Tourists rarely call Haad Khuad beach by its Thai name, preferring the more common Bottle Beach. Incidentally, both the Thai “khuad” and English “bottle” mean exactly that – a bottle. Bottle Beach is located on the northernmost part of Koh Phangan island, nestled in a secluded bay between two steep rocky shores.
Getting to Bottle Beach isn’t a piece of cake, which is why there are usually few people here, much to the delight of the lucky ones who have one of Phangan’s most beautiful beaches all to themselves.
Beach Overview
Bottle Beach forms an almost straight line of wide about 70 feet (20 metres), shady beach with light yellow, soft sand. On the right and left, it’s bordered by nearly vertical cliffs, which rules out the possibility of walking along the shore from another beach. Roughly in the centre of the beach, a small river flows into the bay, which almost dries up towards April, turning into a channel of stagnant water.
But during the seasonal rains, the river occupies its entire bed, which in places reaches up to 33 feet (10 metres) wide. The beach gets washed into two halves, between which you can no longer pass.
Swimming
The shore at Bottle Beach is even, without any significant drops throughout its length. Provided, of course, that it’s not monsoon season and waves haven’t partially eroded the beach to form small cliffs. During the calm time of year, the sea evenly spreads sand across the entire beach, fills in the washout from the river and generally behaves itself, but waves do happen.
The shore slopes quite steeply underwater. At low tide, a two-metre strip of sand with a clean bottom is exposed, free from stones and corals. The depth of the beach is one of the most pleasant on Phangan – 33 feet (ten metres) from the shore you can already swim vertically.
Sunbeds and Shade
I haven’t noticed any rental services on Bottle Beach, so I’ll assume that all the loungers caught on camera belong to nearby resorts and guesthouses, whose territory is separated from the rest of the beach by low stone walls. There, on private territory, 99 percent of the beach shade is located.
The managers of some resorts have taken care to plant additional palm trees on the beach strip, but so far even cats couldn’t hide under them, so you can find shelter from the sun on Bottle Beach, but not along its entire length.
Beach Photos
Sorry about the photos, it was overcast, so it looks a bit gloomy. In real life and in sunny weather, it’s truly very nice and beautiful there.
Amenities
Like most beaches isolated from civilisation, Haad Khuad’s infrastructure consists of services offered by the five or six resorts in the area. There are separate buildings for a couple of restaurants and cafes, massage huts and bars. For equipment rental, travel agency services, currency exchange and other tourist conveniences, you’ll need to ask at the reception of one of the resorts.
All of them are located about 350 feet (100 metres) from the shoreline. Behind the hotels, there’s nothing but wild jungle and a very poor dirt road.
There are no shops or attractions on Bottle Beach. The nearest shop is on one of the neighbouring Tong Nai Pan beaches, which is about 5 miles (8 kilometres) away on mountainous dirt roads that aren’t the easiest to navigate. Honestly, Haad Khuad beach itself is a sort of closed, hard-to-reach attraction of Phangan, reaching which by shore is already a real adventure.
So people either come just to see Bottle Beach itself, or they check in for a long stay, forget about shops and generally head to other parts of the island for other attractions.
Accommodation
I usually check in and test accommodation myself, or at least check travellers’ reviews on the main booking services, choosing the best and most optimal in terms of price/quality ratio. But in the case of Haad Kuad, you’re limited by the size of the beach and consequently, a small choice of accommodation.
Below are all the resorts available on Bottle Beach (see detailed descriptions via the links):
- Smile Bungalows 2
- Bottle Beach 1 Resort 3
- Haad Khuad Resort 3
- Bottle Beach 2 Bungalows 2
How to find the beach
Bottle Beach has its own marker on Google Maps, and it’s also on my map at the end of this post. You can get here in three ways:
- by scooter all the way to the beach
- by scooter to the trail, then on foot across the rocks
- by boat
On a scooter, you’ll quite easily reach the nondescript turn-off onto a dirt road via a very wide highway. The turn is marked on my map, as is the last section of flat dirt road, after which begins a serious test of your driving skills. And I categorically don’t recommend risking it in a car – front-wheel drive won’t cut it.
Only four-wheel drive, nothing less. Scooter riders also shouldn’t tempt fate on dry crushed stone and longitudinal washouts, downhill and with sharp turns. Especially with a passenger or, God forbid, with children.
All inexperienced motorbikers and car drivers will have to walk along a trail with signs pointing to Bottle Beach, and for reliability, littered with plastic bottles throughout its length. It’s actually rubbish, but you can use it as a landmark.
The trek is quite simple, but if you’re not used to it, especially in the heat, you might get dehydrated – stock up on water, just don’t throw the bottles away along the road. The trail ends on Bottle Beach itself.
As you understand, the most devious method is a taxi boat, but it’s also the most expensive. The price of the crossing will increase according to your distance from the final point, so I would suggest combining land and water transport. Get to the nearest beach to Haad Khuad where a proper road has been laid, for example to Haad Tong Nai Pan Noi.
Leave your transport there and switch to a taxi boat, which for 150-200 baht will take you to where you need to go without any adventures. Just keep in mind, you need several people; they won’t take just one person for this amount. Alternatively, you can also get there from Chaloklam.
