Waterfalls in Thailand

Erawan is the best known waterfall in Thailand and the one most Bangkok day trips are built around, in Erawan National Park in Kanchanaburi. Seven tiers step up over about two kilometres, each with a limestone pool below it, and the mineral content gives the water its blue-green colour. Tiers one to four are an easy walk and swimmable; the top three need scrambling.

Bua Tong, up in Phrao about ninety minutes north of Chiang Mai, is the one waterfall in Thailand people climb rather than look at. The limestone it runs over is porous enough to grip underfoot instead of turning slippery, and ropes are fixed alongside. If you are going north for one waterfall, this is the one that is unlike anywhere else.

Haew Suwat is the best known waterfall in Khao Yai National Park, roughly 20 metres high in the wet season and noticeably lower in the dry. It is the cliff Leonardo DiCaprio jumps from in The Beach, which is most of its fame. Swimming and jumping are prohibited here, whatever the film suggests. It is a walk of about 100 steps down from the entrance.

Mae Ya is in Doi Inthanon National Park and is one of the tallest in Thailand, a wide fan of water stepping down bare rock rather than a single plunge. It is roughly a hundred metres across at the base, and the shallow runs at the bottom are where people cool off. It sits away from the main park road, so it gets fewer visitors than Wachirathan.

Mae Sa falls in eight tiers through the Mae Rim valley half an hour north of Chiang Mai, inside Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, and it is the most accessible of the northern falls. The lower tiers have picnic ground and food stalls; the upper ones empty out. It pairs with Bua Tong on a single day out of Chiang Mai.

Than Sadet is on Koh Phangan's east coast, and it has the strongest royal association of any waterfall in Thailand. King Rama V first visited in 1888 and returned repeatedly, leaving a rock inscription that is still there, and water from the stream is still collected for royal ceremonies. The fall runs over large granite boulders with pools between them that you can get into.

Phaeng is the main waterfall on Koh Phangan, in the middle of the island inside Than Sadet-Ko Pha Ngan National Park, and it comes in two parts. Phaeng Noi is about fifty metres past the park entrance and takes no effort. Phaeng Yai is a steep 250-metre climb beyond it, and the viewpoint above that looks back over most of the island.

Khlong Lan is a single broad drop of around 95 metres in Khlong Lan National Park in Kamphaeng Phet, and the scale is what makes it worth the detour on the way north. A short walk in from the car park leads to the base, where there is a wide shallow pool. The forest around it is thick enough that monks use it as a meditation retreat.

Phliu is in Namtok Phlio National Park in Chanthaburi, on the eastern side of the Gulf, and it runs strongly all year rather than only in the rains. Three tiers step down into pools full of soro brook carp, which are protected here and can be fed but not taken. King Rama V built two monuments beside the falls in memory of Queen Sunanda Kumariratana, who drowned in 1880.

Ton Nga Chang is in the wildlife sanctuary of the same name, inland from Hat Yai in the far south. The name means elephant tusks, after the way the fall splits in two below the third tier. There are seven tiers in all, and most visitors stop at the third, where the pools are. Going higher means scrambling. There is a park fee at the gate.

Koh Luang is in Mae Ping National Park in Lamphun, a seven-tiered limestone fall dropping into a clear pool at the bottom, with picnic ground in the shade beside it. Limestone caves nearby hold stalactites and stalagmites and can be visited on the same ticket. There is a park fee at the gate and the park keeps daylight hours.

Sramanora is on Koh Phangan, and its reputation has less to do with the water than with the parties: all-night events timed around the Haad Rin full moon, which is why the name is familiar to anyone who has been to the island. It is one of the few waterfalls anywhere you might visit after dark. By day it is a 500-metre walk in through jungle from the car park.

Khlong Chak is on Koh Lanta rather than the mainland, inland from the east coast, and the walk in follows a stream past mangrove, houses and smallholdings before reaching the fall and the large cave beside it. It is strictly seasonal, roughly May to September. There is an entry fee, and cantinas at the parking area do Thai seafood.

Bang Pae is in Khao Phra Thaeo National Park in northeast Phuket, and it is the larger of the island's two falls. A short easy walk leads in from the entrance to shallow pools you can sit in. The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project shares the same access road, which is worth knowing about before you go, and there are seafood restaurants on the way out.

Kathu is the closer of Phuket's two waterfalls, just inland from Patong, and it runs in several tiers up a wooded gully. The first two are an easy climb, the third and fourth need hands as well as feet. It is a short stop rather than a day out, and like everything on Phuket it depends on the monsoon: in the dry season there is very little water in it.

Lampi is in Khao Lampi-Hat Thai Mueang National Park near Khao Lak in Phang Nga, and it is one of the more developed falls in the south, with food stalls and a bridge across the stream. You can look down on the fall from the bridge or get into the pool below it, which stays cold year round. Shallower than it looks, so it is a dip rather than a swim.

Soi Sawan is in Pha Taem National Park in Khong Chiam district, Ubon Ratchathani, close to the Mekong in the far east of the country. Water drops around 20 metres off a rock lip into a pool. It is a 15-minute walk in through forest from the nearest road access, with stalls along the way. Come in the rains; outside them there is little to see.

Sri Dit is in Thung Salaeng Luang National Park in Phitsanulok, and it is small by the standards of this list, which is exactly why it stays quiet enough to swim in. A short walk leads to a pool below a single drop. It is strongly seasonal: outside the rains the flow is close to nothing, so it is not worth a detour in the dry months.

Ton Sai is the smaller of the two falls in Khao Phra Thaeo National Park in Phuket, about two kilometres along a trail from the park entrance. The walk is the point: the reserve is the last substantial stretch of rainforest on the island, and deer and gibbons are both possible along the way. The fall itself is modest and seasonal.

Wang Sao Thong is inland from Hua Thanon on Koh Samui's southern side, just off the ring road, and it is the quietest of the island's falls. Small, shaded and shallow, with a pool at the bottom you can sit in. It suits an hour on the way round the island rather than a trip of its own, and it stays empty even when the beaches are not.

Tan Rua is above Mae Nam on Koh Samui's north coast, reached on uneven stone steps up past the Mae Nam viewpoint. The climb is short but steep and the surface is loose in places, so it needs proper shoes. The fall is set back among hills and vines, and the walk up gives you the coastal views the beach does not.

Ao Yon is on the Cape Panwa headland in southeast Phuket, and finding it is half the exercise: the sign off the road is small and faded, and more than one path leads off in roughly the right direction. The correct one passes houses, smallholdings and the occasional buffalo, then crosses a stream. The pools at the bottom are small but deep enough to swim.