We headed to Koh Lipe after a few days on it’s quieter neighbor Ko Adang. There are so many resorts on this island that it was extremely hard to pick where to stay! Fortunately, the island is very small, so it wasn’t important for us to be right on the beach. We decided on Plawan Lipe Resort, which is on the north side of the island, away from the main street (and therefore quieter). Our longtail boat dropped us off at Sunrise Beach and we walked about 15 minutes to our hotel. We were able to check in right away and were thrilled to be back in A/C! The hotel is only five bungalows, newly constructed. There are nice front and back porches/decks and a great bathroom. Plus, large, filling breakfasts every morning (made to order, several meal options to choose from). Overall, well worth the above-average price tag we typically pay for lodging. We had four days on Koh Lipe before our visas expired and we needed to catch a boat to Langkawi, Malaysia. There are several beaches on the island, tons of restaurant choices, and plenty of crowds. But it was a nice change of pace from Ko Adang. “Walking Street” is a nice little attraction for a casual walk and shop experience. I’ve listed our favorite beaches, restaurants, and activities below.
Beaches
- Patai Galah/Sbdeo Beach/Secret Beach:
These three beaches are all located on the southwest side of the island and are quite a hike to get there (or you can probably rent a longtail boat to take you there for a few hours). We initially planned to walk/hike to Secret Beach but ended up finding the other two beaches first. It was about a 40-minute walk from our hotel (essentially the exact opposite side of the island) to the start of the rough, narrow hiking trail. We missed the path to Secret Beach at first because there was a downed tree blocking most of the path (easy to walk around on the left side, but easy to miss). Instead, we continued down the hiking trail to Patai Galah Beach, which took about 10 minutes from this fork. Patai Galah was a nice, small beach, but there were already about 10-15 other people there by the time we arrived, so too crowded for us. You can continue along the water to Sbdeo Beach. When we were there, the beach area on Sbdeo was very small (may be larger during low tide). One couple had already staked their claim to the small slice of sand, so we decided to turn around and hike back out. On the way out, we noticed the other path that leads to Secret Beach and decided to give that a try. We hiked another 25 minutes on this path, but the trail kept getting narrower and harder to follow (many low-lying branches in the way and lots of bugs). We had started this endeavor late in the day, so with the trail difficulty, watching the sun going down, and still not being able to see any signs of ocean, we turned around before reaching Secret Beach. Reviews on google maps say that Secret Beach isn’t worth the trouble, but unfortunately, we cannot corroborate or deny these claims! Patai Galah would be nice if there were fewer people or if you arrived early enough to carve out some space for yourself.
Sbdeo Beach 
Patai Galah 
Patai Galah
Located on the western side of the island, this is a narrow, crowded beach, especially at, you guessed it, sunset. Not our cup of tea, but there were several bars fronting the beach where you could grab a drink and enjoy the sunset. We also caught a longtail boat from here to Ko Adang for 100 baht per person.
This beach stretches along the east and north sides of the island. Apparently great for sunrise (we never tried this out) and even good for sunset outside the Mountain View Resort (although very crowded). Since everyone heads that direction for sunset, the beach is very peaceful and quiet just outside the Andalay Resort in the late afternoon/evening. The beach is also very wide near this resort, so plenty of space to spread out from the crowds. In addition, the longtail boats do not start queuing until further east/south along the beach, so you have uninhibited views of Ko Adang. We spent several of our afternoons here, watching the large groups of sardines and barracudas jumping in the shallows and enjoying the eastern sky colors as the sun set.
Sardines jumping at sunset 
North side of Sunrise Beach 
Sardines jumping at sunset 
Sunrise Beach near Mountain View Resort 
East side of Sunrise Beach
Located along the south side of the island, this beach is narrow and lined with resorts and longtail boats. We much preferred the north side of Sunrise Beach to here. Most boats run in and out of Pataya Beach, so we arrived and left from here.
Restaurants
- Ranee Seafood: We absolutely loved this cute, small restaurant! Run by Ranee herself, there is good, fresh fish every night available for BBQ. We ate here several nights, trying different fish each night. We also enjoyed the clams in a chili sauce.
- Ne Papaya: We ate here one night because they cooked our freshly caught sailfish for us (have an arrangement with the place we booked our fishing tour with, see below). The food was good, but it is a much larger restaurant than Ranee, so felt less personal and “homemade”.
- Bombay Indian Restaurant: Pretty good Indian food if this is what you’re in the mood for. We would recommend sticking to the BBQ seafood restaurants on the island though, as this is what they do best.
- The Home Bar: This bar was located essentially next to our hotel, so very convenient for a drink. The owner is friendly and chatty.
