Thailand is full of wonderful views and for the daring travelers that want to see the BEST views in Thailand, viewpoint hikes are going to be up your alley!

After hiking up to many of these viewpoints during my first 30 days in Thailand I can say that they are worth the adventure! It’s hot, some are very steep, and you’ll sweat A LOT but the view that you get at the end of the hike is absolutely breath taking. Where after seeing some of the same sights over and over again got stale, I was always excited for the next view point hike!

There are hundreds of viewpoint hikes in Thailand. So to hopefully save you some time and give you a taste of what it’s like, I wanted to share with you my top 3 viewpoint hikes in all of Thailand.

I’ll be providing you with where the hike is located, what the trail consists of, my experience with the hike, and my thoughts on how difficult the hike is.

3. Railay Beach Viewpoint

In the southern most part of Krabi, Thailand lies a quiet beach town called Railay Beach. This area has gorgeous white sand beaches and is home to my 3rd favorite viewpoint hike in all of Thailand.

⚠: I want to start with a warning though, this hike is more like a rock climb without a harness, so please use extra caution on this one! But if you’re an adventure seeker this one is for you!

To get to this viewpoint, you need to head towards Pranang Cave Beach. From my experience, most ferries drop you off on the East side of Railay. If you head south past the pier, you’ll eventually see a rope heading up the side of a cliff, this is the start of the viewpoint “hike.” It’s not the best marked out hike, but this is what it looks like:

This climb scales up a jagged rock wall which leads to a short hike through a jungle and eventually leads to an amazing view that is the picture above! If you’re feeling extra ambitious, there is also a lagoon that you can climb down to on the opposite side of the cliff. This is just as steep (if not steeper) than the climb up.

My Experience: If you are in Railay during the rainy season (like I was) use extra caution! The rocks are insanely slick and the hike/climb becomes VERY muddy. I ended up doing this hike with a friend I met earlier in Thailand and I was glad to have someone else along with me because I was a bit sketched out. However, we both pushed each other to keep going and the reward was insanely worth it! In total, it probably took us 15-20 minutes to get up to the trail and then another 15-20 minutes to hike almost to the lagoon (it was too slippery for us to feel comfortable going the whole way). So in total, I’d block out anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for this adventure!

Difficulty: 8.5/10 – the hike itself is not difficult, however the climb up/down is fairly difficult. I have very minimal climbing experience and it was doable but I was slightly nervous throughout the climb.

2. John-Suwan Viewpoint

Koh Tao was easily my second favorite spot in Thailand. And this viewpoint hike was one of the many reasons that it was!

The John-Suwan Viewpoint is located on the southern most point of the island of Koh Tao. To get there (if you’re not staying near it already), I’d highly suggest renting a motor bike for the day since the ride share apps like Grab and Bolt are not available on the islands.

Unlike the Railay Beach viewpoint hike, the trail is marked very clearly and google maps will take you to where you need to go!

There is an entrance fee for this hike of 50 Baht (≈$1.50 or £1.15) but this fee also includes parking and access to freedom beach. I’d highly suggest wearing your swimsuit and relaxing on the beach after this hike!

The hike itself starts out very steep and teases you with gorgeous views that continue to get better and better. The hike then turns into a sort of scramble up some giant boulders. And after a hot, sweaty, and semi challenging hike, you are met with one of the best views I saw in all of Thailand!

You can see two of Koh Tao’s beaches (Shark Bay – on the right and Chalok Baan Kao Bay – on the left) and there’s enough room to sit on the top and admire the view for as long as you’d like!

My Experience: Where I wouldn’t suggest the Railay Beach viewpoint to everyone, I do believe that this hike is still doable for most travelers! I saw people of all ages at the top of this hike. I went on a very hot day which caused a lot of sweating, so a water bottle is a must on this one. However, once you have to start climbing the boulders is when it starts to become a bit tricky. The view at the top is absolutely breathtaking and worth the climb 100%! I sat up at the top for 30 minutes and could have sat up there for longer if I wasn’t meeting people at the beach below. If my memory serves me correctly, the hike took about 25-35 minutes on the way up and much faster on the way down.

Difficulty: 6.5/10 – I’d say that this hike is doable if you are able to pull yourself over some very large boulders. The hike itself is steep but manageable!

1. Bottle Beach Viewpoint

My overall favorite viewpoint hike has to be the Bottle Beach Viewpoint hike on the island of Koh Phangan. Just looking at that picture above brings me back to feeling like I was on top of the world!

This viewpoint hike is just off of Bottle Beach. Now, Bottle Beach has it’s own hike, but this is separate. There’s only two ways to access Bottle Beach, it’s either by a longtail boat or on an hour minimum hike (took us around 1.5 hours with stopping). If you end up doing the hike, I’d highly recommend taking a longtail boat back to where you started!

If you’re coming from the Bottle Beach Hike or a longtail boat: Once you get to Bottle Beach, you’ll want to head towards the center of the beach and look for a dirt road leading towards the forest. After walking down the road you’ll see a path on your left and this will lead you to the trail head!

(From my understanding, there is another way to get to the viewpoint on the south-east side of the viewpoint).

This hike winds through a jungle and starts getting steep very quickly. Eventually you’ll come up to some rocks that are very steep and also very close to the edge of the cliff side… be careful!!

But once you’re to the top you are met with probably the best view in all of Thailand (I’m sure there are some other amazing ones, but this was my favorite). If you’re feeling a bit courageous, you can make your way over some long shear rocks to the edge of the cliff which provides an even better view and some amazing photos!

My Experience: This hike was TIRING, especially on top of the Bottle Beach Hike. But I’m insanely glad I decided to push through and see what this viewpoint was all about! The majority of this hike was easy but steep. However, the top part of the hike (which turns into a climb) was a bit precarious. This will be a tough one for some but very much worth the experience! At the peak you could actually see Koh Tao which was pretty incredible. I’d say it took us around 25 minutes to climb this viewpoint, it might have been faster if we hadn’t hiked prior.

Difficulty: 6/10

These were my favorite viewpoint hikes, BUT there are a ton of other hikes all over Thailand! I’d highly suggest you try one out, you won’t regret it! If you have any questions about any of these hikes feel free to let me know in the comments!

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