The Black Rock Viewpoint (Pa Hin Dam) is a popular spot in Rawai, itself a popular beach town in south Phuket. After today, I can really see why. It’s a beautiful spot with rewarding views over Nai Harn Bay and the Andaman Sea.
To get to the Black Rock Viewpoint, many will take a motorbike up a steep dirt road and then walk the last 5 minutes to the top, which is, of course, fine if not a tad boring and predictable.
Instead, you can do what we did and hike your way there from Nai Harn Beach and earn your legend badges. We followed the full loop using AllTrails, which made staying on track easy.
The trail isn’t too strenuous but it does have a diverse mix of different terrains to keep things interesting. There’s even a rope climb thrown in along the way to keep things spicier than a Tom Yum Soup.
We did the loop from Nam Harn Beach to Black Rock Viewpoint and back in a clockwise direction. But anti-clockwise would be a great option too. Maybe better in fact.
If you did the loop anticlockwise you could go for a lovely cooling swim at the lesser-known Ao Sane beach close to the end of the hike. Doing it clockwise as we did, we spotted the beach but were reluctant to dive in as we still had to put some miles under our belt.
This hike will take you over a few different terrains including a rocky scramble. So as tempting as it might be, don’t rock up in flip-flops. Don’t!
I know, I know, you’ve got sweaty feet but sweaty feet are better than a broken toe. So slip on your trainers or hiking shoes.
Apart from that just bring a shared backpack with the usual. Suncream, a hat, water, your swimming gear and a towel should you want to get your splash on.
Today we found ourselves down in Rawai, which is right down at the end of Mueang Phuket, the southernmost tip of Southern Phuket.
Well, we didn’t just find ourselves here, we came here deliberating to hike a little trail I’d heard good things about. A tasty little 6km looped route starting in Nai Harn Bay and climbing up to the Black Rock Viewpoint, also known as Pa Hin Dam in Thai.
The sky was blue, the sea was blue and Sara and I were well-caffeinated thanks to the Bad Guy coffee truck which is parked up at Nai Harn Beach between 6.30 and midday. This was a nice little surprise and very welcomed.
Ok, let’s hike!
The hike starts and ends at Nai Harn Beach. You can park your bikes here or get dropped off by a Grab car easily enough.
If you’re doing the hike clockwise like we did the trail will lead you through the Nai Harn Hotel on a concrete path. It feels like it’s a private road but it seems that you’re fine to walk through it.
After a few hundred metres walking past some fancy-looking hotels, you will find yourself at Ao Sane Beach.
At the time of writing Jan 2024, they were doing some building work here but if you keep on the path a little further you’ll find a way through to the beach easily enough.
Sara expertly finding her way down to the beach.
Phuket is a busy island and the beaches around Rawai in particular can get very crowded so it was nice to find that Ao Sane Beach and neighbouring Krathing Beach were still very quiet.
It also feels pretty fun to be on a hike and hiking across the beach. This is one of the first diverse terrains we hiked across today.
Hey, Vivo Barefoot are you reading? Fancy sponsoring me?
But this smooth silky sand didn’t last for long. Before we knew it we were scrambling across rocks.
Personally, this is my absolute favourite type of hiking. I think I must’ve been a crab in a former life (for this and many other reasons) but I understand scuttling over rocks isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Here’s a photo so you know the rocky obstacle you’ll be scrambling over. Nothing too dramatic but still if you’re not familiar with it you might stub a toe or scrape a knee. So go steady friends.
Watch out, there are lizards in there monitoring your progress.
As we were scrambling here enjoying the waves crashing up against the rocks, a sneaky-ass monitor lizard leapt across our paths making us both jump more than I’d like to admit!
As we got our scramble on we noticed the route we were taking deviated from the route on AllTrails a little. Don’t panic though as it’s obvious where you are heading and there are quite a few opportunities to leave the scrambly section of the hike and move onto the hillside.
Look at that blue. Blue isn’t yet?
Leaving the water behind a narrow path will gently take you up and away from the sea. The views across the Andaman Sea are stunning as you walk on through waving grass. It’s all very pretty indeed.
