Koh Jum Travel Guide – Visit Koh Jum – Budget Travel In Thailand

Koh Jum in Thailand is a small island located south of Krabi, in the Andaman Sea. It is the perfect place to spend a couple of very relaxing nights before venturing onto much busier islands.

When we were first planning our South East Asian adventure, I had little knowledge of the geography of Thailand. Using Google Maps, I was looking at the locations of the main cities and seeing which places around them would be also worth a visit. The first place I came cross was Koh Jum island. It looked a world away from the one I was about to leave behind. It seemed incredible that I might end up on this tiny island and enjoying drinks in one of its driftwood beach bars. Five months in to our adventure, and here we were.

Strange but true, only the south of the island is known as Koh Jum. The northern part is called Koh Phu. Apparently the locals are very particular about this so its best to know where you are actually staying! Most guesthouses are situated in Koh Jum.

WHERE TO STAY IN KOH JUM | FOOD AND DRINK IN KOH JUM | THINGS TO DO IN KOH JUM

How To Get To Koh Jum From Krabi

From Krabi, you can take a ferry from Klong Jirad Pier, where most of the boats to the islands depart, for 400 baht. However, there is also a local ferry that departs every hour from Leam Kruad pier (map) for 100 baht. The journey is more complicated but saves you money and, what’s the rush?

How To Get From Krabi To Leam Kruad Pier

To get there, you need to take a blue and yellow songthaew from the corner of Maharat Soi 10 and Utarakit (map) which will take you directly to the pier for 100 baht. You can also take a red songthaew to Nuea Khlong for 50 baht. If you explain you want to go to the pier, the driver will drop you at a convenience store where you can wait for the songthauw to take you to the pier for another 50 baht.

Taking The Ferry To Koh Jum

We waited at the pier for about 45 minutes as we’d just missed a ferry. A guy then told us to follow him onto the boat. We set off, sitting among cases of Chang beer, before we realised we had not got on the public ferry but just some random bloke’s boat!

Still, he got us there and we were met at the other side by the manager of our accommodation. We were informed by our host that the boat had dropped us off at a different pier to the one we had arranged to meet. How our host knew where to find us remains a mystery. Are people watching our every move??

If you want to travel from Leam Kruad to Koh Jum by ferry, here is the timetable. I wouldn’t really pay too much attention to this as boats seemed to arrive and depart at random times.

Where To Stay In Koh Jum

These are some of the best budget hostels in Koh Jum, according to user reviews. These are affiliate links to the Agoda web site. I found Agoda to be much better than booking.com in Southeast Asia. I receive a small amount for any bookings made through these links at no extra cost to you.

• Rock View Terrace
• Jungle Hill Beach Bungalow
• Friendly Koh Jum
• Sun Set Beach Bungalow Kohpu
• Kohjum Relax Beach
• Koh Jum Resort
• Nadia Resort Kohjum
• Oon Lee Bungalows

Garden Home Bungalows

Looking at reviews of accommodation within our budget, we decided to go with ‘Garden Home Bungalows’ (map) mainly because of its location and the good reviews. As already mentioned, our host picked us up at the pier and was very friendly and helpful throughout our stay. His father, who was also very friendly and smiley, even offered us breakfast in the family home. The bungalows were well-maintained and we had a comfortable stay here. WiFi was good and we enjoyed chilling in the hammock on the balcony. It even had a fridge (which we would soon discover is a real luxury in island accommodation). Bicycles are available to rent at a good price. Our host organised our boat transfer to the next island and took us to the pier (this time HE chose the wrong pier) and sat and chatted with us for almost an hour until our boat arrived. Overall, it was a wonderful stay.

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Click here to stay at ‘Garden Home’.

Food And Drink In Koh Jum

For such a small island, there are plenty of good restaurants in Koh Jum. There are also a number of wonderful beach bars in Koh Jum where you can watch amazing sunsets.

Ban Ban

Ban Ban is a popular restaurant that serves typical thai food and pizza. Whilst on Koh Jum island, we had one of our occasional pizza cravings and Ban Ban was near our accommodation. The pizzas were made to order and were actually very good, as was the italian soda to wash it down. Map.

Grand Restaurant

Located on the road to Magic Beach is this restaurant where you can also buy beer to take away (the only place on the island, apparently). We stopped for lunch. I had chicken in ‘Chinese brown sauce’. It wasn’t the best meal. The sauce was very ‘gloopy’. Maybe it was meant to be like that, but it wasn’t to my liking. Map.

Halal Food

Cheap, good food at this Halal Thai restaurant. The green curry was perfectly spiced. The menu is typical Thai. Highly rated. Map.

