Staysion

Travel Journal

Stories from real places

Destination guides, honest hotel picks, and travel writing that actually helps you plan.

Showing 1–12 of 260 articles

Things to Do on Koh Mak: Cycling, Snorkelling and Koh Kham

23 June 2026

thailand

Things to Do on Koh Mak: Cycling, Snorkelling and Koh Kham

Koh Mak is built for slowness, and most of its best hours are spent on a bicycle, in the water, or doing very little. But it has a genuine signature — it is flat enough to cycle end to end — plus the archipelago's best snorkelling on its doorstep and a tiny island day trip just offshore. Here is what is actually worth doing.

Henrik Vinter

The Best Beaches on Koh Mak (and Which to Skip)

21 June 2026

thailand

The Best Beaches on Koh Mak (and Which to Skip)

Koh Mak has two beaches worth planning your trip around and several smaller ones worth a cycle, but it is honest to say not all of them are swimming beaches — some go shallow and weedy at low tide, and one is really a working pier. Here is what each Koh Mak beach is actually like, so you base yourself on the right sand.

Henrik Vinter

Things to Do on Koh Kood Beyond the Beach

19 June 2026

thailand

Things to Do on Koh Kood Beyond the Beach

Koh Kood rewards people who do almost nothing, but the island has a real spine of jungle, waterfalls, and fishing villages if you want more than sand. None of it is a theme-park attraction — it is a waterfall you kayak to, a 500-year-old tree, a reef you reach by boat. Here is what is actually worth the scooter ride.

Henrik Vinter

Where to Stay on Koh Mak: Ao Kao vs Ao Suan Yai and Beyond

17 June 2026

thailand

Where to Stay on Koh Mak: Ao Kao vs Ao Suan Yai and Beyond

Koh Mak's accommodation gathers on two beaches — Ao Kao on the south-west and Ao Suan Yai on the north-west — with a scattering of remote places on the quieter coasts. The island is flat and small enough to cycle across, so the choice is less about logistics than about which beach you want to wake up on. Here is the honest difference between them.

Henrik Vinter

The Best Beaches on Koh Kood, Ranked by What You Want

16 June 2026

thailand

The Best Beaches on Koh Kood, Ranked by What You Want

Koh Kood has the clearest water of the three main islands in the Trat archipelago, but its beaches are not interchangeable: some are all-rounders with food and resorts, others are empty stretches you reach by scooter, and a couple are working fishing villages where you would not actually swim. Here is which beach matches which kind of day.

Henrik Vinter

Where to Stay on Koh Kood: An Honest Area-by-Area Guide

13 June 2026

thailand

Where to Stay on Koh Kood: An Honest Area-by-Area Guide

Koh Kood is bigger than it looks on a map and its beaches are spread along a single coast road, so where you base yourself decides how your days feel — walkable and social, or properly remote. Most first-timers should stay around Klong Chao. Here is what each area is actually like, who it suits, and where you will need a scooter to do anything.

Henrik Vinter

Best Time to Visit Koh Mak: Month-by-Month Weather and Crowds

12 June 2026

thailand

Best Time to Visit Koh Mak: Month-by-Month Weather and Crowds

Koh Mak runs on the same calendar as the rest of the Trat archipelago: a dry season from November to April when the island is open and easy, and a wet season from May to October when boats thin out and many resorts close. Being flat and low, it has no high ground to dodge the weather — so timing matters. Here is the year, month by month.

Henrik Vinter

Best Time to Visit Koh Kood: Month-by-Month Weather and Crowds

11 June 2026

thailand

Best Time to Visit Koh Kood: Month-by-Month Weather and Crowds

Koh Kood is a dry-season island in a way Koh Samui never is: a large share of its resorts simply close for the wet months, and the ferries thin out with them. That makes timing less about chasing the perfect forecast and more about travelling inside the window when the island is actually open. Here is how the year breaks down, month by month.

Henrik Vinter

How to Get to Koh Mak: Routes from Bangkok, Koh Chang and Koh Kood

10 June 2026

thailand

How to Get to Koh Mak: Routes from Bangkok, Koh Chang and Koh Kood

Koh Mak sits in the middle of the Trat archipelago, halfway between Koh Chang and Koh Kood, which makes it the easiest of the three to fold into an island-hopping trip and the one most people reach by combining it with a neighbour. There is no airport and no bridge — every route runs through a ferry. Here is each one, with times and the seasonal catches.

Henrik Vinter

How to Get to Koh Kood: Every Route from Bangkok

9 June 2026

thailand

How to Get to Koh Kood: Every Route from Bangkok

Koh Kood sits in the far south-east corner of Thailand, closer to Cambodia than to Bangkok, and there is no airport on the island. Reaching it means getting to Trat province first, then a ferry from Laem Sok pier. The chain is longer than for Phuket or Samui, but it runs on one bookable ticket — here is every route, what it costs, and where people lose half a day.

Henrik Vinter

Essaouira Travel Guide: The Atlantic Coast Alternative to Marrakech

4 June 2026

morocco

Essaouira Travel Guide: The Atlantic Coast Alternative to Marrakech

Essaouira is a walled Atlantic port 175km southwest of Marrakech, enclosed by 18th-century fortifications designed by a French military architect (Théodore Cornut, under the Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah). The medina is UNESCO World Heritage. The consistent trade…

Henrik Vinter

Zakynthos Travel Guide: Navagio Beach, Sea Turtles, and the Blue Caves

4 June 2026

greece

Zakynthos Travel Guide: Navagio Beach, Sea Turtles, and the Blue Caves

Zakynthos — marketed internationally as Zante — is an Ionian island on Greece's west coast. The island's most circulated image is Navagio Beach (Shipwreck Beach): a rusted 1980s cargo ship run aground in a white-sand cove enclosed by vertical limestone cliffs, with water the…

Henrik Vinter