Which beach?
 

We are a couple of middle aged Aussies looking for a realxing but not boring beach to visit in Thailand during the second half of July. There seems to be a wealth of knowledge and a genuine love of the place on this forum and I hope you can help.
The ideal destination would be:
Good local food, A/C, clean beaches, plenty of massage and beauty treatments, not too many tourists, snorkelling available from the beach and sea kayaking sounds great too. We will be in BKK prior and dont want to spend more than half a day getting there.
Accomodation costs around US$70 would be ideal, but we are flexible. So put your thinking caps on and let me know your favourite suggestions. Many many thanks in advance. K

Have a look at Khao Lak. It might be everything you want, except snorkeling off the beach, which is a tough thing to find. Low season pricing, too.

The weather will be better in Ko Samui. There are smaller islands near KS that might fit the bill.

September and May are the rainiest months on the Andaman coast - and June and July can have some rain - but you will still get plenty of sun.

I agree with the previous poster who suggested Khao Lak. There is some great snorkeling right in front of Nang Thong Beach. There is a rocky area with a nice drop off on the far side. Also - the south end of Nang Thong beach is quite good for snorkeling.

There is lots of good info about Khao Lak at:

http://khaolaklovers.com/

and a map of the Nang Thong Beach area at:

http://khaolaklovers.com/map.html

There is a good weather page there too so you can take a look at monthly temp and rain averages.

Weather would be better Samui and Gulf side in July, hotel costs though Samui July/August are quite high for that reason. You can Island hop to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao / nang Yuien from Samui.

Samui though would be very full, if you want quieter beaches you can find them with nice a/c places to stay but don't expect shopping malls/nightlife, you can also 'beach hop' along the coast south of Hua Hin to places like Pranburi, Bang Saphan, Koh Talu and then boat over to Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, then fly back to bangkok from there ( that is if you are routing though Bangkok ).

We just had a long weekend south of bangkok on that stretch and it was 'dry solid' with sunshine whole way through.

Rainfall mm July and August:

Hua Hin / Sunrise Coast: 78 / 88
Pattaya area: 102 / 130
Samui: 150 / 140
Phuket area: 264 / 261

Big differences, of course rain varies and can be anything from a 20 minute break to much longer.

You would get cheaper rates Khao Lak and Phuket area in July though.

If you want to snorkel straight from where you stay or just perhaps a few hundred meters away then Koh Tao might interest you, more rocky and hilly but if snorkeling is important to you could be interesting. Evenings are food with a few beers and a bit of music, laid back place.
You can then hop by boat to Samui for a few lively days if you wish.

Further north from there along Sunrise Coast snorkeling not good except for Bang Saphan and Koh Talu, which are 'very quiet' but good if you like coastal areas, villages, national parks, elephants in the wild, wetlands etc.