Book Khao Lak attraction tickets

Phang Nga province stretches along Thailand's Andaman coast in a landscape of limestone karst, mangrove channels, and long beaches that face open sea rather than the sheltered bays more commonly associated with the Thai south. Khao Lak sits within this province roughly eighty kilometres north of Phuket, and its character is shaped by that distance. The resort strip here is quieter and more spread out than anything on the island to the south, with casuarina-lined beaches such as Khuk Khak, Bang Niang, and Nang Thong running into one another along a coastline that faces the full breadth of the Andaman.

The area carries a particular weight of recent history. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck this stretch of coast with devastating force, and a Thai Royal Navy vessel that was carried inland by the wave still rests in the village of Ban Nam Khem as a permanent memorial. That site, and the nearby International Tsunami Museum, give visitors a sober and important point of reference that distinguishes Khao Lak from purely resort-oriented destinations along the same coast.