach of Zen, and there are several complexes of houses a little further away. In general, there are many options, even if you have the first line, even the second, but there are places where houses stand right on the sand by the sea. This is how my friends lived for almost a year, they say that the place is not bad.
There are no problems with hotels either. If you do not bother with the proximity to the sea, then here you can live not only between the road and the sea, but also calmly look after a hotel in the depths of the island, there are plenty of options. But here are, for example, 3 good bungalow resorts on Sritana, in two of which I stayed myself, all the first line:
- Seaview Rainbow Bungalow
- Nice Sea Resort
- Phangan Cove Resort
They, in fact, occupied a piece of Sritanu beach, they stand wall to wall. And by the way, Phanghan Cove Beach has a cool Thai cafe, civilian with a pleasant interior..
Hotels near Sri Tanu>
Be sure (and I insist) to check for discounts or special offers on the excellent Roomguru service. He will quickly and easily show you discounts in all existing booking systems. In Asia, for example, there are a lot of offers on Agoda.com, which are much more interesting than for exactly the same hotels on Booking.com.
For the lazy, here are the direct links to the hotels listed above:
How to find the beach
Let's consider several options, in relation to each of the parts of the Si Tanu area described above. All options are based on the fact that we are driving from Tong Sala along the coast, and not through the center of the island. That is, from south to north along the west coast.
Sritanu Beach. As I said, the peculiarity and problem of this beach is that a river bed runs from the lake to the sea, which runs parallel to the coast and thus, as it were, cuts off the entire beach from the rest of the island. Therefore, you need to know the places where there are normal bridges across this river, along which you can cross, or even better - move on a bike..
There is an exit before reaching the main Si Tan. The exit starts at the point where Hin Kong Road turns 90 °. I cannot name any landmarks, they are all not reliable there, except for the turn itself. 50 meters after the exit, the track will run to the left towards Orion, but you don't need to go there..
As soon as you fix your gaze on the advertising posters, turn right onto the path, there you will notice a bridge. After passing along it and along the path you will get to Phangan Cove Resort. Another option is the Nice Sea Resort bridge, which can be accessed directly from the main road. Look for signs on the main road with your eyes, drop your bike at the bridge and walk to the sea - this is normal, everyone walks like that. Phangan Cove, by the way, has excellent Thai food and you can have a good lunch..
Ao Niad Beach and Naked Beach. It's better for someone to show you the way, of course. Because in words the description of the road looks somewhat confusing. Pass the local 7-Eleven, in front of the ticket office of the attraction on the lake there is a nondescript turn towards the beach (there will still be a large signboard «Thai Cultural School») and follow the road until the very end.
There will be a fork ahead, where you need to turn right and go to the beach houses. You will see where many bikes will be parked, leave your machine there and go on foot to the beach.
Here you have to turn off the road to get to Neykid / Zen Beach
There is another option to get to Naked Beach. You need to drive along Hin Kong Road past the lake and look for the Golden Rock Bungalows sign with your eyes. As you will see, turn onto the narrow road. There is a nuance: here the path is shorter and more convenient, but - you cannot ride a bike, because this is a private road and the requirement of Golden Rock Bungalows is not to ride a motorcycle.
So at some point you have to drop the bike and walk to the beach. In theory, if you eat at their cafe or order a drink, then you can drive through the territory.
Beach Map
Sitanu Beach Map (Sritanu)
Sitanu Beach Map (Sritanu):
