Hin Ngam or North Point Beach: pick your Koh Lipe shore
Published 2026-09-22. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
The verdict, before you choose
These two are not really rivals. They are answers to different questions. If your day on Koh Lipe involves a longtail, a park fee and a run of snorkel stops, Hin Ngam Beach is the one you want to see, because it is a marine park island you only reach by boat and it earns its place as a striking pause in a moving day. If you would rather walk out with a mask and a bottle of water and settle into the calmest corner of the island for hours, North Point Beach is the clear pick, because you stroll there from the top of Sunrise and it rewards you with a sandbar and a reef of its own.
Put simply: Hin Ngam is a stop, North Point is a stay. One is a photograph and a snorkel between other places, the other is a half day you plan on foot. Get that distinction right and both are easy wins. Get it wrong and you either waste a boat charter on something you could have walked to, or you turn up at a stone shore expecting to lay a towel and lounge.
Boat day snorkeler chasing park islands, choose Hin Ngam. Quiet seeker who wants to base themselves for the afternoon, choose North Point.
Sand and shore: stones versus a shifting sandbar
This is where the two part company most obviously. Hin Ngam is not a sand beach at all. Its whole character comes from a shore of remarkable smooth, flat stones, polished round by the sea, which is exactly what the name means in Thai. It is beautiful in a way that photographs unusually well, and there is a well known local custom that taking a stone home brings bad luck, so you admire the shore and leave it as you found it. What you do not do is spread out a beach setup on it for the day. It was never built for that.
North Point, by contrast, is soft white sand on a compact northern cove, far quieter than the busier strips of the island. The catch is that some stretches turn rocky, so you settle on the cleaner patches and, at the right time, on the sandbar. That sandbar is the headline. At a lower tide a ribbon of sand reaches out from the point toward Koh Adang and the cove looks its postcard best. At high water much of the sand vanishes and you are left with a smaller, rockier sliver, so the tide table genuinely decides your day here. Check it before you walk over.
So the sand question answers itself by mood. Want the unusual, want the natural sculpture of a stone beach, want a scene you will not find on the main strip: Hin Ngam. Want to actually lie down, swim from the shallows and enjoy soft sand underfoot: North Point, timed to lower water.
Water and snorkeling: both clear, one is easier to reach
Both shores share the same virtue in season: bright, clear Andaman water that is usually calm from November to April. Off Hin Ngam you get clean shallows over the stones on a settled day, which is why guides slot it into island hopping trips as a snorkel between stops. Off North Point you get crystal clear turquoise that shelves gently, with a reef just off the point toward Koh Adang that is genuinely one of the better snorkeling corners on the island.
The difference is access and rhythm. At Hin Ngam you snorkel on the boat's schedule, in a group, minding other longtails coming and going, then you move on. There is no lingering all afternoon. At North Point you set your own pace, go in at a lower tide when visibility is best, and drift over the reef for as long as you like. That freedom is a real advantage if snorkeling is the point of your day rather than one item on a tour.
Neither cove has a lifeguard, and neither should be treated as watched. Snorkel with a buddy at both, read the water yourself, and at North Point mind the rocky patches and the current near the point. Conditions here are usually gentle, but usually is not a promise, so keep your swimming sensible and inside the calmer water.
Facilities and crowd: two kinds of quiet
Here the two are more alike than you might expect, and it is the reason both feel so far from the island's social heart. Hin Ngam is a wild, uninhabited park island with no bars, no sunbeds, no shops and no lifeguard. You bring everything on the boat and you take your litter away. North Point has very few facilities of its own too: no hotels sit directly on the sand and food nearby is limited, though a handful of small resorts sit a short walk back behind the point. In both cases the plan is the same. Carry water, snacks, sun cover and your own snorkel gear.
The crowd, though, differs in flavour. Hin Ngam is quiet only in the sense that it is undeveloped, but it can be busy in bursts when several tour boats land at once and empty their passengers onto the stones for the same twenty minutes. North Point stays quiet in a steadier way, because the only way in is on foot around the shore from the northern end of Sunrise, a walk of roughly ten to fifteen minutes past a few rocky sections. That walk filters out the day boats and the crowds, which is much of the appeal.
If you want reliable calm and the feeling of having a corner to yourself, North Point tends to hold that mood for longer. If you do not mind sharing a short, buzzy stop with other snorkelers because you are moving on anyway, Hin Ngam's crowds are a non issue.
Cost and access: a charter versus a walk
Hin Ngam sits inside the Tarutao national marine park, so a park fee applies, usually folded into the price of your island hopping trip. The exact amount is best treated as to be confirmed. You cannot really visit it independently: it is a boat stop, part of a wider day on the water that you book from Koh Lipe. North Point costs nothing extra and has no gate. You reach it on foot, which makes it the cheaper and more spontaneous option by a distance. Koh Lipe itself collects a national park entry fee on arrival to the island, which applies wherever you go, so budget for that once and move on.
The practical read: if you are already paying for a boat trip and want the day to feel like an expedition, Hin Ngam belongs on the itinerary. If you want a free, low effort escape you can decide on the morning of, North Point wins on convenience alone.
When the other one wins
Say you have booked a full island hopping day and Hin Ngam is one of several stops. In that case there is no contest: you take Hin Ngam as it comes and enjoy North Point on a separate, slower morning. The stone beach only makes sense as part of that moving day, and skipping it to walk to North Point instead would mean paying for a boat you are not using.
Flip it around. If the tide is high and you want guaranteed sand and shade options within a short stroll, North Point loses some of its shine, because the sandbar shrinks and food is limited. On a high tide day you might be better placed on the main strip, or you might combine a longtail trip that takes in Hin Ngam and the bigger park beaches so you are not depending on the sandbar at all. If a true empty white sand day is the dream, the vast park shore of Koh Adang Beach across the channel is the bigger canvas, reached by a short longtail from the island.
And if you simply want the quietest patch of the main coast without committing to either a boat or the full North Point walk, the shifting spit of Karma Beach at the top of Sunrise is the gentler compromise. For the lively, developed end of the island with bars and restaurants a step behind the sand, that is what Pattaya Beach is for, and it is a different day entirely.
So, which one
Choose Hin Ngam if you are a boat day snorkeler who wants a striking natural stop, does not need facilities and is happy to move on. Choose North Point if you are a quiet seeker who wants to walk in, time the sandbar and stay a while over a reef. Both reward the dry season from November to April, both ask you to bring your own supplies, and neither is watched, so read the water and keep your swimming sensible. Get the timing right at North Point and the boat right for Hin Ngam, and you cannot really lose.
Planning a club day on Koh Lipe
Neither of these two shores is where you settle in with a lounger and a drinks list, so once you have had your quiet corner or your snorkel stop, plan the comfortable end of the trip separately. Our Koh Lipe beach clubs guide sets out which beachfront spots are worth a day or a sunset, so you can enquire about a club day and pair the wild mornings with an easier afternoon.