Maenam Beach

Maenam is the beach I'd pick on Koh Samui for quiet. It's a long sweep of sand on the north coast, somewhere between 4 and 7 km depending on where you count the ends, backed by coconut palms and low-key resorts, with Koh Phangan across the water. It's 15 to 20 minutes from Samui Airport and about 10 minutes from Fisherman's Village in Bophut, close enough for dinner out without any of Chaweng's nightlife on your doorstep.

In the dry season the water is usually calm and you walk in on clean sand with no stones or coral. The bottom drops faster than it looks, though, and an adult is chest-deep about 5 m out, so keep small children within reach. High tide narrows the beach a lot, and some stretches collect more debris than others, so walk a few hundred meters until the sand looks right to you.

Maenam village is the useful part. Lomprayah's Pralarn pier, for the boats to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, is walkable from the beach hotels, and red songthaews run the ring road behind the beach. On Thursday evenings a small walking street market sets up in the village from about 17:00 to 22:00, and the Maenam Morning Market, open from 04:00, is where to go for breakfast and fruit.