This beautiful beach is part of the Railay Peninsula, 15 minutes from Ao Nang by longtail boat. It is especially beautiful after sunset, when the silhouetted surrounding rock-faces give the place a totally unique and almost supernatural look. Idling on the beach whilst watching the antics of the rock climbers scaling the surrounding cliffs is about as relaxing an experience as can be found anywhere.

The Railay Bay Resort is blessed with an unbeatable location at the beach’s southern end and is a great place to stay, if you can put up with the slow restaurant service. The nearby Railay Village is also a great choice, and has a better restaurant.

West Railay beach is a long, broad strip of white sand framed at each end by huge cliffs.

Just collapse onto a deck-chair by the beach-side pool for one of the best views in southeast Asia: to the left rock-climbers battle the magnificent Thaiwand Wall and to the right the bay stretches away past Tonsai to the massive Sleeping Indian cliffs, so named because that is exactly what they resemble, at night.

After sunset West Railay beach starts to empty and by midnight is usually almost completely deserted, except for the occasional party of illicit skinny-dippers, enjoying a dip au naturel at the northern end of the beach, where there are no resorts and so no people around.