Looking for the top things to do in Trang? This blog post is just for you!

Trang, a coastal province in Southern Thailand. It’s a region filled with Thai culture with night markets and festivals, as well as various mainland beaches and offshore islands. It’s near some of the more popular tourist cities like Krabi and Phuket, but for those who want to get out of the crowd and wind down, Trang is the perfect place for you.

The province is primarily known for its white-sand beaches on the mainland and islands. With as many as 46 islands, most of it is protected inside marine reserves and parks like Hat Chao Mai National Park.

The region also has a place in the country’s history as a former port for foreign trade and where rubber trees were first planted. Rubber is now considered a significant export. Two major rivers are running through it: Trang River and Maenam Palian.

Trang is only an hour and 20 minutes from Bangkok by plane. You can also get here by bus and train. To get to the Trang Islands, you can choose from four piers: Pak Meng Pier, Ban Chao Mai Pier, Klong Son Pier, and Kuan Thung Ku Pier.

There are many things to do in Trang, with something for everyone. Whether you’re into the beach, the food, or the culture, you can find something on the mainland or one of their smaller islands. You can choose from island hopping, walking the night markets, to exploring the community.

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Table of Contents

Top 10 BEST Things to do in Trang

Go Island hopping in Hat Chao Mai National Park

Winter scene in Estonia: bare branches with red berries. — Khunkay, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A marine national park in Kantang and Sikao, it includes 7 islands: Ko Muk, Ko Kradan, Ko Chueak, Ko Pling, Ko Waen, Ko Meng, and Ko Chao Mai. Take a trip in the scenery from Island to island and spot marine animals like the endangered dugongs or the rare black-necked storks. Its more-lauded islands are Ko Muk, Ko Kradan, and Ko Cheuk.

Don’t miss Haad Farang on Ko Muk Island, which translates to “foreigner beach” and is the most famous beach on the Island. Away from the coast, you’ll also have the vast jungle and massive cliffs all around you. Its diverse landscape means there are many things to do, like kayaking, hiking, and exploring caves.

Ko Kradan is another island that has iconic white sand beaches. But what it’s famous for is being the site of underwater wedding ceremonies.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Head to Ko Libong island

Ko Libong is the largest island in the Trang Islands. It has a peaceful atmosphere with coconut trees and cliffs, making it look picturesque as the perfect beach destination.

This is one of the Trang attractions that locals frequent much more than tourists and are home to Muslim fishing families. There is also diverse wildlife here, from a herd of manatees to various birds and monkeys. You can even glimpse dugongs, an endangered species often found in Trang.

The Island has several beaches you can explore, and during low tide, you can walk from Chu Hoi Cape, one of its beaches, to Ko Tup, a small island where migrating seabirds can be seen.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

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Wander the Thung Khai Botanical Garden

A destination for nature lovers with the garden’s scenic forests, nature trails, and diverse plant species. It has a botanical garden, a herbal garden, a botanical library, and a plant museum. In the nature trails, you’ll be able to walk through rainforests and peat fields.

It’s best known for the canopy walk, where you can choose among 3 levels at 10, 15, and 18 meters above the ground. There’s information on each level about the plants you might see during the walk. Also, don’t forget your mosquito repellents, as there are many of them here.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Are you planning your travels? Here’re my top travel resources!

I’m a serial planner both in life and in travel – I have bucket lists, things to do, see, and everything. So, I always love when my life is sorted easily using tools and resources that would make my general planning a little smoother and easier. Therefore, in my many years of traveling the world, I’ve seen myself returning to these travel resources repeatedly. And here I am, sharing my tips to make your life easy and breezy so you can stress less, travel heaps, and focus on the fun part of travel!

Booking.com – I book all my hotels through this website and don’t honestly use anything else. They always have the best prices, in my opinion.
Airbnb – If I’m traveling long-term to one destination, I book my flats through Airbnb.
Skyscanner – The best place to find cheap flights on flexible dates. I use this a lot to score cheap flights within Europe!
SafetyWing – Always travel insured! Never leave your home country without one. It is worth the extra money, I promise you!
GetYourGuide – Hands-down, the best place to find cool and unique tours if you don’t feel like winging it, and go straight to a local expert. I use this a lot in new destinations to get acquainted with the area!
My Pretty Wild World Travel Diary (coming soon) – A book you can write down your travel plans, create itineraries, track down your budget, and dot down memories along the way! A handy book you can keep and read later to revisit memory lane.
Pretty Wild World Travel Planning Printables (coming soon) – Are you a nut like me when it comes to planning? Yes? Good. My travel planning resource in one zip file is an easy-to-use printable planner that comes with tips that helps you plan your travels during the planning stage, a pre-flight checklist, an itinerary planner, and so on.

Experience Trang’s Night Markets

If you’re winding down in the city or have yet to explore the waters, one of the best things to do in Trang is to visit one of its night markets. Find great food, shop for clothes, or soak up the atmosphere of the community.

Chan Chala Night Market is a weekend market that draws more of the local crowd away from the more touristy night markets like Centrepoint and Cinta Garden. It offers cheaper food and handmade souvenirs and has musical performances every now and then.

Centrepoint Night Market is the hub of food for night markets. It has a wide variety of stalls, with different local food too, from trinkets to drinks. It’s very popular with tourists because of its delicious and inexpensive food. It starts full swing at around 4:30 pm and is open every night.

