Trang Islands Triage: Which One Is Best for Families?

Koh Ngai, Koh Muk, or Koh Kradan: If you can pick only one, which should it be? 

Just a short longtail boat ride from the coast of Trang lies a chain of islands that checks every box of the ideal Thai escape: white sands, turquoise waters, and deep green jungle.  The three most famous—Koh Ngai, Koh Muk, and Koh Kradan—are collectively known as the “Trang Islands,” and even after multiple trips to the Andaman Coast, still remain among our favorite places in Thailand.

If the question of which to visit ever arises, the only honest answer is “all of them, forever.” We understand, though, that life rarely grants weeks at a time just to island hop the Andaman Sea. With that in mind, we’re sharing our experiences on all of them to help you decide which island deserves your limited vacation days.

Most trips to the islands start in Trang, the provincial capital.  From the airport just south of town, arranging a minivan to take you to a port is straightforward.  Which pier you’ll use depends on your island destination, so it’s best to confirm with your hotel or have them arrange the transfer, though you’ll pay a higher price for the convenience.

As Koh Ngai was our destination, we drove about 50 minutes to Pak Meng Pier, where we transferred to a private longtail.  From there, it was less than an hour on the water to reach the island.  I know they’re loud and dirty machines, but I still love a ride in a longtail.

The pleasure of arriving at a tropical island by boat on a sunny day never grows old.  Watching white sand, studded with dark coral, glide beneath the boat as we float above the transparent sea is almost a sacrament.  If there’s a better way to arrive at a hotel than rolling up your pants and jumping into the warm surf in front of it, I haven’t found it.

Hotel staff carried our bags (and our kids) through the shallow water and onto the sand in front of Koh Ngai Thanya Beach Resort, our home for the next three nights.  Most of the island’s accommodation is clustered along this same east-facing stretch of beach.  Our rooms were tucked up against the cliffs of the far southern edge of the beach and offered stunning views.   

As soon as we could drop the bags in the bungalow, we were back down at the water.  Koh Ngai has a little over two kilometers of idyllic white sand beaches.  For at least 50 meters, the water stays shallow.  There is no surf and no sudden drop-off, just a soft sandy floor.  This felt less like the open sea and more like a nursery for young swimmers: a paradise playground of waist-deep water.  For kids, the southern end of the beach is best—fewer rocks and a shallower incline than higher up the shoreline.

There is little else on the island besides the beach and the bungalows, resorts, and guest houses that line it. Nowhere to go, so no cars or roads mar this lovely little stretch of sand.  But even if there were, who would use them?  Except for the occasional walk to a new bar or restaurant for the sake of novelty, there was little reason to leave our patch of paradise.

Koh Kradan, what to say?  Everything I liked best about Koh Ngai, I loved even more at Kradan.  This is the smallest of the three, though the stretch of beach that runs the length of the narrow island is nearly as long as at Koh Ngai.  The island is wilder, less crowded, and the shallow shelf of sand that leads out to the reef is perfect.  Not just perfect for kids, perfect.  No qualifiers necessary.

The shallow, spirit-clear water stretched more than 200 meters beyond the shoreline.  It provides what infinity pools pretend: a never-ending swim through perfectly still, clear water.  More spectacular still is the reef that lies just beyond this swimmer’s paradise.  Just the other side of a wall of sharp corals, one of Thailand’s finest and most accessible coral reefs runs most the length of the island.  

Once past the protections of the reef at the fringes of the sand flats, the reef drops off sharply, but in that median space lies much to marvel at.  Boulder corals and staghorns, brain and table corals, are packed densely into the margin between beach and deep water.  The sea here is clearer, deeper, and more saline, and draws in larger fish from the open water.  An occasional solitary great barracuda, more than a meter long, swam past, only to be replaced by larger schools of chevron barracuda.  In the late evening, we swam alongside a green sea turtle that was easily double my weight.  Pure magic.   

It is during the evenings that the full magnificence of Koh Kradan reveals itself.  The island’s beauty is no secret, it stood in for the pristine dinosaur island in Jurassic World: Rebirth, after all.  Well before that film, visitors from the mainland and neighboring island have been crowding the southern end of the island near the pier.  By 4:00, the last of the daytrippers have gone home and Kradan is again quiet and empty.  This peace comes at a cost: Koh Kradan has the fewest rooms of the three islands, and requires the earliest bookings.  

