Koh Larn Ferry Guide — Times, Prices & Which Beach to Pick

Pattaya’s own beaches are fine for a stroll, but the water you came to Thailand for is 7 km offshore. Koh Larn ("Coral Island") has the pale sand and clear, swimmable turquoise that the mainland lacks, and it is genuinely easy to reach: a cheap public ferry, no booking, no tour required. Go independently and you will spend a tenth of what the boat-tour touts on Beach Road charge for the same island. It also hosts a leg of the Pattaya Music Festival most years, and a night on the island — after the day-trippers leave — is one of the area’s quiet pleasures.

All boats leave from Bali Hai Pier, the big concrete pier at the southern end of Walking Street. The public ferry is the white double-decker; as of mid-2026 the fare is 40 THB each way — raised from the famous 30 THB in April 2026 — paid at the ticket window before boarding, and the crossing takes about 45 minutes. Ferries serve two piers on the island: Na Ban (the main village pier, roughly hourly-ish departures from about 07:00 to 18:30) and Tawaen (direct to the main beach, a handful of morning departures with afternoon returns). Exact timetables shift with season and sea state, so photograph the departure board at Bali Hai when you arrive — it is the only schedule that counts.

Speedboat operators at the same pier will run you across in about 15 minutes. Shared seats go for roughly 300–400 THB per person, and chartering a whole boat costs from about 1,800–3,000 THB depending on size and your haggling form — worth it for groups of six or more, or if you have missed the ferry timetable. Speedboats will drop you directly at the beach of your choice, which saves the island transfer. Agree the return pickup time and pay the balance after the return leg, not before.

The last public ferry from Na Ban pier to Pattaya leaves around 18:00 as of mid-2026, and the last direct boat from Tawaen Beach leaves earlier, typically mid-afternoon. This is the one detail that catches people out: linger over one more drink at sunset and your 40-baht ride home becomes a 2,000-baht speedboat charter — if you can find one willing. Confirm the day’s last departures at the pier when you land, set a phone alarm for 45 minutes before, and remember you may need time to cross the island back to Na Ban. Alternatively, embrace it: the island has plenty of simple guesthouses, and Koh Larn after 6 pm is a different, calmer place.

Tawaen is the big one — a long arc of sand with the direct ferry pier, jet-skis, banana boats, parasailing and rows of umbrellas; it absorbs the Chinese and Indian tour groups by mid-morning and is the least relaxing option, though the widest choice of food. Samae, over the headland from Tawaen, has similar white sand with noticeably less chaos. Tien, on the west side, is our pick for swimmers: calm, clear water, a more laid-back beach-bar scene and good sunsets. Nual ("Monkey Beach") at the southern tip is the quietest, with actual wild macaques — keep your snacks zipped away. Umbrella-and-lounger sets rent for about 100–200 THB for the day at all of them.

From Na Ban pier, songthaews shuttle to the main beaches for about 20–40 THB per person, and motorbike-taxi riders will take you anywhere for a little more. You can also rent a scooter on the island for around 300 THB a day — the roads are short but include some genuinely steep hills, so the licence and insurance caveats from our getting-around guide apply doubly here. The island is only about 4 km end to end; nothing is far.

Catch a ferry before 09:00 and you will be swimming while the tour groups are still queueing at Bali Hai. Weekdays are dramatically quieter than weekends, when Bangkok day-trippers double the crowds. Bring cash — cards are useless outside a couple of resorts — plus reef-safe sunscreen and water shoes for the rockier entries at Tien and Nual. In the June–October wet season, morning crossings are usually calm and afternoon squalls occasionally pause speedboat service; the big ferry runs in all but genuinely rough weather. One more timing note: the 07:00 ferry sounds heroic but is mostly used by island workers; the 08:00–09:00 window gets you the same empty beaches with a civilised breakfast first.

Koh Larn is more built-up than the postcard suggests — Na Ban is a proper little village with 7-Elevens, pharmacies, noodle shops and ATMs (still, carry cash: card terminals are rare and the ATMs occasionally run dry on peak weekends). Beach eating is grilled seafood, som tam and fried rice at 80–200 THB a dish from the restaurants behind the sand, a notch above mainland prices but hardly extortionate; the seafood shacks along the Na Ban waterfront are cheaper and better than the beachfront rows. Beyond lying down, the island offers a short hike or scooter climb to the Big Buddha and wind-turbine viewpoints above Nual for the best panorama back towards Pattaya’s skyline, snorkelling off the rockier points at Tien, and parasailing and seawalker outfits at Tawaen. There is no hospital, only a small clinic — one more argument for restraint on the island’s surprisingly steep scooter roads. Phone signal and 4G are strong everywhere, so your last-ferry alarm has no excuse.