Ultimate Guide to Hiking in Koh Samui

On an island renowned for pristine beaches and sapphire seas, you would expect visitors to Thailand’s Koh Samui to spend all of their waking hours near the shore. However, there’s also lush rainforest that’s equally enticing for adventurous travellers, and the holiday gurus over at Expedia Australia have all the top tips. Whether by boot or by bike, you’ll enjoy hidden waterfalls, secret gardens, and incredible views when you follow this guide to hiking in Koh Samui.

Pointers and Preparation

Forest Stairs Koh Samui

Before you go running through the canopy to a lookout high on a mountainside, there are a few things to consider. First and foremost, you’re going to need the proper gear. That means comfortable trail-worthy shoes and appropriate clothing. Leave the sandals and cotton T-shirts back at your Koh Samui hotel.

It’s humid in the rainforest—moisture-wicking clothes are a must to keep you cool and dry. Sunscreen and insect repellent are also must-haves for any extended time outside, and you might want to pack a travel rain poncho, just to be prepared for the occasional pop-up shower.

Because of the midday heat, it’s best to start your hike early in the morning, or later in the afternoon. Be sure to bring plenty of water and a snack so you can stay hydrated and fuelled up on the trail.

Best Hikes on Koh Samui

Now that you’re properly prepared, it’s time to lace up your trail runners and make tracks. Here are some of the best hiking trails on the island—all of which can be tackled with or without a local guide.

Easy Hikes

Consider these one to two-hour hikes to be more like leisurely strolls that even the most inexperienced hiker can thoroughly enjoy.

Hin Lad Waterfall Trail is a riverside path that gradually leads you uphill through the jungle to the scenic area where the flowing river falls into the plunge pool. Feel free to take a swim—or just dip your toes in—before heading back down.

Hin Lad Waterfall, Koh Samui

The Maenam Viewpoint Trail in Nathon South is another easy option. Normally, you would expect to exert yourself for hours to reach an expansive island view. But this trail delivers a picturesque vantage point high atop the mountain rim.

Moderate Hikes

Expect to be on the trail about two or three hours for these treks. You’ll get a workout, for sure, but you won’t need to be an expert hiker to attempt them.

Magic Garden Koh Samui

The Magic Garden—or Secret Buddha Garden, as it’s also called—is a sculpture park built by Buddhist practitioner Uncle Nim. The hike there, through the dense forest, can be steep and challenging in a few spots, but the payoff is well worth it.

You can continue on a separate moderate hike after you’ve spent some time with the statues and the surrounding landscaped jungle. An effigy of the Sleeping Buddha—a golden, reclining re-creation of the spiritual leader—is found about 90 minutes along another trail that begins at the Magic Garden. If attempting both hikes is too much, and you want to only do the Sleeping Buddha hike, you can catch a ride to the Magic Garden and start from there.

Challenging Hikes

You’ll definitely want to get an early start for these three to four hour treks. Bring plenty of water, and make sure you have a full battery for your camera—you’re going to need it once you reach these majestic peaks.

The Nathon Mountain Ridge Trail takes you on a 13-kilometre loop around the entire Nathon Valley. Along the way, you’ll pass through coconut plantations, evergreen forests, and jungle vegetation—all offering plenty of photo ops.

Male hiker at Koh Samui Viewpoint

Another 13-kilometre trail combines some of the easy and moderate hikes, creating one long trek, and takes you through a Buddhist temple. On the Maenam Viewpoint-Wat Lamai-Magic Garden Trail, you’ll enjoy a couple of Koh Samui’s most gorgeous vistas. Maenam Viewpoint is a popular spot for views of the island, but continue on to the top of the tower at Wat Lamai, and you can see the mainland on a clear day. After you’ve taken in the panorama, you’ll pass through the Magic Garden, where you can witness Uncle Nim’s handiwork.

There you have it. Hopefully, you’ll spend some time enjoying these amazing hikes in between sessions on the sand, snorkelling in the sea, and sightseeing along Koh Samui’s streets. In fact, a day on the trails will make that pint at the pub all the more refreshing, and the seafood dinner even more delightful.

Chiang Rai’s Famous Rescue Cave

Guest blogger John Borthwick visited the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand, scene of a spectacular rescue in 2018. Here’s what he found.

There have been major documentaries and endless interviews. And Hollywood is turning it into a dramatic feature film. “It” is the extraordinary story that played out in June-July 2018 when 12 young Thai soccer players and their coach were entombed deep within a flooded cave system outside Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.

Image: John Borthwick

Today, sunlight streams into the cathedral-sized first chamber of Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non, the ”Great Cave of the Sleeping Lady”. Visitors amble down a well-made pathway to explore the floor of the cavern and take selfies. It’s hard to imagine that this was a scene of frantic activity that gripped the world’s attention for a fortnight.

Marooned by rising waters on a ledge over three kilometres deep within a claustrophobic labyrinth, the Wild Boars football team, the youngest of whom was only 11, was almost given up for dead. Ten days passed before two freelance British cave divers, called in by the Thai government to assist, managed to battle upstream through murky waters and find the boys alive.

The dangerous rescue that followed took another week. Twenty-three countries contributed to the effort. Among the thousands of participants and dozens of heroes were two Australian medical specialists and cave divers, doctors Richard Harris and Craig Challen who oversaw the risky task of anaesthetising the boys before teams of divers then swam them, submerged and unconscious, out to safety. The grandfather of one boy said, “It’s like they have died. And now have been reborn.”

Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris is presented with an award for bravery by the Explorers Club

The cave in Tham Luang—Khun Nam Nang Non National Park, about 40 minutes drive from Chiang Rai, has been reopened to the public. “During the week we now get about 1000 visitors a day. On weekends, two thousand,” a National Parks ranger tells me. Entry is free and a shuttle bus runs constantly between the nearby parking lot and cave entrance.

Visitors can wander the giant entry chamber and climb the steps to its Spirit House altar. I explore further into the limestone cavern, which runs some ten kilometres toward the nearby Myanmar border. However, after only 300 metres the narrowing passageway is firmly blocked by a metal barricade. Thai National Parks aren’t taking any chances with thrill-seekers tempting fate in seeing how far they might make it towards the famous rescue point, even during this dry season.

Image: John Borthwick

The area around the cave entrance has now become a sort of “Rescue” theme park, with murals, maps, a recreated tunnel section and a large statue honouring former Thai Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan, the only person to perish during the mission.

The British Cave Rescue Council divers received multiple bravery awards, as did many Thai SEALS, plus US, Chinese, Belgian and other participants. The two Australian specialists jointly won the “Australian of the Year” award. The young footballers — true heroes all — were feted internationally and several of them, who were stateless, including coach Ekkapol Chantawong, were granted Thai citizenship.

At least four versions of ‘the rescue’ will see the light of movie and television screens. First out was the 2019 doco, The Cave by Thai-Irish filmmaker Tom Waller. A Netflix mini-series that focuses on the young footballers is in the works. National Geographic’s 2021 documentary, The Rescue was stunning on the big screen and is now available on Disney.

Meanwhile, Hollywood director Ron Howard’s big-budget version, “Thirteen Lives” will star Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as the British duo who first found the boys.

After the boys were all rescued and safe in their own Chiang Rai hospital ward, the Thai Navy SEALS posted: “We are not sure if this is a miracle, science, or what?” Probably all of the above.