Introducing Ko Lanta
A long-time sweetheart with the intrepid backpacking crowd, Ko Lanta is steadily changing, with upmarket resorts replacing the cheap bungalows. The carefree, hippiesque backpacker vibe still prevails, for now, although the laid-back atmosphere has been kicked up a notch, and you’ll find plenty of bars blaring the latest hits late into the night, along with a string of faràng restaurants showing the newest blockbusters. Travellers pour in daily, ferried from Krabi by a convoy of air-con minivans, or boats in the high season.
Beaches on Lanta’s western shores are pleasantly soft, flat and sunny, and in isolated spots there’s still some of that ‘get away from it all’ atmosphere that started attracting travellers in the first place. In recent years the island has been playing catch-up in the development stakes and now has loads of accommodation for pockets of all depths. However, Ko Lanta remains a friendly, relaxing place to stay. The 20,000 residents are mixed descendants of Muslim Malay and seafaring chao leh.
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Overhead of one of many beaches of Ko Lanta.
- Mark Kirby
- Lonely Planet photographer