This section lasts no more than half a kilometre and is pretty much flat. As you reach the cape, which the map tells me is called Cape Krathing the path will swing hard right.
Keep your eyes peeled as it’s easy enough to miss this section if you’re not looking out. Once you spot it however you will see there’s quite a well-worn trail heading upward.
It’s extremely steep. But there’s a helpful rope to help you pull yourself up or abseil down. This is quite the climb and even AllTrails warns that hikers “should be physically prepared” for this section.
How about this for an action shot?! It’s like a still from Mission Impossible: Phuket Protocol
The rope climb section is a little gruelling but it’s only a hundred metres of so. Fear not there is a little rest area at the top where you can rehydrate and enjoy the views with a nice smug sense of satisfaction. “I climbed that”.
Don’t get too lazy you’ve still got another 1.5km to the viewpoint but worry not the rest of the climb is very gentle in comparison and a lot of it is shaded by a canopy of trees which is very nice indeed.
There is a campground close to this point which looks like it would have sublime sunset views over the sea. There is also the route down to Nui Beach which we didn’t have time to visit but would’ve been a great little detour if we did. It’s one of Phuket’s so-called “secret beaches”.
An old TukTuk with a missing engine somehow made its way up here. So you definitely can!
The shady stroll along dirt road is very pleasant indeed, and before long you come to the parking spot where most people who come to the Black Rock Viewpoint or Nui Beach will park their motorbikes.
After this dive onto the smaller twisty jungle trail that will take you the last three hundred metres to the peak where your eyes will be rewarded with those incredible views of the Nai Harn Bay.
At this point it was of course time for a classic world-famous Hiker Hero “around the world” photo. A very sweaty edition. A voila.
Two very happy, very sweaty hikers.
As we’d done the hike clockwise by the time we hit the Black Rock Viewpoint we’d already done two-thirds of the 6km hike. And the rest of it was downhill. Booyah!
The descent can be a little sketchy in places but nothing like the scrambling and the steep ascent we’d already done. So just go steady and all is good.
It’s still quite a jungly affair though with lots of weird creatures. We came across a few of the dinner plate-sized Golden Orb spiders chilling in their webs. Which we’ve seen on all our Phuket hikes but no matter how many times I see them they still make me jump!
Again our route here seemed to deviate from the Alltrails route we were following but as long as you’re heading downhill you’ll find the route again without too much trouble.
Close to the end of the hike through the jungle, we came to an opening with trees wearing little buckets around their trunks. We had no idea what was happening. But after a little post-hike research I now know these are rubber trees.
It was interesting to walk through this and experience a type of agriculture that I knew nothing about. See hiking isn’t just great exercise it’s educational too!
The trail popped out of the bush on the main road by Nai Harn Lake and the end was in sight.
There was a small fruit stall on the right-hand side meaning we could celebrate our Black Rock Viewpoint hike by following the most enduring piece of advice I’ve ever been given. ABC. Always. Be. Coconutting.
There’s nothing more satisfying than getting a nice fresh coconut after a hike in the Thailand sun. It’s nature’s energy drink. So that’s exactly what we did and I recommend you do as well.
After rehydrating ourselves on coconut joy we strolled happily back to our bikes and took off homeward as we had dinner plans but if you have free time then the Nai Harn beach is right there in front of you so if you want to end your hike with a swim finish go for it!
If it’s not obvious from above, we loved this hike. It took us just two hours to complete the 6 km Black Rock Viewpoint hike loop which is neither very long nor very far in hiking terms.
But it felt like we’d had a full day of adventure and covered a lot more ground. I think it was the varied terrain, from beach to scramble, dirt road to small path, grassy hillside to jungle, plus the panoramic views that made the hike feel bigger in scale, in a good way.
I’d very much recommend the Black Rock Viewpoint to anyone looking to escape the beach and bars for a couple of hours and see a little bit more of what fabulous Phuket has to offer.
Until next time you trail warriors, remember your ABCs. Always. Be. Coconutting.
This reflects the estimated time the majority of users will take on this trail. If you are slower, add time to the top-end figure. If you are fast, then you may complete this route faster than this time range.
This reflects the Hike Hero difficulty rating for each route. We aim to keep ratings consistent across regions.