About 20km east of the city, Khao Chong is a small botanic reserve attached to a forestry research station in the Banthat foothills. Trails lead through plantation forest and patches of secondary rainforest to a waterfall and pool that is cool enough for swimming. The site is popular with local families on weekends and largely ignored by foreign tourists.
The botanic garden grows a range of tropical fruit trees, rubber, and ornamental plants; the forestry station is primarily a research facility but is open to visitors. Combined with a morning in Trang town, the drive out through the rubber plantations gives a good sense of the province's agricultural economy.