Cinta Garden is for tourists who love the gram. Many have praised it for its atmosphere suited for taking pictures. There are also different spots where you can do photo ops, and the food is as delicious as they come!

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Relax at Khuan Khang Hot Spring

Take time to destress and let your worries go in one of Trang’s tourist attractions, Khuan Khang Hot Spring. It attracts locals and tourists for its health benefits and the relaxing feeling it gives the body. It’s located in the Kantang district and maintains a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Including its soak and bathing rooms, it also has foot and body massage services.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Take a nature trip to this conservation station in Trang

Delight in the sights of nature as you head to this conservation station in Trang. It’s the country’s first nature and wildlife study venue where you can learn about nature up close.

It offers the scenery, several waterfalls, and nature study trails inside. Of the waterfalls, you can check out our Ton Yai, Ton Noi, and Ka Chong. They also have a museum and exhibition building if you want to learn more about what they do and their natural resource conservation.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Hold up! Have you thought about the importance of travel insurance?

Remember this: anything can happen. Travel is fun, but your health is more important; thus, I always, always, always recommend getting insured during the duration of your trip. I have benefitted from having one multiple times, and it has been covered for thousands of euros!

The latest one is not necessarily “health” related – it was during the peak of the unspeakable terrible C that consumed the world. I was living in Vietnam when I received an email from SafetyWing (my travel insurance) that if I want they’ll fly be back home to Finland as the world goes through a global emergency alert. I flew back fully covered, and dealing with SafetyWing was a breeze despite the roar of people in contact with them trying to get back home.

I can’t highly recommend them enough. Otherwise, I rarely get sick; hence I don’t always need to head to a hospital, but knowing that I have travel insurance makes me feel safe at the very least.

Read my post about why you should get travel insurance for more information. Otherwise, you can get a free quote from SafetyWing – they’re the best, in my opinion.

Get a FREE quote from SafetyWing

Explore the Morakot and Khao Kop Cave

You can’t leave the province without visiting one of Trang island’s caves. One is the Morakot Cave on Ko Muk island, dubbed the “Emerald Cave.” It’s one of the most famous destinations in Trang. It’s been named Emerald Cave because of how the sun hits the cave opening, turning its waters into deep emerald green. You can likely catch it between 10 am and 2 pm, so plan your trip around this time.

Like the Morakot Cave, the Khao Kop Cave is also spectacular. It contains an impressive array of stalagmites and stalactites that you can look up close. The cave is also nicknamed the “Dragon Cave” since you have to lie down when you exit it, making it seem like you’re going under the dragon’s belly.

The entrances to these caves are often small, so you’d need to get a boat to enter and only come when it’s low tide. It’s also much safer to get a guide before you go exploring.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

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Visit Rajamangala Aquarium

If you didn’t get a chance to catch a glimpse of the Island’s marine animals, you could do so at the Rajamangala Aquarium. It’s a large aquarium inside the Rajamangala Institute of Technology, just 30 kilometers outside the capital. With exhibits on freshwater and marine fish, fish ponds, amphibians, and a model of a mangrove forest. It has an impressive collection of 61 different displays.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

Take a break at Sa Kaphang Surin Park

You can find a break from the hustle and bustle of the city in this public park in Sa Kaphang Surin Park. This is for the people who like a pleasant walk every now and then; there are beautiful gardens and restaurants here too.

The park also has a natural pool that spans 80,000 square meters and a bridge stretching across it. You can stay in one of the three pavilions that can be found in the pool’s center. The park’s an excellent place to spend a day under the trees.

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

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What are my favorite travel must-haves?

As a frequent traveler, I’ve learned a lot throughout my years of travel, and there are five items that I always carry with me regardless of where I go and how long the trip is. Here are my five travel must-haves!

Warm packable jacket – I always carry a light jacket, even when heading to warm countries. There hasn’t been a time I never used it, especially in airports and planes.
Transparent toiletry bag – I often bring a carry-on if I’m only traveling within Europe for a few days. Life is so much easier to go through security checks with a transparent toiletry bag.
Kindle Paperwhite – I love a good read and always take my Kindle everywhere. It keeps me entertained during long flights and waiting times.
Powerbank – I don’t know how I could travel without one! Having a power bank saved me a ton since I carry a lot of electronic devices with me.
Travel Adapter – I never leave my luggage without a travel adapter! I carry one with me all the time. It is just one of that travel-must haves that doesn’t hurt to have in your bag at all times.

Learn about the city’s history in Kantang

If you’re looking for more to do in Trang, you can head to Kantang district to learn more about Trang’s history. Kantang was the province’s first capital and held much of its early history.

Here, you can find the Praya Ratsadanupradit Mahison Phakdi Monument and Museum for the former ruler of the area who kickstarted rubber cultivation in the country. You can also find the first rubber tree planted in Thailand still standing in the town. Now, rubber is one of the most valuable exports of the country.

There are other hidden gems in the area, like the Kantang Railway Station, an architectural classic of the city.

Trang province is a one-of-a-kind destination, and there’s definitely a lot more to do in the area. Don’t miss it on your Thailand trip!

Where to stay in Trang? Here’s a list of beautiful hotels, great bargains, and how to book!

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