Koh Lanta 2025 Travel Guide: What No One Tells You (Costs, Food, Transport)

Koh Lanta 2025 Travel Guide: What No One Tells You (Costs, Food, Transport)

I’m in the island of Colanta in Thailand, about a 2-hour speedboat ride from Phuket and an hour south of Krabby. I’m spending a week here and I’m going to give you my first impressions that I’ve spent is so far. We’re going to touch on things like cost. I’m going to show you around my accommodation, how much I’ve paid for it, how to get around, what the general vibe of the place is, if I think it’s suitable for longerterm stays or better for holidays, show you the Muay Thai gym I’ve been training at, show you around as much of the island as I can, given the fact that it’s been raining for nearly 4 days straight, what the internet connection’s like, what the price for food is like, and much more. So, let’s get stuck into the video. Good morning from the island of Colanta in the south of Thailand. I really wanted to show you this tropical, beautiful paradise island and give you my first impressions and say everything’s been perfect, but it hasn’t. I really liked the island, but the weather has not been ideal. 4 days and for at least half the day every day it’s been raining. And again, this morning it’s raining again. And before I get fully stuck into the video, I want to give you some value and some tips that would have helped me before coming. So, let’s get straight into them and then we’ll move on to the first impressions and show you around a little bit. The first thing is there’s no grab on the island. Doesn’t sound like that much of a big deal. I didn’t think it would be, but actually during times like this when it’s raining, especially if you’re staying in somewhere a little bit more rural and not tons of options or in my case, no options around within a 20 30 minute walk for food. It’s worth knowing that if you’re coming in the wet season, you might want to stay nearer the main road where there’s lots of restaurants or the market within walking distance because for me, every time I wanted to eat, I needed to go out on my scooter in the rain. So, there’s no grab for taxis and there’s no grab for delivery food on the island. Another thing to bear in mind when coming to Colanta is it’s mainly a cash island. So, wherever you go on the island, restaurants, gym, but most places will be cash only, more so than anywhere else I’ve been in Thailand. So, you can change your money up here and as long as you have your home currency there in good nick, you’ll get should get a good currency rate. I’ve just got a good exchange rate, but it is mainly a cash island, so bring potentially a little bit more than what you usually would because not many places are going to accept that. And this isn’t everywhere. The roads aren’t awful everywhere, but they are awful in places. And especially when it’s wet like this, it’s hard to see the potholes. So, you’re riding a scooter. Just keep that in mind because you don’t want to hit one of these at night or at high speed because you’ll probably end up in a ditch. But it’s not like this everywhere. The roads are actually pretty paved for a good chunk of the island, but there’s just a few bits like this where you just need to go a bit steadier. Now, a quick bit of advice in regards to renting a scooter, and I’ll talk about the price in a second. One is if you’re a first-time rider, there’s one side of it where the road quality is bad in certain points and you could say that it’s not ideal for somebody who’s a beginner. But on the flip side of it, there’s a lot less traffic than there is in most other touristy parts of Thailand. And the traffic speed is a lot less. So if you really want to ride here and you feel confident enough to, I wouldn’t let it put you off just because there’s a few potholes here and there around the island. And in terms of scooter rental, there’s loads of places about. I went direct through my resort and I paid 250 B per day. You could definitely get that cheaper if you went direct, but I just wanted convenience. And also, if you were staying for a month, you could definitely get a monthly rate. [Music] One thing I noticed really quickly after arriving in Colanta was how peaceful it felt. The vibe was much slower. The pace of life was much slower and I just felt generally more relaxed after coming from a place like Pquette. [Music] Now, let’s talk food on the island. something for me. I like to have a mix of both local and western food when I go to places. And I’m always a little bit concerned when I go to a smaller place such as Colanta with only 20,000 people there that I’m going to be struggling for choices when it comes to food. But it was the total opposite. Every meal I had was really good. There was always a good variety of Western food, local food, and the prices were pretty fair, too. I even ended up having a pizza on my final evening that, believe it or not, even on a tiny island in the south of Thailand, was banging. If you’re working remote like I am, then you’ll appreciate there being good calves or co-working spaces about. And I ate at several, but this one stood out for me called the glass house. Had good food, good value, and it had a good co-working space upstairs as well where you could go and get some dedicated work in a quiet environment if you wanted. Now, I want to talk to you about the sponsors of today’s video, Eim IO. Eim.io offer coverage in 180 countries, including Thailand. When you go onto the app, the instructions are super clear, and within 30 seconds of me starting the setup, I was online, all good to go. With EIO, you can choose pay as you go option. My personal favorite is choosing a regional plan for 30 days. So, that means when I’m traveling to multiple countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia. When