Ao Sane beach

This guide to Ao Sane beach on Phuket's southern tip follows the odd, unglamorous cove tucked behind The Nai Harn hotel, reached by a narrow road and a steep path down to a shore of coarse sand and coral fragments. It traces how a living reef begins just steps into the water, home to snowflake eels, giant clams and schools of butterflyfish, and how little the cove has changed even as a local writer found it barely different a decade apart. Stand at the waterline and watch the shallows before you decide where to swim in.