this travel guide to southern thailand is about to begin in any second however if at any point during this video you're thinking to yourselves man this is great but i want to know more i want to know all of the hotels all of the restaurants all of the hidden gems and i want google map links for every single place that this guy went to in every single province then fear not because linked below and in the comments you'll find this ebook that i just wrote it compiles every single hotel restaurant hidden gem viewpoint island and lots of untold stories from my road trip around to every single province in southern thailand not only is it super valuable and super up-to-date but it also helps support this channel and what we're doing in the future trying to go to every single province in thailand anyway enough about the ebook enjoy the video get your google maps ready and start saving all these places and like i said if you want all of the places then check out the ebook okay let's go so before we get into it a quick disclaimer i did go to every single province except i didn't go to the island province of phuket because at the time of filming and researching uh this travel guide um it was kind of just impossible to get there and the second disclaimer is you know every place that i'm mentioning in this video is my own opinion maybe when you go to these best places you turn up and it's miserable it's raining or you're in a bad mood and you hate it so i can't be held responsible if i think the place is amazing and you hate it this is just my opinion but i've traveled quite a lot around thailand for many many years and so nothing on this list is not there if it wasn't amazing or next level as i like to say so we're going to start today with the best destinations in southern thailand so for each section of this video i'm gonna break it down into a top five scenario so the top five best destinations coming in at number five is the province of krabi krabi is not a hidden gem everybody knows about krabi because it's the home of ao nang railay ko pipi and many other islands actually and uh look it is incredible just arriving at the airport or just driving around on a motorbike you are going to see limestone cliffs you're going to see amazing greenery luscious beaches white sands turquoise waters and yes some of the most incredible nature i just think you cannot go to southern thailand unless you spend a good week or two exploring the province of krabi especially uh i really like rylai and obviously kopi especially at the minute when there's not many tourists there i had a private tour of maya bay and it was a life-changing experience i've never had such a great time in my life than coming to mayor bay by myself number four is a province that i had never heard of before i started traveling in the south and that is patalong this was a joy to travel every single second i enjoyed in patalong basically on the the left-hand side you've got a mountain range and they're full of waterfalls and i had a really great time hanging out with the kids and swimming and just having fun driving through the nature the the mountains and patalong are amazing the town itself of patalong is really quaint it's very tight and it's got limestone cliffs and it's just a really nice atmosphere it's very very local very very laid back and somewhere that i was thinking man i would love to retire in this town because it was just stunning and you can look over to the mountains every sunset and it's just incredible and the best part about patalong is talanoi it is an incredible lake with pink lotus flowers that open up in the mornings it's home to wild buffalo that swim and live freely live wild and it's just an incredible experience but to be honest the best part about patalong for me was just driving around on my little honda dream just soaking up the views and just being absolutely mind blown the entire time number three and this is a surprise to me but might not be a surprise to you it's koh samui i had never been to koh samui before this trip because i'd always thought it was overrun overcrowded uh you know i've seen the busyness of places like uh pp and rylai which are small and i just assumed because cosmo was much bigger much more famous that it would be absolutely just kind of like overrun and commercialized but i actually found it to be incredible the beach roads the mountains the temples on top of mountains the incredible bays beaches the food it's just really beautiful what's really really beautiful you have to go to kosamiri don't write it off it's my top three best destination in the whole of southern thailand for a reason go there i promise you're gonna love it number two is a city if you're thinking yeah look i love beaches and everything but i want a good city i want to experience like a bangkok vibe but a smaller version you have to go to hatyai is a city in the province of san clar and it has everything i call it the chiang mai of the south because it has mountains it's got thai malaysian and chinese influences both in its um you know buildings and infrastructure to its food and its culture so it really is a melting pot it's got lots of western comforts you can get really good flat-eyed fried chicken delicious ipas there's also big shopping malls there so you can really get all your comforts and 45 minutes away by motorbike is a beach so you can drive in under an hour to the incredible beaches of sunclar and watch sunsets watch the sunrise go for a swim go horseback riding whatever you want to do so you can be in the city then you can be up in the mountains and then you can be at the beach all available in but by far the best place the best destination in southern thailand is khao sak national park it is just i'm just speechless thinking about this place it is a man-made reservoir there used to be a big jungle and even some villagers living down there but