FEBRUARY 2025
Looking for the perfect hotel in Ko Chang? I have got you covered! We stayed in the Sylvan Koh Chang for five nights and loved our stay. Whether you are traveling with kids or not, the SYLVAN is perfect for all sorts of travelers. The SYLVAN is located right at the beach, with incredible landscaping and a private beach offering sunset views, we felt so spoiled! I personally found five nights the perfect amount of nights to be relaxed and be able to explore the island.
How to get to Koh Chang from Bangkok
There are several ways to get to Koh Chang from Bangkok, however there is no airport on Koh Chang, only in nearby Trat. From Bangkok and from Bangkok airport you can take a direct bus to the ferry terminal at Trat. The bus will take you on the ferry to Koh Chang and from there you have to arrange onwards transport. Most buses leave early in the morning from Khao San Road. As we were traveling with quite a lot of luggage and a toddler we decided to treat ourselves to private transport. SYLVAN Koh Chang arranged to pick us up in our hotel in Bangkok, this cost about € 150. The drive was incredibly comfortable and we could ask our driver to stop to stretch our legs, go to the toilet and get snacks. The drive was about 5 hours while the ferry was 45 minutes. Our driver brought us directly to the SYLVAN which was very convenient.
SYLVAN Koh Chang
We stayed in SYLVAN Koh Chang as our base to explore Ko Chang. I did quite extensive research on where to stay on Ko Chang, there is a right pick for every budget. I wanted a hotel which had at least some Thai vibes & Thai kitchen; not a modern Ibiza style hotel which could have been anywhere. Some of the Thai style hotels seemed a bit run down if you zoomed in on pictures, which narrowed down my options. I also wanted to experience jungle vibes and thought it was easiest if the hotel had a (private) beach so I could easily watch Hugo while he would take a dip. SYLVAN seemed to be a perfect fit for all my wishes and we ended up being very happy with our choice. Ko Chang has three main areas with beaches, where you will find the resort style hotels: White Sands Beach, Klong Prao Beach and Kai Bae beach. SYLVAN is located next to Kai Bae beach. Personally, we found Kai Bae the perfect option, as it offered a little village with several restaurants, but it also was pretty quiet and relaxed.
The SYLVAN has several restaurants: one breakfast restaurant, SUNSET restaurant where they serve lunch and dinner and a beachbar that serves light meals. The restaurant has a good mix of western and Thai food and the cocktails were incredible! We only left the resort once for lunch in Kai Bae and didn’t get bored with our food options. The breakfast spread was generous, I loved the Thai pancakes that were freshly made. Prices at the restaurant definitely were higher than in the mainland, especially cocktails were much pricier than in Bangkok, but when the service is as good as at SYLVAN and you get these pretty sunset views, you cannot complain about it.
The showstopper of SYLVAN is the private beach, which is very stretched out, has plenty of sunbeds and offers sufficient shade as well. The landscaping of the SYLVAN was amazing and they “decorated” several trees with cute swings. When there is low tide you can walk to the village and other restaurants, I definitely recommend going for a long walk. The views are just so lush and green and the sea is aqua blue! I couldn’t figure out whether the Kai Bae region is a national park, but it should be.
The SYLVAN has two swimming pools, one at the beach and one near the upper rooms. Both had incredible sunset views! The upper swimming pool even featured a slide, the entrance was hidden between tropical plants so it took us a while to discover it.
SYLVAN also has a spa, where you can have treatments and massages and a fully equipped gym. The hotel is quite stretched out and located on a hill, to make getting around easier it offers golf buggy rides and a cable car, which added so much fun to our days!
The SYLVAN organizes quite a lot of activities, some are paid and some are free. We joined a fire show, but you can also have romantic dinners on the beach, go kayaking, picknicking, do a pizza workshop and some nights they have a dance show or movie night.
We loved our stay at SYLVAN. We visited just before high season and paid € 100 per night for our three person room including breakfast. Hugo even had his own little room, within our bigger room. As everywhere in Asia, the beds were (too) hard, but comfortable enough. Don’t forget to lock your room properly because we had a break in by a monkey!
Kai Bae village
SYLVAN has a free shuttle service to the village that goes several times a day. For your way back you can easily stop a songtaew taxi. We explored Kai Bae village for one afternoon. It is a typical, tropical style village where restaurants and shops line the main road of Ko Chang. We had a delicious ceviche lunch at El Barrio, a Mexican restaurant serving authentic dishes. Didn’t expect to find good Mexican food on a Thai island, but there you go!
Activities on Ko Chang
On Ko Chang you can get around with a songtaew taxi (jute style, open air taxi). You can stop one on the streets and jump in and stop at popular destinations. We decided to privatize a songtaew for a day, as arranged by our hotel for € 50, to explore the island. We did the following activities:
White Sands Beach for lunch. White Sands Beach was more lively than Kai Bae, I can imagine it getting busy in the high season. At White Sands Beach you will find a long strip of hotels lining a public beach and it seemed like a good option to stay as well, though some hotels looked a bit run-down. What I really liked about White Sands Beach is that the water had a lovely temperature and you could do people watching from the water, enjoying the views of all the restaurants and beach bars.

Khlong Phlu Waterfall: Khlong Phlu Waterfall is one of the bigger waterfalls on the island and located in a gorgeous piece of nature. It was quite a long, rocky walk to get to the falls with a toddler, so do some research before you visit. The water was ice cold but we loved our adventurous, refreshing dip! We didn’t encounter a lot of mosquitos on Ko Chang in november, but they definitely were at these falls.
Bang Bao Pier: This is a pier with shops/fisherman village. It seemed fun in pictures though I didn’t know what we were going to do over there. We ended up walking around four about 45 minutes because it was quite interesting to see the “floating village” and to enjoy the views over the water.
Elephants: I cannot finish this blogpost without saying something on the elephants in Koh Chang. Koh Chang means elephant island, not because there are native elephants but because the island has the shape of an elephant. Years ago elephants were brought to Koh Chang for tourism, do not join this tourism. Koh Chang has no ethical elephant sanctuaries and still offers elephant rides.