Honestly, despite Klong Nin on Lanta not being considered the most popular beach, I liked it more than the others. It just somehow grabbed me, and it’s completely unclear why. If I think about it, I’d seriously consider only three beaches for staying on a Koh Lanta holiday that I immediately liked after visiting: Klong Dao, Long Beach or Klong Nin.
The beach is quite long (about 1.5 miles/2.4 kilometres), located roughly in the middle of the island’s western coast, right after the Klong Toab area if you’re coming from Saladan. It doesn’t change much along its entire length, so I don’t see point describing it in sections, but I’ll divide the photos into two halves – right and left.
Beach Overview
Along Klong Nin’s shore runs a secondary road with the romantic name Horizon Rd. On the sea side stand cafĂ©s, and on the rest-of-the-island side – wasteland, jungle and occasional buildings like bungalows or cafĂ©s, or motorbike rental, basically ordinary development. The concrete Horizon Rd is about twice as narrow as the main 4245 highway, so driving here isn’t as comfortable as in the Long Beach and Klong Dao beach areas.
Between the road and shore fits a narrow (160 feet/50 metres) strip of land completely occupied by cafĂ©s and a couple of resorts, with buildings standing in a solid wall. Klong Nin is undoubtedly one of the best beaches for a proper holiday throughout your entire vacation, especially if you’re coming as a family.
Klong Nin Beach on Lanta is a very narrow strip of sand at high tide, and very wide at low tide, from 16 to 160 feet (5 to 50 metres), I’d call that range. An almost level shore, without surprises, continues along the entire length of Klong Nin.
Only its edges look different: on the right (facing the sea) is a cleverly twisted river mouth, and on the left – the beginning of a low hill through which Horizon Road is cut. The hill is rocky, steep, and became a natural boundary for the beach strip at this point.
The sand at Klong Nin, as I said, is ordinary for Lanta. Medium grain, yellowish, soft but not loose, your foot doesn’t sink to the ankle and walking on it isn’t difficult.
Swimming
At low tide Klong Nin Beach resembles Klong Dao, becomes completely unswimmable, water retreats 160-230 feet (50-70 metres) from shore, walking to depth takes ages. Mainly people don’t bother, but enter the sea maximum knee or waist-deep, and don’t go further but swim in whatever’s available.
The beach is perfect for holidays with small children, for paddling pools the depth increases appropriately here – very slowly.
At high tide you need to walk about 16 feet (5 metres) to neck-deep water. At low tide many tourists simply stroll or jog along this beach. About 30 feet (10 metres) from shore you encounter large rocks on the seabed, but very occasionally.
Sunbeds and Shade
There’s no publicly accessible natural shade on the beach because those trees growing on the shore stand on land occupied by cafĂ©s, and they on this beach, as I said above, stand in a single line. There’s just nothing like an unoccupied bit of beach left. Beach umbrellas and loungers can be obtained not as rental, but by ordering something from the menu, as barter.
That’s if we’re talking about the part of Klong Nin located in the notional centre, with maximum infrastructure and amenities. Actually, along the entire beach, closer to the edges (especially the left one) you come across wasteland and no-man’s-land sections where you can settle without any formalities, but also without amenities.
Beach Photos
Amenities
Between the road and shore is a narrow strip of land, about 65 feet (20 metres) wide, completely occupied by cafés and a couple of resorts. Klong Nin is a beach with developed infrastructure.
On the far right side of the beach there’s a 7-Eleven chain minimart and around it loads of stalls, little shops, massage parlours and everything else. 7-Eleven is the notional beginning of the beach, then the entire Klong Nin beachfront is occupied by cafĂ©s, and across the road – green emptiness. Just some green wasteland and occasional Thai buildings.
Accommodation
If you stand facing the sea, at the end of the left section are several resorts – here the strip between shore and road widens slightly, so several expensive resorts are located here. But this isn’t the only accommodation on the beach, there’s choice, though mainly mediocre quality hotels with ratings slightly above average. My selection before the Lanta trip was:
- Lanta Infinity Resort
- Baan Rim Lay
- Lanta Fevrier Resort
- Baan Pakgasri Hideaway
- Thai Island Dream Estate
- Cliff Lanta Suite
How to Find the Beach
To turn off to the sea, you need to watch carefully for signs along the road: where it says “free parking”, “Free shower”, “umbrella”, “sun chair”, and English invitations like “come visit us”. Many cafĂ©s hang such things, and if you order food or drinks from them, you use these things for free.
You can simply walk through any cafĂ© to the shore. And roughly in the beach centre there’s a strip of wasteland where there are no cafĂ©s, and you can also leave your bike there and go out onto Klong Nin, though I don’t see much difference where exactly to walk to the sea.