they flooded it all up to create a dam to supply the province of suritani with power and in doing so created one of the most incredible wonders it is just limestone cliffs giant mountains sticking out and this incredible blue and sometimes green colored water especially in the mornings and uh you can stay on the lake you can trek the lake you can go inside caves there's lots to do it's not the most budget place in southern thailand you can do it cheaply but expect to pay if you're going to be there for the day uh you're looking at about 100 us dollars for activities and a tour and double that if you're looking to stay overnight on the lake and um just go there and be prepared to do this the entire time that's literally what i was doing i was like i can't i can't i just can't everywhere i was looking i was like this is next level experiences now experiences really are the things that help build long lasting memories when you're doing something you sometimes learn something new you see something in a different way and you create yeah lifelong memories so now we're going to talk about the top five experiences that i personally thought were incredible in southern thailand starting with surfing in cow lake is a beach area in the province of pangna i didn't know that thailand had surfing there is surfing in phuket but like i said i didn't go to phuket but cow lake is really famous with you know like the high so bangkok crowd in fact when i was in cal lake surfing season had just begun the waves were getting quite small because the season was just building but um it's really nice to see everybody come down from bangkok and other provinces and you know these guys can surf there's girls there's guys there's groups there's young there's old people the beach is incredibly long incredibly beautiful the whole area of khao lak actually is amazing and uh i just really loved surfing in thailand it was a real surprise and if you're into surfing and you want to surf in the andaman sea then go to kawalak muay thai training thai boxing is world famous and obviously you can do mutai training anywhere bangkok chiang mai ko samui i did mine in kaolak actually right next to where you can surf and it was amazing it was called rawai muay thai and i recommend them but you know as long as you find a good muay thai training account with good reviews i recommend if you're looking to lose weight improve your health improve your mental health make friends or learn to knock someone out uh go to a muay thai training camp by the way they will not put you in a ring if you don't want to if you just want to learn the technique and get fit that's also completely okay in fact i saw many people in my training camp who were not interested in fighting but wanted to lose weight wanted to feel good and learn a really good and amazing part of thai culture experience a muay thai training camp for as little as a day or as long as a year you can really maintain and change your muay thai training camp to your needs so check out muay thai training the third best experience in southern thailand for me i've touched on it already was maya bay on ko pp we all know this place it's famous because of the beach however look if you're coming to thailand in 2021 or 2022 when tourism is just opening and starting up go straight there because you're never going to get a private tour or you know basically have the entire bay and other beaches in that area completely to your own i'm talking there was one boat in the lagoon when i was there a lady with her cat when i went to my bay itself the only person there just looking at the footage of when maya bay was at its packed prime you could see that you know it was overrated because you get somewhere beautiful and it's just overrun with boats and everyone with tourists go now it is one of the most beautiful places in the world and it is one of the most popular places in thailand for a reason and now you have the opportunity to go there with hardly anybody there um so as soon as you get to thailand get a boat and go to mayo bay it's amazing the second best experience in southern thailand was dugon spotting dugons are like manatees they're big gray cows in fact they're called sea cows that's the nickname there are species of whale and they are massive absolutely huge and in the province of trang between the islands of koliban koh mook and ko kladang there is a lot of sea grass and they feed on that and they breed there and there is a small population of around 200 dugons that live there all year round and they're protected you can't swim with them you can't feed them you can just observe them on a long tail boat and i recommend that you just go speak to someone in the area on one of the islands and organize a private tour i think i paid about two thousand bar or sixty dollars for just me we spent a couple of hours looking for them didn't take long to find some bring a drone if you bring a drone you can catch them and see them much easier because you just send it up and you can find them because they're quite big and you can see them a mile away and then you can carefully go over and get a good look at them and loads of turtles but what an experience never forget that do gone spotting in the promise of trang and the best experience in southern thailand is khao sak national park not only is khao sak the best place but it's also the best experience because you can stay on the lake and i stayed i think in the most expensive resort called panvori the greenery and i had a private room and it was on the lake you wake up to sunrise the sunsets are incredible the cocktails the food the whole experience they give you a kayaking tour they give you a morning sunrise tour on the boat and it's kind of like an all-inclusive thing but just the general experience of hanging out with travelers having cocktails looking at the scenery enjoying the nature you know and