Updated: May 2026
Spanish · 5 years on Samui
Spanish cycling enthusiast and eco-travel advocate on Koh Samui for 5 years. Carlos covers all bicycle and e-scooter content with a focus on sustainable exploration.
I started the challenge on a Tuesday in March when the northeast trade winds were still keeping the east coast sea flat and the humidity was below 70%. The rules were simple: every named beach on Google Maps had to be visited, I had to touch the sand, and I could not use motorised transport between beaches. Accommodation transfers at the end of each day by tuk-tuk were permitted. I chose the Trek Marlin 5 for the challenge - 29-inch wheels for road speed, 21-speed Shimano for the hills, and disc brakes for the descents.
Chaweng, Chaweng Noi, Coral Cove, Lamai - the east coast beaches came quickly. The beach access tracks between Lamai and the southeast cape are where the challenge started revealing itself. Several of them are signed from the ring road but require 400-600 metre descents on sand and gravel that a 29-inch wheel handles better than I expected. By the time I reached Thong Krut I had visited 19 beaches and cycled 68 km. I had also punctured the rear tyre on a piece of rebar hidden in loose gravel near Ban Hua Thanon.
The west coast has beaches nobody visits - partly because the water is less clear than the east, partly because they sit below the ring road with only narrow concrete paths leading down. I found four beaches on day two that were on no tourist itinerary I had ever seen: small bays between rocky headlands where local fishing boats were pulled up and the only other person was a man mending a net. Between Thong Krut and Nathon I cycled 54 km and visited 14 beaches. The Scott Aspect 950 would have been faster on the road sections but the Marlin's suspension earned its keep on the approach tracks.
I reached Nathon at 16:45 on day two with 82 km in my legs and the north coast still ahead for day three. At the ferry pier I sat on the wall and reviewed my phone photos - 33 beaches reached, 8 still to go. My thighs were functional but specifically unhappy with the Nathon heights climb. I ate at a small restaurant near the pier where the owner asked what I was doing with the bicycle and two loaded panniers. When I explained the challenge, she gave me a complimentary plate of som tam and told me the north coast road past Bang Rak had fresh tarmac. It did.
Eight beaches between Nathon and Chaweng via the north coast, 58 km, and the second puncture of the challenge - front this time, on a speed hump in Choeng Mon where the tyre pinch-flatted because I was carrying speed I should have scrubbed. For the north coast hills specifically I would recommend the Cannondale Trail SL 4 over the Trek Marlin: at 12.5 kg versus the Marlin's 14.5 kg, the weight saving is meaningful on the repeated short climbs between Bang Rak and Choeng Mon.
I finished at Chaweng Beach at 16:45 on Thursday, riding the repaired Trek Marlin back to the rental shop with forty-one beach visits recorded on my phone. Total distance over three days: 183 km. Total climbing: approximately 1,400 metres. Total patches used: two. Total sodium consumed in electrolyte tablets: enough to make my jersey look like a salt flat by day three. Total cost for the bicycle rental: 1,800 baht for three days. Total experience: the kind you do not repeat immediately but think about for a long time.
Yes, but differently. I would start later in the season - February rather than March - when the northwest winds on the west coast are less consistent headwinds. I would book the Giant Talon 3 as a backup on day two when the sand tracks are more demanding than the ring road, then switch back to the Trek Marlin for day three's tarmac miles. And I would build in one proper rest stop per day at a shaded beach, not just a touch-the-sand-and-leave visit. The challenge is worth doing. The challenge done well takes a little more planning than I gave it.
My first week on Koh Samui I hired a car. By day seven I returned it and rented a scooter for the rest of the month. Here is the moment that changed my mind.
I ignored the low battery warning at Nathon. Forty minutes later I was pushing a 90 kg electric scooter up a hill in 35-degree heat. Here is what I should have done.
The best views on Samui are not on any tourist map - they are at the end of dirt tracks that only a motorbike can access. I found five of them last season.
