The town's namesake beach runs for roughly five kilometres of pale sand, wide and gently sloping, which makes it safe for paddling and long walks rather than big surf. The northern end near the fishing pier is the liveliest, lined with grand old hotels like the colonial Centara, the former Railway Hotel dating from 1923. Walk south and it quietens, ending at Khao Takiab, or 'Chopstick Hill', a headland topped by a temple and a large standing Buddha, with resident macaques you should keep snacks away from. Vendors offer pony rides along the sand, and kite-surfers use the steady afternoon wind from roughly January to March. Sun loungers and seafood shacks appear along the front. It is not a picture-perfect tropical beach, and the water can be silty after rain, but it is pleasant, uncrowded on weekdays, and genuinely swimmable for most of the year.
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