Too much info: which quiet island to choose in Thailand for beach time and snorkeling?

Hi there, We're heading to Thailand with our two kids (9 years old) for two weeks next February (2026). We plan to rent a car to stay independent and explore a bit off the beaten path. Still, we'd like to spend 1 or 2 nights on a nice, quiet island—just for some relaxation and especially snorkeling (even though I know it's not the best country for beautiful corals).

I've read dozens of forum pages and travel journals, but I'm still overwhelmed and can't decide where to go for a peaceful paradise-like beach with good snorkeling opportunities. We don’t need comfort—Robinson Crusoe-style camping or hammock nights work perfectly for us. No electricity or signal is totally fine. We just don’t want to pay 1000 € for a family of four to go to the Surin Islands, even if they do look like paradise.

Any suggestions?

I’ve read a lot of great things about Koh Chang and the islands in the Trat region (Ko Mook, Koh Kood, Koh Kham, etc.), but I just saw on the ministry’s website that they’re all in the red zone 😮.

On the UK government site, it’s also red starting from Chanthaburi, but the islands are orange, with a note saying "do not travel within 50 km of the Cambodian border," which makes getting to Koh Chang complicated.

I know foreign ministries can sometimes be overly cautious in their risk assessments (we went to Afghanistan in 2010 in an area that was perfectly safe at the time, even though it was marked red like the rest of the country), but in this case, we don’t know Thailand or the specific situation in the region well enough to judge for ourselves.

Who could give us reliable on-the-ground info?

Well, I’ll answer my own question for the Koh Chang area in case it helps others:

https://toutelathailande.fr/infos/voyager-thailande-malgre-conflit-avec-cambodge-a-savoir-mise-jour-2026/#google_vignette

If anyone has relevant suggestions to answer my first post, I’d love to hear them.

Hi there, we're currently on Koh Chang, everything's going well—no worries at all. We're not exactly thrill-seekers, though. So far, so good!