Coral Island
Coral Island get lots of day tourists from Phuket. Especially Asian tourists. So the sea are somewhat crowded with speed and longtail boats.
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| Coral Island. Photo: Kjell Engvoldsen |
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CORAL ISLAND
 Location: 9 km off the southeast coast of Phuket. 10-15 minutes from Chalong with speedboat
View map in Google Earth |
There are two beaches on Coral Island, Long Beach is where most of the day trippers go and can be crowded, and the smaller Banana Beach.
Long Beach is a narrow 800 meter long beach of white sand and clear sea. Coral Island Resort at the eastern end of Long Beach is the only accommodation on the island.
It is not without reason this island is named Coral Island. But on Long Beach there are not that many corals left in shallow water. For good snorkeling you need to swim out around 120 meter where there are some very nice corals. But most tourists only snorkel a few meters from the beach, where there are very little to see!
If you don't care about snorkeling, various water sport activities are available, including kayaking, water skiing, banana boat and parasailing. Parasailing are very popular with Asian tourists who wait in line for their turn to fly into the sky for a few seconds before returning to the beach.
The smaller Banana Beach (200 meter) is my favorite beach on Coral Island. But I have not been to Banana Beach in several years since every day trip we went with ended up on Long Beach that is too crowded and busy for my liking. So I don't know what Banana Beach looks like in 2009, but next time I will make sure we end up on Banana Beach and not Long Beach.
Check out Coral Island Club for a day trip to Banana Beach
Banana Beach can also be reached by walking 400 meters trough a jungle trail at Coral Island Resort.
Coral IslandCoral Island
20 February 2009