it was a rainy time when i was there and it just made it even more beautiful so not only is it the best place but staying on the lake is an experience that you will never forget for the rest of your life so if you can afford it stay on the lake for a night or two if you can we're gonna come on to foods and hidden gems in a minute but for motorcyclists people who are looking to drive a motorbike big or small remember i drive around on a honda dream i've got a list of the top five best roads for you to drive on in southern thailand driving from patalong to koh lanta that was a great day's drive you leave pangnar town again a beautiful place you circumnavigate the mountains of patalong and you get spat out into trang and just the road was really nice actually i had to stop many times because of rain but um i just loved every second of that drive and the best part is when you get to koh lanta you get on the cargo ferry the car ferry motorbike ferry whatever you want to call it i think it costs like 70 baht and you go over the final stretch of a distance over water and then you get onto kohlanta and it's just a really relaxing beautiful drive krabi to pangnar town this is one of the most scenic roads you've ever seen you're on a b road and then you'll go on the main highway i think it's the number four and uh it's quiet and it is incredibly beautiful everywhere you look there are mad scenes you can stop off at really nice cafes and restaurants that are on the bays along the way up there and it's just one of those drives that you're just constantly like taking your time soaking it in it's it's beautiful and the destination of pangnar town itself is a complete hidden gem it is like a town surrounded by a bowl of mountains and it is unbelievable so a great drive from krabi to pangnar town takes about three or four hours to hua hin this is a long one 280 kilometers or 300 depending on the road you take don't take the number four highway unless you have to at the end stick to the coast whether you're going north or south as long as the coast is right next to you you're doing a good job you'll go past dozens of incredible beaches dozens of them beautiful bays and just pull over now and again have a coffee have a drink go for a swim eat some food just take your time set off early otherwise you'll get there after dark and just enjoy the incredible scenic road i think it's called the 2021 road it was built by the king commissioned by the king i should say an amazing road but by far the best roads in southern thailand are in baitong in the province of yala yala was a complete surprise i loved every single turn and twist of the roads in this province but especially in the beitong area on the border of malaysia deep south as south as you can get actually some of the twists and turns the mountain views overlooking the incredible cameron highlands in malaysia and just into the mountains of yala is just unbelievable i could not imagine there would be such high mountains in the south of thailand blew my mind i had incredible day on that road in fact i just drove up and down the same stretch of road for about three hours i was just having so much fun in baitong so let's talk about food now in the south of thailand it's famous for seafood it's famous for thai food it's extremely spicy and delicious and i ate in literally dozens and dozens of amazing restaurants and had hundreds and hundreds of amazing dishes so here's the top five rice pizza in the province of nakhon si tamarat i pulled up to this place that was recommended to me by a local and it is in a farm and it's a little bit um bohemian retro style and the people who work there use and they're proud to use local ingredients from the province and they make pizza however the pizza dough is made from rice and it's incredibly crispy and delicious and the best part is they have locally made ipa beer as well so it's a great pairing so rice pizza with ipa made local in nakhon si tamarat that's gotta be on the list number four is seoul this is a restaurant every single dish on the menu is perfection in fact the entire restaurant is the best restaurant in thailand as far as i'm concerned it is an 100 year old wooden building and run by a local family that i know personally very well and they recently moved there and have just flourished pizzas thai food salads cocktails international beers on the beach upstairs there was an art gallery just i didn't even film there because i was actually with thai friends and it was just an incredible experience that i didn't want to spoil by getting the camera out i took some pictures as you've seen here go to seoul in the province of champon and you will not regret it i promise you there's a noodle shop in sungla old town it's written in thai and i don't know what it's called but my gosh is it the best bowl of noodles i've ever had super cheap super delicious i literally am mouth-watering right now remembering it she cooks it to perfection and uh if you're in seongcla old town which by the way is a beautiful little town again the google maps for everywhere in this video but especially this one because it's written in thai is in the description save it in your phone go and eat noodles at this shop just for that reason go to song club number two is sun-dried beef when i was actually on a fishing trip in the province of pangnar we went out to the silliman islands the thai people prepared sun-dried beef as one of the dishes and you can find it in southern thailand it is like beef jerky but it's probably even more salty actually but it is just chewy it is tender at the same time it's rare because it's just sun-dried and they put it in fishing nets and then they leave it out in the sun and the blazing heat and it's good to go the next day and so if you ever see sun-dried beef that might sound a little bit dodgy to some of you but it was incredible i could not get enough