While exploring Koh Phangan’s beaches, I visited Haad Salad right after Haad Yao and I must say compared to Yao, Salad is quite a small beach tucked away nearly at the end of Phangan’s coastal road. The one that runs from the pier in Tong Sala along the coastline rather than through the island’s centre. Haad Salad is off the beaten track and only worth visiting if you’re after peace and quiet. There are few people here, it’s very calm with minimal amenities and you can walk the entire beach in about 5-10 minutes at a leisurely pace.
Beach Overview
Haad Salad is smaller than Haad Yao with a length of about 1,600 feet (500 metres), no more. If you stand in the centre of the beach facing the sea, the left part of Haad Salad is less busy as the main entrance is on the right or northern section. The beach is so shallow and narrow that most of the shoreline is protected by cement, stones or walls that help prevent coastal erosion.
At high tide the sea comes right up to the grass completely hiding the sandy beach strip. There’s a certain romance to swinging over the sea in one of the swings but you forget about the romance when high tide happens in the middle of the day and at best you’re left with just a couple of metres of sand to relax on.
The sand on the beach is fine, fluffy and light yellow in colour. When wet it becomes darker and when dried in the sun it turns almost white which enhances the beach’s appearance and looks photogenic on sunny days. I hardly noticed any shells or stones mixed in.
The central part of the U-shaped beach is quite swimmable with the caveat about the sea’s depth of course. Sadly the Phangan shallows are present here too.
I suppose if I wanted a peaceful and lazy holiday away from everyone this is exactly where I’d come. It’s somewhat remote but easy to reach via a good road. Worst case scenario it’s 20-30 minutes on a motorbike and you’re already at the other end of the island.
Swimming
I visited Haad Yao and Haad Salad around the same time and it seemed to me that Salad would be deeper than Haad Yao. If you enter the sea during high tide after 10 feet (3-4 metres) from shore the depth reaches neck level while at low tide you’ll face the standard 30-50 feet (10-15 metres) walk to reach shoulder-deep water.
The beach is clear of stones in the centre while the flanks of Haad Salad are bordered by rocky ridges on both sides. Waves only occur during strong winds or in the monsoon season when it storms every day and rains pour down. In high season the beaches are protected from waves thanks to the shallow water.
Sunbeds and Shade
There are trees here but they mainly grow on private properties and while there aren’t many free ones left you still won’t have to squeeze under one tree with three families. As is traditional for such narrow beaches the shore is divided between resorts and restaurants by invisible boundaries that are watched over by owners and establishment staff.
Often it turns out that even those meagre metres of beach that the sea leaves us are filled with dining tables or sunbeds in front of restaurants or resorts. If desired of course you can always go into a café and for a couple of drinks use their furniture and shade.
Beach Photos
Amenities
All in all the entire infrastructure around Haad Salad consists of several resorts and one small street with a couple of mini-markets and motorbike rentals – a bit of everything. But I wouldn’t say it’s completely in the sticks because there are people here just everything in the area is very small-scale.
The beach is secluded not among the most requested or popular so the infrastructure is limited to the range of services available in hotels and resorts plus a small number of private cafés.
There aren’t any remarkable attractions in the area. No temples or waterfalls within walking distance – all these exist nearby but you need wheels to get there.
Accommodation
Haad Salad is lucky with resorts and various types of accommodation in general. The shore is divided into long plots with about a dozen resorts of which I would recommend paying attention to these three:
- Salad Hut
- Benjai White House
- Salad Villa
You won’t be able to rent a private house right on the seashore but if proximity to water isn’t critical then across the road there are several decent options for long stays though they’re located in palm groves in a lowland and the sea view won’t be the most artistic. If there’s even a view at all.
How to Find the Beach
If you look at the Haad Salad area on the map you’ll see that the space between the main road and the beach is packed with resorts and the easiest way to get to the beach is to drive to the T-junction (it’s marked on the map) near the purple shop and turn left (if you turn right you’ll end up at Chaloklam Bay).
After turning you need to go straight to the end where there’s a proper road with shops not narrow confusing alleys.
Closer to the beach the road dead-ends at Salad Beach 3 (by the way it also looks decent and the price is reasonable) where there’s a parking area before the entrance. We leave the bike and walk through the resort grounds to the shore. To be honest I didn’t bother looking for other access points as in my opinion this is the best place to access Haad Salad.
