Koh Yao Noi with kids: the island where you do nothing (and it's wonderful)

Getting there: Bang Rong Pier → Manoh Pier (and the monkeys while you wait)

From the north-east of Phuket, everything starts at Bang Rong Pier. Departures run roughly every hour and a half in the green season, and you buy tickets at the counter on the day: 400 ฿ per adult, 200 ฿ per child — about €26 for the three of us. The speedboat takes under an hour, often 30 to 40 minutes.

The wait is part of the trip: from the jetties we watched a troop of small monkeys in the mangrove, and directly opposite the boarding point, a little café called Molly serves fresh fruit shakes with no added sugar — mango, passion fruit, watermelon. Our boarding ritual was born right there.

Arriving at Manoh Pier — the main port of Koh Yao Noi, with its statue — shared pick-up trucks are waiting: 300 ฿ for the ride to the hotel, split with other travellers. Tuk-tuks exist too, and prices are negotiable.

Our villa: the hotel that looks like nothing from the road

From the road, the entrance to Laguna Villa really is unpromising. Then you walk past the lobby, and there it is: an enormous central pool (over two metres deep in places, with shallow areas where children can stand), a jacuzzi, a family-sized inflatable flamingo — three adults fit on it, tested — barely a dozen villas, and hornbills flying over the pool. Facing the sea there is a small road to cross (one crossing, very little traffic, but you hold hands), a lawn, and the beach.

Our villa (number 06 — ask for it, it is the best placed) was a proper little house: large central doors to close off the bedroom, a fitted kitchen with fridge, microwave and espresso machine, a living room, sun loungers, an enormous bed plus a child's bed, a double sink… and the real wonder, an outdoor shower in the middle of the plants. Showering under the palms while the hornbills call is not something you forget.

But what won us over was the people. The pool has no opening hours — we swam at midnight, quietly, and nobody minded. One cook speaks French and makes memorable pancakes; breakfast is à la carte, endlessly adjustable, served to the table. One evening at the restaurant, a member of staff wanted to give our daughter a present — she couldn't find what she was looking for in her drawer, so she made her a little basket of folded paper and flowers. And on the last day, when I needed to dash off to withdraw cash, the owner lent us the scooter, fuel included. You arrive at a place like this as a customer and leave as a friend.

At the hotel restaurant we worked through the menu tapas-style: satay, fresh spring rolls, coconut soup, cashew chicken, little meatballs… and the family discovery: the green mango salad ordered without chilli — so good that even our six-year-old cleared the plate.

The island by scooter: rice paddies, buffalo and hornbills

Scooters rent at the hotel for 350 ฿ a day, no haggling. And here is the truth that sums up the island: the full loop takes 40 minutes. So we did it three times on the first day, stopping everywhere — because everything here is in the stops.

July is rice planting season: squares of fluorescent green shoots in front of the houses, flooded paddies mirroring the sky, and water buffalo grazing in the middle of them. This is real countryside — people live outdoors, everyone waves, and it feels like the Thailand of twenty years ago, thirty minutes from Phuket. Genuinely startling.

And then there are the hornbills, those big birds with the spectacular double bill that have become the island's emblem. You see them fly, you hear them call, you watch them gorge on figs in the trees. The island protects them: nesting boxes have been installed all over so they multiply. Look up — they are there.

For families of four or five, sidecars are also available — certainly less nimble than a scooter on the narrow roads, but everyone fits. And there is always the pick-up taxi for one-off trips.

Beaches, feet-in-the-sand restaurants and Pradu Seafood (est. 1984)

Five to ten minutes on foot from the hotel there is a beautiful beach with a view of the Koh Hong islets, and small restaurants literally with their feet in the sand — our first dinner on the island, tapas-style, toes in the warm sand. On the beach opposite, a little bar serves beers, soft drinks and shakes at around 80 ฿.

