Khao Lak Photoshoot Guide: empty west-facing beaches, the Similan season and Khao Sok

Nang Thong, Bang Niang and the last hour of light

The main beaches run up the coast from Nang Thong through Bang Niang to Pakarang Cape, with casuarina trees behind the sand and, on most evenings, more trees than people. They face west across the Andaman Sea, and that decides the session: midday light is flat and hard, and the hour before sunset is the natural slot, the sun dropping into the sea with nothing between it and the camera. The sun sets between roughly six and seven all year, so a photographer starts about an hour before it.

The casuarinas give shade and a softer background than open sand, and on a quiet stretch a photographer can walk a couple a hundred metres to clear the frame entirely — a luxury on most beaches this close to Phuket. In the dry months the sea is usually calm and shallow at the edge, so a couple can wade in at the end. In the monsoon, a red flag on the beach means no swimming, literally, and the waterline belongs to the waves.

Pakarang Cape at low tide

At the northern end of the main stretch, Pakarang Cape takes its name from the Thai word for coral, and at low tide it shows why: a wide platform of coral fragments and rock pools runs out from the point, with fishing boats offshore and the sunset straight ahead. It is the most graphic frame on the coast — lines of coral, still water, the sky reflected in the pools — and it depends entirely on the tide, so check the table before choosing the evening.

The coral rubble is sharp, so shoes stay on until the last frames, and nothing is taken home: the coral belongs where it is. With the tide in, the cape is simply another sunset beach; plan another evening for it if the timing is wrong.

Khao Lak–Lam Ru: coves and forest at the southern end

At the southern end of the beaches, the forested headland is Khao Lak–Lam Ru National Park: rocky coves, jungle trails, trees leaning over the water. It is a different session from the long beaches — closer, greener, more sheltered — and a good one for the hours when the open sand is too bright. Inland, the same park holds Ton Chong Fa, a waterfall in tiers at the end of a forest trail, at its fullest in the rains.

As in every national park, foreign visitors pay their own entrance fee, and photography done as paid work inside a park can need the park's permission and a fee of its own; the photographer clears that in advance. The coves are small, so a photographer plans around other visitors rather than through them.

The Similan Islands, in season only

Offshore, the Similan Islands are what many people come to Khao Lak for: granite boulders piled on white sand, and some of the clearest water in Thailand. They are a national park and a day trip by speedboat — but only in season: the park is open from mid-October to mid-May and closed for the rest of the year. The boats leave early from Thap Lamu pier, about half an hour south of the main beaches, and the crossing takes about an hour to an hour and a half each way, longer in a swell.

A shoot on the islands is possible, with conditions. The park charges foreign visitors its entrance fee, and paid photography inside it can need the park's permission and a fee of its own: the photographer clears it in advance, and the answer decides whether the islands are part of the session at all. Time on each island follows the boat's schedule, and the beaches are shared with every other boat that morning, so the frames are taken quickly and kept simple.

One rule is worth more than any other: never put the beach session on the evening after a Similan trip. Sunburn and salt in your hair show in every frame. Do the islands one day and the sunset another.

Khao Sok: limestone on the lake

Inland, Khao Sok National Park is the other landscape of a Khao Lak stay: limestone karsts rising straight out of Cheow Lan Lake, rainforest on every slope, longtail boats crossing green water. The lake is about two hours from the coast by road, and the mist sits on the water in the early morning and burns off as the sun climbs — so the best frames go to those who stay the night near the lake rather than arriving mid-morning on a day trip.

It is a national park too: an entrance fee for foreign visitors, and a professional shoot can need the park's permission, cleared in advance by the photographer. In the rains the forest is at its greenest, and a downpour on open water ends a session, so the boat frames wait for the dry spells. For a couples session in Khao Lak, this is the day that makes the album look like two trips.

Takua Pa's old town

About half an hour north, the old town of Takua Pa is a few quiet streets of two-storey Sino-Portuguese shophouses from the tin-mining era, grey and unhurried, a smaller and calmer cousin of Phuket's Old Town. People live and work here: doorways and shop fronts stay clear, and anyone in the frame is asked first. It is the plan B for a grey monsoon afternoon, when the beach is out of the question.

A family session in Khao Lak

Khao Lak is easy with children in a way that busier beaches are not: wide sand with room to run, calm and shallow water in the dry months from about November to April, shade under the casuarinas and short distances between everything. A family session in Khao Lak usually starts about an hour before sunset and runs into it — early enough for small children to finish before bedtime, late enough for the soft light. Bring a change of clothes for whoever ends up in the sea.

The drive from Phuket airport takes about an hour and a half, so the first evening after a flight is rarely the right one; give everyone a night first. And keep the Similan day and the session day apart, for the children above all.

Two seasons on the Andaman coast

From about November to April Khao Lak is dry, calm and clear — the season the coast is made for, and busiest around Christmas and New Year, when it pays to book early. The heat builds from March to its April peak; the beach is still the place, but only at the ends of the day. From about May to October the southwest monsoon brings rain, rougher seas and big surf, usually wettest around September: red flags on the beaches, no swimming, boat trips cancelled at short notice, the Similan Islands closed. It is also the coast at its greenest, with the waterfalls full and the beaches emptier still. Plan a monsoon session as two possible evenings rather than one, and leave a spare day before an onward flight.

Drones are hard for a visitor in Thailand: registration with both NBTC and CAAT, insurance, and approval before each flight, with the national parks adding their own rules on top. Ask whether the photographer flies a registered drone rather than bringing your own.

Planning a Khao Lak photoshoot

Plan the beach for the last hour and a half of the day, and the Similan Islands or Khao Sok for days of their own. A family or couple session on the sand fits easily into an hour; a proposal in Khao Lak on an empty stretch at sunset needs only a little more planning, and is easier here than on any busier beach. From Phuket, Khao Lak is an easy move north; see what a family photoshoot usually covers.

Bring light clothes in soft colours that hold up against sand and sea, a second outfit if you want one, and sandals you can kick off. Book the dry months early.

A photographer who works here knows which beach is emptiest this week, what the tide is doing at Pakarang and whether the boats will run. Read the destination page for Khao Lak, check how it works, and browse photographers online.