Festival take place on a small Koh Chang island in Ranong province (not the famous big Koh Chang near the Cambodia border, which you will find first on Google)
Visa
Detailed information about Thailand’s Visa on the website of Thailand’s embassy.
For your citizenship, please ask the Consulate about the conditions of getting a visa.
Insurance
We recommend that you take out travel insurance for the period of your stay in Thailand. It is not expensive but may save lots of time, money, and nerves. As an example, EKTA Insurance.
Airline tickets
To look for a cheap flight, you may consult with us, or check the flight aggregators such as skyscanner.com
How to get to the island
There are several ways to get to Koh Chang from Bangkok.
By plain
There are two companies that have flights from Bangkok to Ranong: Nokair – not every day, AirAsia – daily. They fly from Don Mueang Airport, so if you plan connection flights in Bangkok, leave at least 4 hours between the flights (international flights are at Suvarnabhumi Airport).
The Airport in Ranong is 23 km from the city. So you can go straight to the pier by taxi, bus, or songteo (songteo is an open pickup, you stop it directly on the road, go to the city, and change to the other one that goes to the pier, 15 minutes from the city center). If you arrive in the evening, you can stay in the city for the night and go to the island in the morning.
Another option is to fly to Phuket and then move to Ranong by bus.
By bus
There are several buses a day from the Southern Bus Station in Bangkok (Sai Tai Mai), most of them depart at 8-10 in the evening. First Class is ~500 baht, VIP ~700 baht. We don’t recommend to take 2nd Class, it is only a little cheaper and a lot less comfortable, and takes a longer time to get there. From Ranong to Bangkok, there are also several buses a day (both day and night). The ride is 9-10 hours.
If you move to Ranong from Phuket, it will take 5-6 hours. Everything changes in Asia, so it is best to check the schedule in advance.
If you prefer to book everything in advance, you may use 12go.asia ⬇️
Near the bus station, there is a guesthouse, Kiwi Orchid – a very simple and cheap, but convenient place for one night.
There are plenty of other hotels in Ranong for different budgets on agoda.com and trip.com⬇️
By train
The closest station to Ranong is Chumpon. There is a daily train #85 from Bangkok to Chumpon at 19:30. There is a bus from Chumpon to Ranong, a 2-hour ride. This is a more complicated route to Ranong.
➡️Find train tickets in 12go.asia
From Ranong to Koh Chang
It takes 10-15 minutes to get to the pier to Koh Chang from the bus terminal. You may take a taxi or stop a blue songteo №6. It will drop you off at the pier turnoff (100-200m from the pier)
There are long-tail boats twice a day (The ticket is 200 baht and the trip takes 1,5 hour) at 9:30 and 14:00 to Koh Chang pier (you have to take a car or mototaxi from this pier – 100 baht per person).
Long tails don’t stop near every guesthouse as it was in previous years.
There are also speedboats to the island (350 baht and 30 minutes).
Schedule of speedboats: 9:00 am, 11:30 am, 1:30 pm
The slow boat from Koh Chang to Ranong starts at 8:30 am and 1 pm.
Speed boat from Koh Chang to Ranong starts at 9:30 am, 1:30 pm, and 3:30 pm.
See you in Koh Chang!