And then there is the institution: in the stilt fishing village, Pradu Seafood, "est. 1984" — forty years of the same family grilling fish. Half a grilled fish for around 300 ฿, served under a mountain of papaya salad: simple, perfect, unforgettable.

The waterfall, twenty metres off the road

Near Pasai you park the scooter, walk twenty metres to the left — stepping over a large pipe, which is the official path — and come upon a small wild waterfall tumbling over handsome black rocks in the jungle. Honestly: lovely to see and photograph, but the water was brown-green in the rainy season and we had no urge to swim. A pleasant fifteen minutes, not half a day.

The magic of low tide: a sandbar and trees standing in the sea

These were the two finest moments of our stay, and both run on the same fuel: low tide.

The Koh Yao Yai sandbar

From Manoh Pier, a longtail took us for 500 ฿ (the three of us, return) across to the famous sandbar on the Koh Yao Yai side — a spit of white sand that only exists at low tide, sea on both sides, which you walk to the very end. We were there at sunset: footprints in the wet sand, palm trees backlit, our daughter running ahead. The cover photo of this guide was taken there.

The island opposite, reachable on foot

Another spectacle, on the north side of Koh Yao Noi near the Six Senses beach: at low tide — around 5 to 5.30 pm during our stay — a sandbank emerges and links the beach to the islet opposite. You walk across dry-footed, between trees that appear to be planted in the middle of the sea. Surreal.

The Wednesday night market: the only tourists in the village

Every Wednesday evening, at the end of Manoh Pier, the market sets up under the palm trees (there is a daytime market too). We were the only tourists — and it is one of the best memories of the trip. On our feast menu: steamed white buns stuffed with meat, little dumplings on skewers, grilled sausages served hot-dog style with chilli sauce or ketchup, and mango sticky rice at 25 ฿, packed to go with its little fork and the coconut milk on the side.

Meanwhile our daughter was bouncing on the trampoline at 20 ฿ for fifteen minutes, next to the inflatable ride, in the middle of a crowd of Thai children — the best opportunity for real encounters of the whole stay, and small purchases at the prices Thai people pay.

The honest paragraph: what Koh Yao Noi is not

You deserve the full truth, because that is how you choose a destination well.

Koh Yao Noi is not the Maldives. In the green season, July and August, the water off the island's own beaches is not crystalline turquoise: there is suspended sand, marshy stretches, reduced visibility. If your dream is to put on a mask and see fish twenty metres away, then from the island, at this time of year, forget it — you need to take a boat trip. And there, the magic does happen: we told that day in full in our private Phang Nga Bay longtail tour.

The wild beaches are not all clean. Away from the hotel beaches, plastic pollution is a reality — debris carried in by currents, from far away and from not so far. One morning we filled two bags on a beach; the next day there was just as much. It takes nothing away from the island's beauty, but you should know.

And there is "nothing to do" — that's the whole concept. No programme, no attractions to tick off: a scooter, stopping wherever it is beautiful, eating, the pool, repeat. My partner, who prefers postcard scenery, came away feeling the island was short on paradise; I found exactly the authentic countryside and the quiet I was looking for. It entirely depends on what you are after. To decompress for two or three days at the start of a trip or before flying home, it never misses. To tick off activities, look elsewhere.

The real budget (2 adults + one 6-year-old)

Prices paid in July 2026. As a rough guide, 350 ฿ is about US$10 and 5,000 ฿ about US$140 — check the rate before you travel.

Quick answers

What came next

Remember the "for turquoise water you have to take the boat" part? We did it: a private longtail at 2,000 ฿ for the three of us, booked at the fishing village, heading for Koh Hong and the islands of Phang Nga Bay — sunrise, a 360-degree viewpoint, watermelon-stealing monkeys and clownfish. The whole day, price by price, is in our private Phang Nga Bay longtail tour. Two more islands from this trip are also up in English: Railay Beach with kids and Koh Lanta with kids.

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