and the number one food the number one dish that i had in southern thailand is believe it or not not thai food but a cheeseburger so when i was in the province of naritiwat which is in the deep south um i was invited by this lovely family to their restaurant it's called aku and um they do malaysian style thai style breakfast food but in dinner time they do western food they do pizzas and burgers and i had the most incredible double patty cheeseburger with fried cheese melted cheese it had all sorts of goodies in there guess how much it cost the whole thing with fries was 89 baht which is less than three us dollars and not only was it completely handmade and was it completely amazing but it was incredibly cheap the best meal i had on that trip nothing better than a long day's drive and a big juicy double cheeseburger and you just have to chuck away three dollars for the privilege aku cheeseburger in southern thailand was my favorite dish crazy but true okay it's time for the best hotels in southern thailand typically i stay in cheap guest houses 500 bar at night 15 us dollars a night somewhere cheap and clean that will do me when i'm on this big long road trip however from time to time i upped my budget to 50 to 100 sometimes over a hundred dollars per night especially if i want to make a video about it right especially because i want to give you information on some of the best places to go and so let's talk about the best hotels and number five is mali blues bed and dinner on the beach of hat tung lane in the province of champan sits this really small but incredibly boutique hotel on the sand of the beach it is to die for they have incredible pizzas and german beers wines cocktails in a bar area and a restaurant but they only have three rooms and so get on the booking get on airbnb and find it and book it up it is one of the best locations most incredible design just an all-around fantastic hotel in a fantastic beach away from the crowds in a really local province of champon if you're looking for a party or you're just looking for a little bit more life then go to blue rama on the island of koh pangan in suratani province this island is famous obviously for the full moon party however this hotel is a little bit different it's up on the hill you'll need a good bike to get up there but once you get to the um resort uh you can get a private wooden bungalow with incredible views of the beach the sea and other mountains and the best part is the restaurant they have like a beach club with a small pool infinity pool they have a dj playing music like low tech like house funky stuff not crazy loud but enough to get people moving and get people dancing and they have incredible cocktails a great menu great staff really delicious food as well and some of the best sunsets i've ever had at blue rama resort in koh phangan pawapee resort on the island of ko mook comes in next this island is incredible it's basically like a fishing village but it has like a spearhead beach uh peninsula which is just incredible and power p is on that beach peninsula and get the beachfront bungalow you can get the bigger villas as well if you're a family but if you're a couple or a solo traveler just treat yourself it's about 100 us dollars a night and just the sunrise alone and just the quiet idyllic paradise nature of this island and this resort was something i'll never forget and that's also where i did the do gone spotting so best experience one of the best experiences one of the best hotels one of the best islands in southern thailand combine that together and you'll have a great time at power pea resort on kremuk the second best place i stayed isn't actually a hotel but it was an airbnb it was basically your own house it was a wooden tiny blue house it was a big living room slash bedroom and a dining room a really nice kitchen fully equipped and it had all the spices and condiments that you would need ready to go for cooking really good bathroom an amazing outdoor veranda and it was in a little garden where they were growing fruits and things and it was right on lamai beach away from all the noise but right there and you know parking your little motorbike outside your blue little house and once you get moved in and you unpack you will feel at home like that the decor is really nice and um you know because of covert and everything i was mad i managed to get that house on airbnb for a hundred us dollars for an entire week and i'll never forget that little blue house it was amazing and the best hotel i stayed in southern thailand can you guess where it is drumroll cowsock national park i stayed at a place called panveri the greenery i already mentioned it in this video but that hotel hands down best experience best hotel best destination you can see where i'm going with this cal stock national park but it's 300 to 400 plus dollars per night per person to stay there uh negotiate with them if you can't directly contact them on facebook or something and see if you can get a discount see if you can cut corners somewhere but it includes your transfer it includes your lunch your dinner your breakfast two like activities and just the most divine resort in southern thailand in my opinion okay the final part of this video is the best hidden gems in southern thailand these are places that uh except for number five i had never heard of before this trip in the south and uh when i discovered them i thought they were incredible and i have to tell you about these hidden gems in southern thailand number five is the beach of hat tung villain in the province of champagne this is actually a place that i lived at for three years and i know very well and i know that it's not on the traveler the backpacker route however it is the best destination if you're looking for a real local thai beach town with incredible food beautiful sand beautiful rainbows and just amazing weather