Hi, does anyone know of any good beaches in Thailand in June (I will be there June 13th-June 17th 2010) where there is minimal rain, good waters, bright sunshine, and that is not TOO crowded? (I expect there will be unavoidable crowds in June because its vacation time!)

I am flying into Bangkok airport, so any travel information to whichever beaches/locations you recommend would be greatly helpful too!

Here are some activities that I want to do:

1.) Scuba diving or snorkeling
2.) Lay on the beach and get a good tan (I am pale as a ghost now!)
3.) My coworker recommended going deep-water soloing (which is sort of like rockclimbing on limestone cliffs) does anyone know good places to do that as well?

I just google it and the only place for DWS is the South of Thailand, around Railey and Tonsai beach. June is the beginning of the monsoon so you will have to chance your luck with the rain.

i do not think most westerners, especially pale ones lie on the beach for hours upon end, unless they want to end up in the hospital with severe burns...

you are about 6 degrees from the equator... its hot and bright...

one area that might work for you is khoa lak.... you fly from bangkok to phuket and then drive north about 1 hour to KL....

for just beaches i would consider hua hin.....or koh samui or even some parts of phuket...

i like thailand in june and i find the beaches are just fine then....it may rain a bit but i don't think it will rain all day every day like in september...

get yourself a good guide book

Note that June is "low season" in Thailand because it's generally the rainy season.

This is a case of you can't get everything. As Hanuman says, if you want to do rock climbing, you need to be around Railay, but it will be raining most days there, and the scuba diving won't be very good (in fact, many operators around there shut down in the rainy season).

If you don't want much rain and want to dive, then you probably want to head to Koh Tao. From Bangkok you fly to Samui and then take a boat to Koh Tao. You may want to plan for a night or two on Samui after diving Koh Tao.

If you want “bright sunshine and minimal rain” then I would suggest you head to the east coast beaches of Thailand, places like Koh Samui or Koh Samet. I would not go to Phuket in June as it too rainy. Please get a guidebook and do some research on beach areas, as I am kind of surprised you would buy an airline ticket for Thailand without any idea of where to go (or apparently any idea of the weather, it’s not all sunshine all the time here.) See weatherbase.com and other weather websites and see the amount of rain for Phuket for June, which is about 9 inches. That means not only rain, but cloud cover and wind bringing the rain. That means no tanning, and snorkeling and scuba diving are more difficult because of winds and not as good because of cloud cover.

While I am not sure you can do any deep water soloing in east Thailand, you won’t have rain. In any event, as you have never done deep water soloing, perhaps you can put that further down your list and concentrate on 1 and 2.

Other options to consider are hoping flights or trains from Bangkok to east coast Malaysia and going to island areas there, specifically islands like Rawa, or further north in the Redang area.

You may be able to do deep water soloing in parts of east Malaysia (i.e. on the island of Borneo). There are other areas off of Borneo which you could consider for diving like Layang Layang, which is well-known for Hammerhead sharks.

Personally, if this were my trip in June and tanning, snorkeling and scuba diving were the top items on my list (as opposed to seeing anything of Bangkok or inland areas of Thailand), I would head out from Bangkok airport on a flight for Sipidan in Indonesia and spend the whole time there. This is one of the top ten dive sights in the world. You should be able to get a permit to dive in the park at least one day, and you can dive and snorkel in other places on other days. See something like the Kapalai Island Dive Resort at http://sipadan-kapalai.com/. There is a also Mabul which also has some resorts and good diving too. It’s a bit of a haul to get to the Sipidan area, and will involve several transfers and possibly a boat trip, so with your limited time it my not be doable, but would be very much worth it, IMO, if you can work out flights. (If there is any way you can switch your flights to Kuala Lumpur, that would help quite a bit.) I would be a bit concerned about getting a booking for next month in the Sipidan area, but you never know.

The Philippines might also work, but June can be rainy there too.

Minor nit: Sipadan is in Malaysia, not Indonesia.

Also, I was assured at ADEX by the people who run Kapalai (and two other resorts in the area) that if you book in advance you're assured of a permit. It's the people who just show up and want to dive that risk not getting a permit.

Thailand sure has some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen and I love scuba diving so invariably ...

Phuket - Patong Beach, Karon Beach, Kata Beach
Krabi - Railay Beach, Phi Phi Island, Ao Nang, Koh Lanta
White Sand Beach [Koh Chang]
Koh Samui- Lamai Beach, Lamai Beach, Chaweng Beach
Ao Kiew [Koh Samet]
Khao Lak [Phang-Nga]
Haad Rin [Koh Phangan]
Bang Saphan Beach [Hua Hin]

Yes of course, Sipidan is in Malaysia! I am losing my geographic mind! My reference to a permit is that if you stay less than a 5 days, my understanding is that you are only guaranteed a permit for one day of diving in the park. It's allocated by the number of days you stay at a resort, if you stay a week, you get 2 permits, etc.

I quiz every dive operator I meet on this permit system, and they're all remarkably fuzzy about it, but I think Cicerone probably has it right - you need to stay at least 3 or 4 days to be sure of a permit for Sipadan.

On my last visit, we were based in Karon beach and we headed to Kata beach almost everyday to sunbathe and body board.
http://www.myworldwebcams.com/asia/t...ch_webcam.html

We went snorkelling on Coral Island - it was part of a speed boat trip we booked into.

Once you get there you'll find your feet easily enough as we did.

I hope you have a great holiday! Remember, lots of suncream (mumsie I know, but it's easy to burn!)

I was just in Thailand in March. I thought that the Khao Lak beaches were lovely. There are so few tourists there that there are long stretches that feel like private beaches.

I also went to Phuket, Kata and did not enjoy it - too crowded and seedy for my taste.