Updated: May 2026
French · 7 years on Samui
French motorcycle tour guide living on Koh Samui for 7 years. Marc leads group rides across southern Thailand and knows every road on the island.
Seven years on Koh Samui and I still take guests on the ring road before anything else. Not because it is the most dramatic road on the island - it is not - but because it gives you the complete picture in one loop. East coast resorts, south coast fishing bays, west coast jungle hills, north coast flat stretches with Gulf views. Sixty kilometres that functions as a geography lesson, a traffic assessment, and a fitness test for whatever bike you chose to rent. I recommend the Yamaha NMAX 155 for this particular loop without hesitation.
Leaving Chaweng at 06:30 on the NMAX 155, I caught the ring road before the delivery trucks and tourist vans took over. The morning light hits the east coast differently at that hour - golden, low, cutting through the palm gaps onto the tarmac. I have timed this loop at every hour of the day and 06:30 is the one I keep coming back to. Cooler air, emptier road, better fuel economy from the engine running below its heat soak threshold.
South of Lamai the traffic thins completely. By the time I pass the Grandfather Rock viewpoint parking lot the road belongs to me and the odd fishing truck. Route 4169 hugs the coast from Ban Hua Thanon to Thong Krut and offers the longest uninterrupted sea view on the island. I keep my speed at 70 km/h through here - not because the road demands it but because going faster means missing the bay opening up on the left past the headland.
The PTT station on the main road through Nathon is the only full-service stop on the west coast before you commit to the north. I always fill up here even when the gauge reads half - the north coast has bottle shops but nothing reliable between Nathon and Mae Nam on the west side. The NMAX's 5.6-litre tank is efficient enough that this is a comfort stop more than a necessity, but on the Honda PCX 150 with its larger 8.5-litre tank I have made the full loop without stopping at all.
Coming down from the Nathon heights into Mae Nam on a clear morning, the Gulf of Thailand opens up wide and flat ahead. This is the section I use to judge whether a bike is handling well: a long right-hander that tightens mid-corner, followed by a short straight where you can check how planted the front feels under light braking. On the NMAX 155 with dual-channel ABS it is effortless. On the XMAX 300 it feels like the bike is actively hunting the apex.
Between Bo Phut and Choeng Mon the road narrows and the resort walls give way to local shophouses and spirit houses. Traffic moves at a respectful pace here by mutual consensus rather than any enforcement. I slow to match it. This is the section where I notice that the scooter rental is working - where the island feels accessible rather than observed. A brief stop at the Bang Rak pier to watch the Ko Pha-ngan ferry load adds ten minutes I have never once regretted.
The final run into Chaweng from the northeast follows the resort strip back to the starting point. By the time I arrive, the road is fully awake - songthaews, motorbike taxis, tourist vans, and scooters of every model competing for the same lanes. After four hours of open roads, re-entering Chaweng traffic is a useful reminder that riding on Samui requires two different skill sets: the patient town rider and the open-road traveller. The loop trains both. That is why I keep recommending it.
Forget the ring road. The backroad between Mae Nam and Bo Phut runs through coconut farms and fishing villages with almost no traffic. I ride it every week.
The climb to the Big Buddha viewpoint is Samui's most rewarding road - if you take the right approach. Here is how I tackled it safely on a 125cc scooter.
I cycled the full Koh Samui ring road in three days. This guide covers every hill, fuel station, rest stop, and shortcut I found along the way.