especially in the afternoons when the thai people come down to enjoy it and have barbecues and things go to the beach of hat tung villain and the neighboring village of sapling that's where the restaurant seoul that i mentioned earlier is an incredible hidden gem and one of the most amazing places in the whole of thailand not just the south now number four is a hidden gem in a place that we all know but if you go up to the mountains of koh samui you're in for a treat normally you'd stick to the beautiful bays the beachside restaurants the villas and have all the beautiful kosamiri life okay but if you get on a motorbike or in a car but ideally on a motorbike go up to the mountains it is incredible they are durian farms mango farms lychee farms mangosteen farms amazing temples with giant statues of the buddha and pagodas with views of the entire island and neighboring islands of copenhagen and you can even see koh tao from up there and the air is fresh and the birds are flying and the butterflies are licking on all the fallen fruits it is just an amazing surprise on kosamiri the mountains number three this is a mountain called dragon crest mountain in the province of crabby about a 20-minute drive from ao nang again the description the link in this in the description it is a free national park you don't have to pay and it takes about two hours to get to the top and we'll just have a look at the views when you get up there it is once in a lifetime incredibly sweaty incredibly beautiful and one of the best and most unknown mountain treks in the south of thailand and everybody goes to uh what is it called tiger temple don't go to tiger temple it's just a staircase a miserable steep staircase and you'll just be dead at the top this trek takes a lot slower it's hard at the beginning don't get me wrong but then it flattens out for about an hour it's not too bad and the views oh my god the views the second best hidden gem that i found on my trip was a haunted temple or the hell temple in the town of pangna in the province of pangna in the south basically they depict hell and they have all these horrible scary statues of monsters torturing people who haven't lived a good life and it's there to basically teach children to fear uh what happens if you're naughty and they have a monk uh is literally meditating there and there's a big dragon's mouth and there's bats and if you go in and if you're brave enough you'll get into a cave and i went into the cave and i made it quite far before i got freaked out and screamed and turned around but it is a really fun hour and a half and it is completely wild and weird and just amazingly tie and just yeah if you're in the area and you in your brave and you have a head torch if you have a head torch i think you might make it to the end because at the end you can actually get spout out and there's a viewpoint but i chickened out way before but the haunted temple in pangna go check it out and the final hidden gem and uh the people who told me about this place are gonna hate me for telling you this um but i think if you've made it to the end of the video you deserve this one so one morning i met a guy at 7 11 actually and he told me about this place it's unknown it's not on the tourist map but it's in the province of crabby now you might have heard of the emerald pool which is basically a human man-made emerald pool basically um and it's a tourist trap don't go there go here it's in the middle of nowhere it's near a cave system it's in the countryside you'll only find it if you use the google map link below and take swimming take your swimming costume because when you get there it's basically an entrance to a massive cave and uh it's i think 240 meters deep uh but it's filled with water and it's crystal clear beautiful turquoise waters and me and my friends had the most amazing time there in fact we went back again in the afternoon because we just loved it so much the secret hidden cave pool thing in the province of krabi near ao nang just an amazing place and literally paradise on earth loved it for each category this is just like a top five the top five hotels the top five restaurants the top five locations however i visited dozens and dozens and dozens of places hotels restaurants and places like that in the south of thailand so if you want a full travel guide a bible for southern thailand then check out the ebook below download it onto your phone or your ipad and then when you come to southern thailand when you're in a province or heading to a new province you can whip it out and refresh your mind and save even more places on your phone so that when you get to let's say krabi you know all of the best restaurants all of the best hotels all of the best experiences and uh read some like untold stories about me and my time in those provinces as well so yeah check out the ebook below because it kind of goes with this video this video is like a top five of each section but the ebook itself is like a a bible of southern thailand information and it's really up-to-date um everything and everywhere that i went was between the month of march and july in 2021 so very up to date okay thank you for watching my best of southern thailand again look in the description there are all of the google map links to every location every hotel every restaurant that i mentioned in this video there's also a link to the um ebook of southern thailand if you want hundreds and hundreds more recommendations uh every single hotel i stayed in with descriptions every single restaurant i ate in with descriptions all of the experiences all of the hidden gems these are just top five there are literally dozens in every single province that i uh talk about in this ebook so um if you're interested go check it out and thanks for watching and uh we'll be back soon with the highlights of the next part of thailand very shortly on next level adventures