Rabbit Island is not a spot you will hear about a lot. It isn’t a spot where many foreigners go, and honestly, if you are traveling in Southeast Asia for a few months I don’t see a reason to include it in your itinerary. But, on the other hand, if you want to go somewhere to enjoy alone time and escape society, this might be a good spot. People visiting it do it mostly from Kep on a day tour, and I think it is a great option if you pass by this Cambodian city. But that is not my case. I live in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and this island for me was a great city escape. Couldn’t ask for more.
There isn’t much to do on Rabbit Island, in fact, there is nothing besides enjoying nature and a quiet spot. I walked it all around, and even though this isn’t the most beautiful island ever, it was worth my 3 nights spent there. If you want a completely depleted island, go during weekdays because on the weekend the scenery changes a lot. On the weekend there are lots of Cambodians going to Rabbit Island to enjoy their time. The accommodation prices are a bit higher on weekends and more people can be seen wandering around or simply enjoying music on a boat near the shore.
How to get to Rabbit Island HERE!
Sleeping in Rabbit Island
There is only one area where people can sleep and that’s near the pier. On the rest of the island, it isn’t possible to find any accommodation. Accommodation is very basic and there are plenty of options for the visitors. Several colorful cute bungalows line the beach along with restaurants. I stayed at Simone Bungalows, which were pretty basic but colorful. The price was 10 USD per night, but I had to pay 15 USD for Saturday night. I came in without any booking though. I think you can walk around when you arrive at Rabbit Island and then choose a place to stay. Don’t worry it won’t be fully booked, plus, there are many spots renting tents, as I saw. There was only electricity from 6 pm to 10 pm and no hot water. In fact, I was showering with salt water… Very basic, but enough for me. There is no wifi so I bought a SIM card before going to Rabbit Island at Kep market.
So, the main area is along “Rabbit Island beaches”-as per the maps-, that’s where everything is but not where I spent most of my time. Most of my time was spent between Small Beach Koh Tonsay and Big Beach Koh Tonsay.
Small Beach Koh Tonsay and Big Beach Koh Tonsay
These 2 beaches are a few meters apart and are very quiet. At the Small beach, I was always the only one, however at the Big beach I would randomly see one or other foreigners passing by. They are a few minutes walk away from the main hub so other foreigners would come here too.
Big Beach Koh Tonsay
The water is absolutely waveless, not very hot but nice for a refreshment. The water was a bit clear and I could see some fishies swimming around me as I lifted up the sand with my feet. These beaches are very peaceful and pretty too. If it wasn’t for a dump truck operating for a few hours in the afternoon, this place would be an absolute paradise. Can’t get more quiet than this, plus I love to be the only one at the beach.
At the Small beach, there was this cute little tree that served as my shady spot. It added charm to the place, which is why I decided to watch two sunsets there. I saw a stunningly beautiful sunset under the tree absolutely alone. Awesome!
Sunset 2:
Something I saw while lying under this tree that is worth mentioning was an ant-mimicking spider. There were some ants crawling on me occasionally, but I noticed this weird one. It was weird-looking, longer than usual and it seemed to have two heads!! What is wrong with this ant I thought to myself!? I could barely believe what I saw. An ant with two heads???! Am I going crazy haha? I observed it and saw it launching a silk web to move between my stuff. WHAT?? This is a spider!!! I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen the spider web. It was a spider disguised as an ant and I could clearly see its real eyes and the fake ones. It was amazing!! I didn’t know about the existence of such an insect so I had to search online and I found pictures of what was right in front of my eyes, an ant-mimicking jumping spider WOW. Absolutely terrific and wonderful! Made my day seeing it. What are the odds of spotting one of these and noticing it before scrapping it out of me? Great find. One of the coolest animals I have seen.
Walking all around Rabbit Island
But I wanted to see as much as possible from Rabbit Island, so I decided to go on a walk around the island. I actually did this two days in a row, and the walk wasn’t that long or tiring. Two hours is enough to walk all around Rabbit Island without stops, but as I’m here to enjoy the views, my walk was way longer, as I stopped many times to appreciate them. I started from the north. First, I headed North to Kaoh Tunsay Beach.
Kaoh Tunsay Beach
I followed the trail on the app Mpas.me for this trek as it is helpful, but basically it is walking along the sea 90% of the time which is awesome. I walked among rocks, forests, and beaches and I saw no one else walking around. I have read that it could be tricky to find the trail because the locals would cover it so people can’t find the trail. Therefore, people would have to use the boats to explore the island. Well, not sure if it is true, but for me, the path was very easy to find and not hidden at all, but I have done lots of jungle hikes on my own in Southeast Asia. The path was very easily walkable, flat 98% of the time, so easy to do.
I came across many deserted beaches, most of them quite small and non-existent during high tide. These beaches, out of tourists’ eyes, reveal another truth. It seems like all the trash ends up here. They were very dirty, full of plastic, and all types of things that were washed ashore. Sad to see, but expected as usually getting out of the touristy area reveals an uglier truth. I came across mangrove forests with beautiful trees and I walked on the sand for a great stretch of the path, before finding a bigger beach. This beach has no name on the map but it is one of the biggest I saw on Rabbit Island. There was one house there and someone living in it. I saw the boat docked in front of it. The beach was nice and provided some shade. I would have stayed there if there was absolutely no one around, but knowing that people could be watching me wasn’t my ideal, so I kept on going.
I walked to the extreme east of the island where there is a sandbar and a wide beach too. I didn’t find this beach that special though. There were some abandoned bungalows and the mangrove forest started right next. From now further, the path was within the forest for quite a while before reaching the next beach.
Beach in front of Old Bunker
Near this beach, I saw many beautiful trees! I called this place right before the beach in front of the “ Old Bunker” -the beautiful tree avenue.
Old Bunker
There is a place on the map marked as Old Bunker and even though this is a piece of concrete hidden by the tall grass around it, there is a beautiful beach right in front of it. Around this place is where the beautiful trees are with stunning shapes. Really liked it.
There was some construction work in place. It feels like they are building a proper street to connect this beach to the main area on Rabbit Island. There was a house and several Cambodian tourists there. As the place has many locals, I decided I wouldn’t choose this beach to spend the day. It had some shade too so it would have been a nice beach to spend a quiet day, only if it wasn’t the weekend.
From this beach by the old bunker I walked to Big Beach Koh Tonsay where I spent my day under a shady tree.
Near Big Beach Koh Tonsay must be a good snorkeling spot because I saw several boats stopped with locals swimming around with snorkeling gear. It is by the ponton in front of the area where the mangrove trees grow. Might be worth a try but I had no gear with me.
And that was all from Rabbit Island. It was a quiet getaway from Ho Chi Minh City and exactly what I was looking for: a few peaceful days. I loved it here.
Oh, for two nights I tried to watch the bioluminescent plankton without success. Apparently, it can be seen sometimes but I wasn’t lucky enough I think. I set up an alarm for 1 am and I saw nothing so I didn’t try again. I tried to see it at the main beach right in front of Simone’s bungalows as the lady told me it could be seen right there, but only sometimes and she doesn’t know how to tell when. Anyway, you can try to see it ☺
The bungalows usually have their own restaurants so I ate at the spot right by my bungalow. It was not the cheapest food ever, but it was still accessible.
You can read about how I got to Rabbit Island HERE!
