Klong Dao Beach isn’t stretched in a straight line but rather resembles a semicircle with strongly curved edges. It’s a bay where the right edge bends quite sharply, creating a deep intrusion of land into the sea. There’s no point in staying at the far right section of Klong Dao because the beach there is more suitable for strolling rather than swimming.
There aren’t many tourists, and people mainly come here to walk and sunbathe. You can often see Thai families arriving for picnics. There are also a couple of expensive resorts on Klong Dao that look quite nice, but you’ll need to head closer to the centre to swim. The rest of this beach on Koh Lanta is magnificent, but very shallow.
Beach Overview
After travelling around and seeing all the beaches of Koh Lanta, I have a clear opinion about Klong Dao – it’s a peaceful, beautiful family beach. Despite not being Long Beach, you couldn’t call Klong Dao short either. It stretches for 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometres), and in my view, that’s quite a long beach. I even had to set myself three shooting points, so I’m posting the beach photos in sections.
Visually, the whole area is somewhat flat, like Long Beach. In terms of beauty, when compared with other small islands like Phangan, Klong Dao is less attractive, somewhat non-tropical. Ordinary Thai buildings predominate here, the shore is dotted not with palm trees but with deciduous trees, and it’s very simple in appearance and unassuming.
The sand on the beach is yellowish but becomes very light when dry.
Swimming
Klong Dao is very similar to Long Beach in terms of depth increase: the depth increases gradually. After about 33 feet (10 metres), the water will be shoulder-deep, provided you’ve come to swim at high tide.
Low tides drastically change Klong Dao for the worse: the beach becomes unsuitable for swimming as the sea retreats about 500 feet (100-150 metres), and then you still need to walk quite far through the water. Therefore, the standard swimming pattern here is that people walk until the water is about waist-deep and simply plop into the water. After all, you don’t necessarily need 7 feet (two metres) of depth beneath you to swim. Waves at Klong Dao occur with a tailwind, but it’s usually calm here due to the shallow water.
Sunbeds and Shade
As for shade on Klong Dao, I felt there was less of it. There are trees, but they’re mainly on private property, strictly in a line, and provide free shade mostly in the first half of the day while the sun rises to its zenith and casts long shadows from the trees. In the second half, you need to move under the trees themselves, and that’s already the territory of one establishment or another, where it’s not certain they’ll let you in.
Many cafes have their own sun loungers, so some tourists settle near a bar and, for the price of drinks, get the right to lie on a lounger like a proper holidaymaker. There aren’t too many people on the beach, which is nice. There are actually even fewer than on Long Beach.
Beach Photos
The left side
The central part
The right side
Amenities
The area’s structure is fairly standard: the main island road runs along the shore, and between the road and the sea, the entire first line is occupied by resorts and bungalow complexes. To get to the beach, you need to go either through a resort’s territory or along one of the paths between these resorts that lead directly to the beach.
The distance from the road to the shore, that is, the width of the first line, is inconsistent: the right part is quite wide and can accommodate not only the first line of hotels but also second and third lines. But the left part is so narrow that you can almost see the beach from the road.
Klong Dao has all the necessary infrastructure for a beach holiday: cafes, restaurants, bars, massage shops, a small clinic, several 7/11 chain mini-markets and a full petrol station. At the very beginning of Klong Dao, in its right part, there’s practically a mini-town (considering Lanta’s format, of course).
Actually, your first impression of Klong Dao immediately makes it clear that you’ve arrived in a resort village that’s just starting to develop. Everything around is very low, one or two storeys high, with plenty of space between buildings, wide roads and you constantly come across construction sites or vacant lots.
Klong Dao is the area with the most developed infrastructure on the island, and if I were to be specific about my opinion of the beach, I personally found it no worse than Long Beach, which is considered the best here. In my view, both Long Beach and Klong Dao are quite similar to each other and are excellent for a family beach holiday.
Accommodation
Thanks to excellent infrastructure and a wide choice of accommodation, the area around Klong Dao Beach is considered one of the best on the island. Before my trip, I carefully checked hotel reviews and wrote down several options in case I decided to stay at Klong Dao. Due to the decent length of the beach, I’ve divided my selection into three parts, like the photos.
Right half of the beach:
- Costa Lanta – Adult Only
Central part of the beach:
- My Home Lantawadee Resort
- Laguna Beach Club Resort
- D. R. Lanta Bay Resort
- Khlong Dao Sunset Villa
- Lanta Summer House
Left part of the beach:
- Lanta Bee Garden
- Lemonade Boutique Inn
In the right part of Klong Dao, it’s better to stay not near the main road (it’s still quite noisy) but on the streets that lead to the sea. There are plenty of hotels there and it’s much quieter.
How to find the beach
You won’t need to search for it. Klong Dao Beach is the first beach you encounter when you arrive on the island, just after crossing the bridge between Lanta Yai and Lanta Noi. You’ll definitely notice the signpost to Klong Dao at the T-junction (after the bridge), which is only 0.6 miles (one kilometre) away. For those who are uncertain – you can print out the map below, or save the necessary markers on your smartphone.