I hop off the plane, I’m online with the same plan for one trip. And being on an island like Colanta right now, when the weather gets bad, sometimes the Wi-Fi goes down because you get a power cut like it did with me the other day. Meaning, if I wasn’t online with EIMO, I would not have been connected, wouldn’t have been able to work, or wouldn’t have even been able to contact people. And every new user that downloads the app and enters the code Josh5 will receive $5 in credit as a welcome gift. I’ll put the unique link on the screen now and I’ll also pin it down below. So, go and check that out. It’ll be in the description and in the comments. Once again, thank you to Eim.io for sponsoring this video and keeping me online on my travels. And now, let me give you a quick tour of my accommodation that I was staying in for the week. This was a little resort about 15 to 20 minute walk away from the main road. Didn’t have too much around, but this is kind of what I wanted. I wanted a more peaceful setting. A nice one-bedroom, little bungalow, fridge, bathroom, nice and spacious, no frrills, wasn’t anything spectacular, but was comfy, peaceful, and quiet, which is what I wanted. I paid £20 per night or £140 per the week, which is around $180 or £6,000 Thai Bat. I did also get this nice little roof terrace, but I didn’t really get to appreciate it because apart from this little clip here where it wasn’t raining for the next seven days straight, it was pretty much raining. Let me know. Do you think that’s good value or not? Personally for me, coming into the high season in a place like Colanta, I think $140 for the week or $180 isn’t bad at all. I was quite happy with that and I was happy with the accommodation. Thank you. So, I’ve just paid 150 BT for a taxi, which is about £4 or about $6, and that’s about a 15minute ride from my accommodation to the Muay Thai gym. There’s a few ways to get around in Colanta. You got the taxi. You’ve got the song tower, which is the pickup truck with the space in the back. You’ve got the little tuk tuks, which is not your traditional tie tuk tuk. It’s a motorbike with a little side car. And then obviously you’ve got your scooter rental as well. On a wet day like today, for me, made sense to just pay that little bit extra, get a taxi. And this is the Muay Thai gym I’ve trained at a couple times. Nika Muay Thai. This what it looks like. [Applause] [Music] Thank you very much. is really scenic and beautiful. It’s just hard to appreciate it all when the weather is like this all the time and it’s been like this for 5 days straight. There’s been no sunshine at all. There’s been a few gaps in the rain, but maybe for an hour or two at max. There’s beaches, palm trees, like you’d expect, nice little shacks on the beach that like really nice little restaurants and and really green, but it’s just not been good weather at all. Want to make it clear, the island really is nice. It’s super chilled, laid-back. It feels like what I imagined Thailand would have felt about 30 years ago. It’s an Islamic island for the most part. And the further you get south in Thailand, the more you’ll notice that there’s a bigger Islamic population, which is probably a contributing factor to why the island is a little bit more sleepy and a little bit less party orientated than some other Thai islands. There’s the national park to visit in Colanta. There’s the beaches. There’s tons of day trips. It’s just I didn’t truly get to appreciate all that because of the weather during my week stay there. So, don’t let me by any means try and put this down. I it’s just hard for me to get super excited about a place when it was just raining for 7 days when I really think the beauty of Colanta would be appreciated a lot more when the weather’s good. Overall, my first impressions of Colanta have been amazing. Especially, it’s been such a nice change from coming from Phuket, the hustle and bustle, the chaos, how busy it is, and how certain other parts of Thailand feels like tourism with a touch of Thailand, whereas Colanta feels like Thailand with a touch of tourism. Going out to the Muay Thai Stadium and watching the fights was actually a really good experience and considering this a population of just 20,000 people in Colanta. The standards and the entertainment of the whole event was really good. Now look, if you’re working, I think this could be a perfect spot to set up for a couple of months, especially in the high season when it’s a little bit busier. The general person that I met here was either staying for a little bit longer or a bit more mature than certain other areas, which when you’re no longer in that era of your life where you’re partying or where you’re backpacking, that’s quite nice to meet people on the same page. If I was coming through on holiday, perfect spot. If I was coming through and wanted to stay for maybe a month, 2 months, but I wasn’t working, there’s a potential I’d probably get bored. If you’re working and want just a more laidback environment, laidback, chill atmosphere, but still with a few things to do and meet people on similar page, I think it could be a perfect spot. So guys, as always, thank you for tuning in, thank you for watching, and I will catch you in the next one. Don’t forget that you can use the code Josh5 with eim.io to get yourself $5 in welcome credit. Catch you in the next one. Peace.

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This is the island of Koh Lanta in the south of Thailand. With just a population of 20,000 and less infrastructure than other islands in Thailand this might just feel like one of the most authentic Thailand islands there are. In this video I’ll show you around the island, some of the costs, accommodation, Muay Thai, food, transport and much more. Enjoy the video!