Pattaya: Koh Lan as a day-trip island

An island that lives on a ferry timetable

Koh Lan sits 7.5 kilometres off Pattaya's coast, close enough that the crossing from Bali Hai Pier takes about half an hour by regular ferry, or as little as 15 minutes by speedboat. The island itself is small — roughly 4 kilometres long, 2 wide, about 5.6 square kilometres in total — but its rhythm is dictated less by geography than by boat schedules. Ferries leave Pattaya at 07:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 15:30, 17:00 and 18:30; the last boat back from the island departs at 18:00, with a second overflow boat ten minutes later for anyone who misjudged the tide of the day. Fares have crept up over the years — the standard one-way ferry ticket, long fixed at 30 baht, rose to 40 baht in early 2026 — while speedboats run 150–300 baht depending on route and whether it's one-way or return.

A working island, not a resort shell

Around 3,000 people live on Koh Lan year-round, most of them clustered near Na Ban pier on the island's eastern side, and daily life there looks nothing like the beach clubs a few hundred metres away. There are almost no cars; getting around means walking, hopping on a motorbike taxi, or squeezing into a songthaew truck that loops the main roads. Fishing families, small guesthouses and market stalls share the same narrow lanes that day-trippers use to reach the beaches, which keeps the island feeling inhabited rather than staged for tourists — a distinction that's increasingly rare this close to a major resort city.

Six beaches, six different moods

Tawaen Beach, on the island's northwest side, is the busiest by far: parasailing, jet skis, banana boats and a dense row of beach chairs make it feel like an extension of Pattaya itself. Samae Beach is quieter and notable for something most visitors miss entirely — solar panels and small wind turbines installed along the shoreline, part of an effort to reduce the island's dependence on diesel generators and undersea cabling. Tien Beach draws a slower crowd with clearer water for swimming, while Nual Beach at the southern tip is the most remote of the six, occasionally visited by monkeys that come down from the wooded hills behind it looking for food dropped by picnickers.

Planning the day

Realistically, budget 7 to 8 hours if you're doing this independently: ferry over, time on one or two beaches, lunch, ferry back, with margin for the inevitable wait at the pier. Organised day-trip packages run 500–600 baht including hotel pickup around 9am, the ferry crossing, lunch and a return by mid-afternoon — useful if you'd rather not manage the ferry timetable yourself, though they trade away flexibility on which beach you actually reach. There's no general entrance fee to the beaches themselves; costs come from optional water sports, beach chair rental and food.

The trade-off worth knowing

Koh Lan is not a substitute for Thailand's more famous southern islands — the water is serviceable rather than spectacular by regional standards, and on weekends the ferries and beaches both fill fast with Pattaya day-trippers. What it offers instead is proximity: a genuine change of pace and scenery reachable and returnable within a single afternoon, without committing to an overnight island stay or a long transfer south.