Costa Lanta

Although KO LANTA YAI can’t quite compete with Phi Phi’s stupendous scenery, the thickly forested 25km-long island has the longest beaches in the Krabi area – and plenty of them. There’s decent snorkelling and diving nearby, plus caves to explore, kayaking and other watersports, so many tourists base themselves here for their entire holiday fortnight. The island is especially popular with families, in part because of the local laws that have so far prevented jet-skis, beachfront parasols and girlie bars from turning it into another Phuket, though resort facilities are expanding fast. Lanta is also rapidly being colonized by Scandinavian expats, with villa homes and associated businesses popping up all over the place, at a pace that not all islanders are happy about. The majority of Ko Lanta Yai’s ten thousand indigenous residents are mixed-blood descendants of Muslim Chinese–Malay or animist chao ley (“sea gypsy”) peoples, most of whom supported themselves by fishing and cultivating the land before the tourist boom brought new jobs, and challenges.