Activities
- Walk “Walking Street”:
Plenty of cute shops and restaurants along this strip with (almost) no motorbike or tuk tuk traffic to interrupt your peaceful stroll. We found a great, cheap ice cream place that we visited frequently!
- Snorkel Tour:
There are several snorkel tour options (full-day, half-day, inner (A), and outer island (B) experiences). We decided to go with the full-day Program B tour, visiting seven snorkel spots for the day. I’ve described the spots below. We enjoyed the snorkel day, but there are a lot of boats that do this same trip. You all arrive at the spots around the same time, so it can get very crowded. The trip also felt a bit rushed since we hit so many spots in a “full” day (only out from around 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, rather than the advertised 4:00-4:30 pm). We had ten people on one longtail boat with one captain that didn’t speak English. Fortunately, there were a few other Thais on our trip who translated for us!
- Hin Sorn (balancing rock) – No snorkeling here, just a quick drive-by on the boat to snap some photos.
- Ko Palai – Good snorkeling, a lot of colorful anemones and fish, but also a lot of sea lice (Jellyfish larva) that stung/itched! Apparently, it is not as bad in January.
- Ko Batong – A shallow coral spot with essentially one type of coral, very cool! Plenty of large fish here as well and less sea lice. The coral was so shallow in spots that we couldn’t swim over it.
- Rokroy – A small, sandy white beach with beautiful turquoise water. We made the very short (2-minute) hike to the top for a nice overlook. Stunning spot!
- Monkey Beach on Dong – This was our designated lunch spot, where we enjoyed pre-prepared fried rice on the beach. Plenty of shade and a good swimming spot with limited coral and fish. There is a National Park booth that checks National Park tickets. Since ours was technically expired (only good for 5 days), we walked past quickly and weren’t even checked. We had about an hour here to relax. The name “Monkey Beach” is a bit misleading; we only say two monkeys here and since people don’t feed them (yay!), they mostly keep to themselves. some limited snorkeling
- Nin Ngam (black rock/stone beach) – A quick, 20-minute stop at this beach to see the black stones located on the northwest side of the island. The rocks are pretty and smooth, especially when wet. People used to take them, but it’s bad luck (and illegal now) to take the stones.
- Jabang – Last snorkel spot of the day; it’s advertised in all the snorkel program pictures as the bright pink and maroon corals. Unfortunately, it is also on the Program A itinerary, so there are too many people in this small snorkel spot to enjoy it. In addition, the current was extremely strong; if you dove down to take a closer look, you would end up about ten feet down current. There were several ropes and buoys out for people to hold onto, but again, ineffective with the number of visitors. Still cool to catch a glimpse of the colors!
Hin Sorn 
Rokroy 
Rokroy 
Monkey Beach on Dong 
Monkey Beach on Dong 
Monkey Beach on Dong 
Nin Ngam 
Nin Ngam 
Nin Ngam 
Monkey Beach on Dong 
Nin Ngam
- Fishing Trip to Catch the Big Fish:
Patrick convinced me to spend our last day on the Thailand islands with one more fishing trip, this time fishing for sail fish. We met our captain (Poot, “Put”) around 9:00 am on Sunrise Beach and boarded the longtail boat. The previous day’s fishing trip had caught enough small fish for bait, so we could head right to the sailfish spot for the day! This spot was right offshore of Ko Adang on the north side of the island and took about 50 minutes to reach. Poot got us both set up and then we waited. And waited. There were about six to eight other boats out in the water with us, but there was plenty of room for all. Poot kept telling us we would get bites around 1:00 pm once the tide started coming in. And he was right! We saw another boat get two sailfish on at the same time just across the way; it was exciting to watch them reel the sailfish in as they jumped/spun and fought against it. Shortly thereafter, we had one on our line. Patrick grabbed the rod and endured a 15-minute long battle before reeling him in! He was a beautiful, huge fish! We then tried for another so that I could try my skill, although we emphasized that we wanted to let the next one go – one sailfish is plenty for us to eat (in fact, too much!). I had a couple chances, but unfortunately, the fish beat me out, snapping the line both times. We were on the water until around 4:15 pm when we finally decided to head in for the day. Once we made it back to shore, we had to carry the sailfish by ourselves to the shop where we had booked the fishing trip. They have an arrangement with a local restaurant (Ne Papaya) such that we get as much free sailfish as we want, and they will cook it but get to sell the remainder. Perfect for us! Although in hindsight, we would have rather just taken it directly to Ranee instead (see her restaurant above). Overall, it was a great day of fishing and a great way to spend our last day on the Thailand islands. Plus, the sailfish tasted delicious – similar to swordfish.
After we caught the sailfish 
Jellyfish! 
Jellyfish! 
Sailfish next to the boat
