Khao Sok National Park and Riverside Cottages Review

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Khao Sok National Park is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Reflecting on our trip and the many incredible things we saw, our Khao Sok National Park 3-day tour, complete with an overnight stay at the Khao Sok Riverside Cottages and floating water bungalows, definitely features prominently in our highlights reel.

We spent some time in Khao Sok National Park in January, with Riverside Cottages, one of the best Khao Sok overnight tours. In this blog post, I will review our trip and provide some insider tips to help you make the best of your Khao Sok Riverside Cottages experience.

Is Khao Sok National Park Worth It?

Planning our trip to Thailand, we knew that a visit to Khao Sok National Park was a must! Friends of ours had recently visited Khao Sok and had emphatically recommended it. So, we knew it was one thing on our Thailand itinerary that was non-negotiable.

But was Khao Sok worth visiting? Yes! If you love nature, jaw-dropping scenery that makes you feel like you’re in Avatar, and disconnecting from modern life, this place will not disappoint. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been, and I would definitely go back next time I return to Thailand.

How Long Should I Spend in Khao Sok National Park?

Our trip with Khao Sok Riverside Cottages was 2 nights in total. This is the standard trip that most tour companies offer, with one night in the Riverside Cottages complex and another in the floating bungalows on Cheow Lan Lake.

However, Riverside Cottages also offers a 3-night trip too, which I would be keen to do next time. This would include 2 nights at Riverside Cottages and 1 night on the Cheow Lan Lake.

In reality, 2-3 days is a good amount of time to explore Khao Sok National Park, but there’s definitely enough to keep you busy in the area if you were to spend longer exploring.

Book the Riverside Cottages package.

Day 1 – Arriving at Khao Sok Riverside Cottages

Khao Sok National Park can be easily reached from most areas in South Thailand. We started our trip in Ao Nang, near Krabi, and hired a moped/scooter to drive the 2 hours north to Khao Sok.

The journey on the scooter was quite uncomfortable, but it was a cheap way to travel, so we sucked it up and stopped frequently to stretch our legs! If you’d prefer to hire a car, I recommend comparing prices with Discover Cars. I use Discover Cars every time I need a rental car.

Checking into Khao Sok Riverside Cottages, we were immediately struck by how beautiful the complex was. From the car park, a raised boardwalk leads you through dense, overhanging rainforest to a beautiful river, where you’ll find the main restaurant and reception area.

We checked into our room – a huge wooden cabin with two double beds and a gorgeous balcony verandah overlooking the river below. After relaxing for a short time, we headed to the restaurant for some food before making our way to the reception to join our first activity of the tour – a canoe trip down the river.

The Riverside Cottages trip offers a choice of two activities, which you’re able to choose from on arrival. We had a choice of a river canoe trip or a 1-hour Thai massage. Having already had multiple Thai massages and being keen to glimpse some wildlife and enjoy the scenery, we opted for the canoe trip.

The canoe trip lasted approximately 1 hour and was my favourite activity of the trip. It was so peaceful drifting down the river just before sunset, with the golden light streaming through the overhanging trees.

We saw local families playing and washing in the river, monkeys on the nearby river banks and a huge black and yellow snake in a tree! Our canoe guides stopped halfway down the river, lit a fire on the riverbank and made us coffee using bamboo cups over the fire. A great experience!

Unfortunately, I later became quite sick with food poisoning from a restaurant we’d eaten at the day before, so I didn’t get to enjoy the Riverside Cottages as much as I’d like.

But falling asleep to the sounds of the rainforest around us was one of my favourite things about this trip. My husband ate at the Riverside Cottages restaurant, with dinner included in the booking, and afterwards, we settled in for the night.

Day 2 – Khao Sok National Park Floating Bungalows

We awoke early the next day to get ready for our tour of the Rajjaprabha Dam, Cheow Lan Lake and Khao Sok floating bungalows.

We set off around 9 am with our tour group on a minibus and drove to a nearby town to purchase supplies. All our meals would be provided at the floating water huts, so we only needed to purchase snacks – and some charcoal tablets for my tummy, which worked a treat!

If you ever get a bad tummy while travelling, I highly recommend activated charcoal capsules. Within an hour, I was feeling almost 100% better and was able to enjoy the rest of the tour.

We arrived at Rajjaprabha Dam between 10 and 10:30 am, paid our national park entrance fee and boarded a boat to the water bungalows.

It took around 1 hour to reach the water huts, travelling through jaw-dropping limestone cliffs and pinnacles, stopping once for our tour guide to explain some facts about the man-made lake and dam.

The scenery around the lake is breathtaking – some of the most epic landscapes I’ve ever seen, so the boat trip was enjoyable in itself.

Arriving at the water bungalows, we were shown to our floating hut and met in the eating area for lunch. Lunch was a combination of traditional Thai noodle dishes, curry (veggie options available) and rice, with pineapple and watermelon for dessert.

The food was simple, and while it didn’t look that appealing, it was tasty. We ate communally with the other guests on our tour, and it was nice to get to know everyone, with people from all around the world making up our group – Irish, Swiss, Dutch, French Canadian, Danish and Polish.