Luboa Cafe

Selling delicious coffee from Chiang Mai, this coffee shop is located in the south of the island, close to Koh Jum pier. They sell coffee beans, which we were tempted to buy, but only in 500g bags which put us off (more weight to carry). The owners were very friendly and both came and chatted with us. Probably the best coffee shop in Koh Jum. Map.

Muslim Restaurant (name unknown)

Opposite the ‘Little Supermarket’ (map) before the left turn towards Magic Beach is this basic restaurant offering tasty Halal food. The chicken red curry was nice and spicy and well priced.

O & K Bar

Great bar with well-priced drinks. The owner insisted we sat at the bar so we could chat. He was a friendly, funny guy. He built the bar and it took only 1 week. When it closes, he leaves it as it is: completely open with all the booze still at the bar. That says a lot about the island, and Thailand in general. Map.

Ritkee Kitchen

We came here for sweet rotis after having lunch in the restaurant next door. The rotis with mango and covered in sweet, condensed milk were sooo goooood!  We then returned for an evening meal and the meal was disappointing. My massaman curry tasted unlike any other massaman I have had and the beef was very tough. The toilets in this place were the worst I had the misfortune of visiting on the island. Map.

Rock Bar

This was the place that I had seen on Google Maps when I first started researching into our trip and I immediately wanted to go there. It is a small bar, made of driftwood, located on a small beach on the west side of the island. It has been providing the best views of the sunset in Koh Jum for over 16 years. Cocktails are 100 baht at happy hour (between 5 and 7) but we were unsure just how much alcohol was in them so we went back to drinking beer.

Same Same Loma Bar

On the west side of the island, further north than the ‘Rock Bar’ is this beach bar, again made from driftwood and a perfect place to watch the sunset in Koh Jum. The bar has a small food menu (written on leaves) and it’s a great location to have a few drinks and watch the sun disappear. Map.

Wood Don Bar & Shop

We came here for their birthday party. The poster advertised two live acts and a free bbq. We didn’t see any sign of a bbq and we only saw one performer; a guitarist that did some atmospheric, acoustic loop music and other more familiar songs. He was very good. The bar is a really relaxing place and certainly worth spending an evening at. Check for live music and other events. Map.

Things To Do In Koh Jum

As with a lot of the islands in the Andaman sea, there isn’t a great deal to do other than relax and enjoy the surrounding beauty. Diving and snorkelling is popular on many of the islands but it didn’t appear to be the case here.

Cycling In Koh Jum

As Koh Jum island is small and mostly flat, it is easy to explore it all by bicycle. Our accommodation rented us bikes for 24 hours, meaning we could use them to explore the island by day, and give us more options for food and drink at night.

We first took the bikes to the south to have coffee and look for places to book ferries to our next destination.

Once we had finished our coffee, we cycled back towards our bungalow, checking out the side roads along the way.

We had to keep stopping to take in the stunning scenery around the island.

We decided to take the bikes to ‘Sunset Beach’ (map) where we planned to relax for some of the afternoon. Google Maps showed we could cycle straight past Magic Beach and up the east coast to Sunset Beach. This is NOT the case. Shortly after Magic Beach, the road became much more difficult to cycle on and then it disappeared altogether.

Thankfully, after all that effort, the reward was worth it.

Rather than make ourselves comfortable on the beach, we went for a drink at the ‘Easy Bar’ (map) where we soon realised that this was the place to chill!

Though Joanna did take a swim in the sea, I was more than happy lazing in the hammock, listening to the owner play drums and water-pipe.

I was so chilled out, I even went and recorded a song on the beach!

The owner was quite shocked when we told him we brought the bicycles through the hilly jungle and informed us that we could have taken the main road that goes to the east before heading towards Coconut Beach. Though Google doesn’t show it, the road does continue and you can get to Sunset Beach much easier than the journey we took. It was a much easier cycle back to our guesthouse!

Magic Beach

Located on the west side of the island is this quiet beach. We visited once and, apart from one girl taking photos and 2 stray dogs, we were the only people there. There is a small driftwood bar on the beach where you can enjoy beers and fruit shakes. Map.

Sunset Beach

More Koh Jum resorts here but that doesn’t stop you from enjoying the beach. A couple of driftwood ‘happy’ bars here also. Map.

Is Koh Jum Worth Visiting?

Whilst doing research before our travels, Koh Jum island became one of my must-visits. It looked like paradise and without the excessive tourism of other islands, such as Phi Phi. Five months in to our travels, however, it didn’t have quite the same appeal. By this point, we had already visited islands that seemed similar to what Koh Jum could offer. Joanna decided that we should still go as I would regret not going. That was a very good decision!

Koh Jum is a beautiful island. The beaches are stunning and not crowded at all. Food is good and cheap and the beach bars are perfect for sipping cocktails and watching the sun go down after another busy day of relaxing. It is a real under-rated gem and is easy to reach from Krabi town. Be sure to add it to your island-hopping itinerary.