The dividends for planning a stay in advance are immediately realized.  As the sun began to set behind the island, the beaches were empty.  The shallow sea, acres of it, were ours to enjoy in almost complete solitude. Watching the kids slip and dive through these turquoise seas, I wondered if they’d ever recognize the rarity of these places.  I hope not.  If I can give them anything from our nomadic life, it will be many more days in heavens like these. 

Leaving Koh Kradan’s natural splendor was hard, but Koh Muk (also very often written as “Mook”) offers something the others lack: a living community beyond tourism.  There’s a fair-sized village with residents who stick around beyond the high season. Unlike the other two Trang islands, there’s even an occasional call for motorized transport, though lazing in the same spot for a few days is an entirely legitimate strategy.

We almost didn’t have a spot to laze at all.  On arrival at the hotel, we learned a “booking error” meant our room was already occupied. This is not news you want to hear as the drone of the longtail that just dropped you off fades away.  On a school holiday during high season, there weren’t many other options, but having already paid, the hotel put some mattresses on the floor of a bungalow sometimes used by visiting staff.  

This was a poor introduction to the island, but there’s nothing like a swim in the sea to remind you that if you’re spending time in your room on these islands, you’re doing it wrong.  As both the sun and tide receded, we watched tens of thousands of sand bubbler crabs slowly crossing the beach.  They moved like a living, scurrying carpet of red.  This was, of course, an object of fascination for the whole family which lasted through dinner.

Koh Muk has another advantage: its residents share the national passion for food.  Koh Muk has by far the best eating options of the three islands.  Committed to spending no money in the hotel restaurant as a mild form of protest, we ate at most of the restaurants on the southern side of Hua Laem peninsula.  Our pique aside, it was absolutely the right choice.  We try to avoid falling into a routine during such a short visit, but the green curry and roti at Sugar or a fresh snapper grilled over charcoal at the aptly named “Yummy” is just bliss.  

On the walk home, another kind of crab made its presence known – enormous hermit crabs living in the scrub along the beach emerged under the moonlight.  Some of them wore wonderfully elaborate murex shells, with long needle-like ridges of spines. It was a very good crab day for the kids.

The beaches on Koh Muk are not as good as the other two islands, but are still quite good.  The best is found on the dramatic spit of white sand that forms the point of the Hua Laem peninsula, atop which sits the Koh Mook Sivalai Beach Resort.  At low tide, the sea recedes to reveal wide mud flats. When the tide is in, the water laps against powder white sand shaded by coconut palms.  

Garnet (or sometimes ‘Charlie’) Beach on the west side of the island is a popular spot to watch the sunset.  It was here that we experienced the closest thing to a “crowd” as we’d seen on any of the islands.  The back of this horseshoe-shaped bay is lined with stalls serving food and drinks.  

The bay faces the open sea and has more surf, more rocks, and more jellyfish.  Isobel took a significant sting from a larger jellyfish that left a vivid red line curling around her arm.  No mind, she soon saw it was just bad luck rather than an infestation and was back in the water soon enough.

While I could see the appeal of Charlie Beach, especially if we were younger, we’d left before the sun even set. We missed our stretch of sand on Sivalai Beach and soon, like the bubbler crabs, were crawling the beach in search of our dinner.  

A full moon climbed over the mainland, its reflection mirrored in the tidal pools between beached fishing boats. We settled into what we now claimed as our usual table and ordered dinner.  As the green lights of the squid boats blazed to life, so did the charcoal beneath another freshly caught red snapper. On Koh Muk, routine isn’t always so bad.

I’m going to avoid the temptation to hedge. Koh Kradan simply suited our family best. For us, it’s all about the swimming, the reef, the jungle, and the lack of crowds. In writing this, however, I’m reminded just how much I liked them all. Recognizing that each island has its own unique charm, I’ll resist deciding for you too. Instead, here’s the final league table:

For other Andaman Coast trips, check out our Southern Thailand page for detailed tips, travel guides, and itineraries.