Thailand - Nai Harn Beach (Phuket)

Nai Harn Beach is located at the southern tip of Phuket’s west coast. It is a stunning bay, surrounded by the hills, and supposedly one of the best and most beautiful beaches on the south coast of Phuket. We learned about Nai Harn from one of the crewmembers from The Bachelor that we met in Ao Nong last November.

How did we get here? Short answer: Air Asia flight from Vientiane, Laos via Bangkok. 

We scheduled a driver from our hotel to take us to the airport. We got to the airport two hours early and had checked in online. Air Asia gave us a 'green' checkmark and said we were good to go straight to our gate with our e-boarding pass. Sweet! We didn't need to stress about our carry-ons being over 7 kg. So we went straight to security/immigration. We waited for over 30 minutes for them to show up for work. 0825 we finally get to show our e-boarding passes. "You need paper ticket. Need to check-in." But, but... Downstairs to the Air Asia counter and time is ticking. We didn't have time to move enough stuff from carry-on to our backpacks and ended up paying $127 to check our bags. 

Back upstairs to the lady who wouldn't take our e-boarding pass. Waved through and now there's a long line to get our passports stamped to get OUT of Laos. Tick, tick, tick... we just made it in time to board our flight. Whew! Once back in Thailand, everything was smooth as silk. Zipped through customs/immigration, got our luggage, a SIM card and our driver was there to meet us to take us to our hotel.

Sunrise before leaving Laos

First Flight to Bangkok 

Second Flight to Phuket 

Where did we stay? We stayed at the Nai Harn Gallery Hotel.  The hotel is located directly across from the Nai Harn Lake and less than a 1/4 mile from the beautiful Nai Harn Beach.  Our room was huge with a balcony overlooking the pool.  

What did we do? Pretty much nothing. We both needed some down time. We walked to the beach and took beach walks. We rented lounge chairs and umbrellas once and lounged at our pool. We had a nice infinity pool as well as a 'kid' pool that we really liked. We got our final fill of Thai food and Thai massages. OK... maybe and hopefully not our final. It was a great week! The big thing we did do was start our research and planning for our upcoming travels. As well as purchasing airline tickets, hotel reservations, etc. Oh... and who knew Nai Harn is a popular vacation desintation for Russians!?! We were some of the only English speaking people there.

Thai Massage

Nai Harn Beach

Kiddie Pool - perfect for Sharon

The Moon over Nai Harn Lake

Where did we eat? We really enjoyed the food and service at Unni's. Our favorite meal was from the mom and pop shop of Soi Ounwat. Our hotel breakfast was so so and we do enjoy having fresh fruit and fruit juice every morning. 

Unni's Iced Mocha

Unni's Elote

Unni's Burrito Bowl

Unni's Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl

The Corner Hut's Green Curry with Chicken

The Corner Hut's Stir Fried Basil with Chicken

Hotel - Scrambled eggs with avocado

El Greco's Chicken Pita Gyro

Avo's Kitchen & Wine's Tom Yum

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Mango Shake

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Fried Rice
with Shrimp

Soi Suanwat Thai Food's Green Curry

Unni's Burrito with Fire Roasted
Salsa Roja 

Unni's Baja Fish Tacos

Hotel - Fruit Salad and Pineapple juice

M & M Pizzeria's 4 Formaggi Pizza
Cream, parmesan, Gorgonzola & taleggio

M & M Pizzeria's Chicken Scallopini
Lemon 🍋 Sauce

We are glad we checked out Phuket. Everything we read said it was very touristy and for the small area we visited we totally agree. We enjoyed our downtime but we both agree we liked Railay Beach better. When we return to Thailand in the future we will venture to more of the islands. 

"Keep Calm and Travel On"