The Boripatra Forest Park

Boripatra Forest Park — วนอุทยานน้ำตกบริพัตร, also transliterated Bariphat — sits on Highway 406 between the km 35-36 markers in Rattaphum district, an 800-metre side road off the highway and about 52km from Songkhla city. It’s on the western edge of Ton Nga Chang Wildlife Sanctuary, sharing the same protected forest as the better-known Ton Nga Chang Waterfall further east.

The waterfall runs in seven tiers. Levels one through five have a maintained stone-step walkway, so most visitors stop there — each level opens onto a natural pool cold enough to be genuinely refreshing in Songkhla’s heat, with flat rock ledges for laying out a towel. Past level five, there’s no marked path; reaching the upper tiers means scrambling over wet rock and exposed roots, and it’s not something to attempt alone or in flip-flops. The stream that feeds the falls runs off the Banthad range — known locally as Khao Kaeo — year-round, though flow drops noticeably in the February-April dry stretch and picks up hard from June through December.

Insider Tip: Arrive before midday on weekends. Local families treat this as a picnic spot, and by early afternoon the lower pools fill up with groups who’ve brought food from the small stalls at the car park — pleasant company, but not the solitary jungle-swim experience you’ll get on a weekday morning.

Watch out: there’s no consistently published entrance fee online for foreign visitors — some Thai sources cite a nominal charge around 30 THB, but it isn’t reliably listed, so bring small cash and expect to pay whatever the on-site attendant asks rather than a fixed posted rate.

Facilities are basic but real: parking at the trailhead, a handful of food and drink stalls, and a paved approach road that makes the first five tiers accessible without serious hiking gear. Getting here needs your own transport — motorbike or car — since there’s no public bus running the final stretch off Highway 406; it’s a straightforward add-on if you’re already driving between Songkhla and Hat Yai. Pack a dry bag for your phone and wallet if you’re planning to swim past the first pool.