After lunch, we had 1 hour to enjoy the area. We could simply relax at the huts and take in the scenery, swim in the lake, or do some kayaking, all of which were included in the tour package. We decided to swim, relax and kick back for an hour before embarking on a jungle hike with our tour guide and group at 2:30 pm.

Taking the boat, we travelled for about 15 minutes across the lake and disembarked on a bank before making our way into the dense jungle. Unfortunately, if I’m being honest, I have to say the jungle trek was a little disappointing.

While our tour guide was a friendly guy, he wasn’t hugely professional, and if we were hoping to see any wildlife, we quickly realised our chances were slim, as our guide continually shouted at the top of his voice, making monkey noises and fooling around.

In addition, our tour group consisted of 13 people, whereas the website had promised between 8 and 10, meaning a huge group of people trampling through the jungle was sure to scare away any wildlife around us. Suffice to say, we saw nothing.

Heading back to the boat after an hour of walking through the rainforest, I stupidly managed to fall into a river and bash up my knee pretty badly! Fortunately, I was OK, and our tour guide was really kind and helpful, checking I was OK and helping me back to the boat.

We then spent the next hour cruising around the waterways, looking for any signs of animal life in the trees around us. After about 45 minutes, we spotted a few monkeys jumping from tree to tree and a beautiful toucan.

If you choose this tour, managing expectations is important. It’s rare to see elephants and tigers in Khao Sok National Park, and it also largely depends on the time of year you visit.

If nothing else, enjoy the scenery on the boat ride and just enjoy the walk through the rainforest – if you see any wildlife, it’s a bonus, but at the end of the day, it’s still a beautiful place to be.

After our excursion, we headed back to the huts for dinner and settled in for the evening. Again, the food was simple but tasty, and we spent the evening around the table chatting, laughing and drinking beer with our tour group before heading back to our water hut for peace, quiet and tranquillity.

Day 3 – Morning Safari and Checking Out

We both slept soundly in our floating bungalow – one of the best night sleeps I’ve ever had, in fact, which was great because the next morning we had to be ready for 6:30 am for an ‘early morning mist safari’.

We left on the boat at 6:30 am and spent around 1.5 hours cruising on the boat, enjoying the landscape and looking for the elusive wildlife. Again, we didn’t see much except for a chicken swimming in the lake, but the scenery was really pretty, and I enjoyed it.

We made our way back to the hut station for breakfast – yummy banana pancakes with fresh fruit. Tea and coffee are also available for free – anything surplus to this, like beer, you have to pay for. After breakfast, we reluctantly left our huts for the last time and made our way to a nearby cave.

The cave was in a really beautiful location, and we saw many bats, although the caves were very crowded with lots of other tour groups. The highlight here was the surrounding scenery – jaw-droppingly breathtaking, and the sunlight filtering through was just stunning.

From the cave, we made our way to our final stop – a beauty spot on the lake with lovely views of the iconic limestone pinnacles, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch of rice, chicken and watermelon for dessert, before heading back to the dam for the end of our tour.

Our tour ended at about 1:30 pm, and we were transported back to the Riverside Cottages complex to collect our scooter and head back to our base in Krabi.

Khao Sok Accommodation

The Riverside Cottages accommodation was lovely – fairly simple rooms but large and spacious with two double beds. Mosquito nets were provided, and the rooms were clean and comfortable.

The floating bungalows were extremely simple – no electricity, except for one small light inside the hut, which operates from 6-11 pm, no WiFi, no phone signal and only a thin mattress and a couple of blankets.

Also, there is absolutely no way you can keep bugs, lizards and other creatures out, so if you’re terrified of creepy crawlies, you might not get the best night’s sleep! But we loved it!

The shared bathrooms (private bathrooms are not available) were a short walk away, and I found them to be clean and well-managed. It was perfect, and we absolutely loved it. However, if you’re used to luxury accommodation, this probably won’t be your thing.

Summary

In short, Khao Sok National Park is an amazing place that truly delivers when it comes to beautiful scenery and untouched landscapes. While the whole tour was a great experience, the highlight was definitely the floating water bungalows.

Being able to completely switch off, with no digital distractions, to take in the outstanding natural environment around us was an experience I’ll never forget. Although we felt that, with all the organised activities and excursions, we didn’t really have enough time to truly enjoy it.

Along with our two days in Railay Beach and three days in Bangkok, this was one of the highlights of our Thailand trip.

We’ll definitely return to the floating bungalows in Khao Sok National Park and the Riverside Cottages complex, but I’d love to stay for longer so we have more time to truly immerse ourselves in the experience.

For first-timers to Khao Sok National Park, booking a guided tour is one of the best things to do near Krabi and a great way to experience this incredible place.

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If you’re thinking of booking a Khao Sok National Park tour with Riverside Cottages, I hope you found this review helpful. Please let me know in the comments below.

This post is not sponsored by Khao Sok National Park or Khao Sok Riverside Cottages. We paid for our trip in full and this is an honest, unbiased review of our experience.