Backpacking Koh Tao
Koh Tao is where people come to learn to dive and forget to leave. It is 21 square kilometres of jungle and bays in the Gulf of Thailand, and it is the cheapest place on the planet to get your Open Water certificate. That one fact shapes the entire island.
But you do not have to go underwater to get it. There are viewpoints you sweat your way up to, beach bars that never quite close, and bays so clear you can see the turtles from the surface. Days are for snorkelling, scooters and boat trips. Evenings are for fire shows, live music and a plastic chair in the sand.
It feels smaller and slower than the other Thai islands, and that is exactly why people keep extending. Almost everyone you meet here arrived planning to stay four days.
Why Koh Tao is popular with backpackers
- One of the best places in the world to learn to dive
- Relaxed, unpretentious backpacker atmosphere
- Proper snorkelling straight off the beach
- Hostels built for people travelling alone
- Dive courses that cost a fraction of what they do at home
- Sunsets from viewpoints you can walk to
- Small enough that you keep seeing the same faces
Best time to visit Koh Tao
Koh Tao sits in the Gulf of Thailand, which runs on a completely different season to Phuket and Krabi. When it is raining on the west coast, it is often perfect here.
In November the ferries can sit still for days on end. Do not plan a tight connection to a flight off the mainland that month, because the island does not care about your booking.
Backpacker budget: around €22 a day
- €7hostel bed
- €2local meal
- €1.80beer
- €6scooter per day
Guide prices from our own days in Koh Tao. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best hostels in Koh Tao
Savage Hostel Koh Tao
Rooftop pool, modern dorms and a social scene that does half the work for you. This is the one people book when they are travelling alone and would rather not be by dinner. The rooftop bar is a known sunset and pre-drinks spot, and it is a two minute walk to the beach.
Nomads Hostel Koh Tao
Sociable without being a party hostel, which is a harder balance to find than it sounds. Good if you want to meet people and also sleep. Handy location for restaurants, cafés and most of the dive schools.
The Dearly Koh Tao
A hostel and a PADI dive resort in one building, so your course and your bed are the same booking and you can roll out of bed into the theory room. Practical rather than glamorous, which on a course week is the right trade.
Best things to do in Koh Tao
Our own pick
Diving with Below Zero Divers
Small groups, and instructors who take the safety briefing seriously instead of reciting it. You can go from a first try dive all the way to divemaster with the same school, which means the people teaching you actually know how you dive.
Reader discount with the code REBELSONTHEROAD. Mention it when you book, because they will not apply it for you.
See Below Zero DiversOur partner on Koh Tao
Free things worth your morning:
- Snorkel at Shark Bay, where you have a genuine chance of swimming with blacktip reef sharks
- Watch the sun go down from John-Suwan Viewpoint
- Rent a scooter and find the bays on the east side
- Work your way along the bars at Sairee Beach
- Hike up to one of the viewpoints nobody has posted about yet
Best area for backpackers
Sairee Beach
Sairee is the backpacker strip, and on an island this size that settles it. Most of the hostels, nearly all of the beach bars, the restaurants and the dive schools are here or a few minutes from here.
During the day everyone is horizontal on the sand or in a café. After dark the whole strip turns into live music, cheap cocktails and fire shows, and it goes on later than you planned.
Good to know about Sairee Beach
- Most of the social hostels are here
- Two kilometres of beach and beach bars
- More restaurants and cafés than the rest of the island combined
- Easy to meet people, which matters if you turned up alone
- The sunsets are the good ones
For most backpackers Sairee is simply the answer. Everything is walkable and you will meet more people in one evening here than in three days anywhere quieter.
How to plan your days in Koh Tao
If you came to dive, block out at least four days, because an Open Water course runs three to four. Pick how long you have got.
Arrive and get wet. Pick your dive school and book the course. Then walk the length of Sairee Beach, two kilometres of sand and bars, and snorkel at Shark Bay before dinner.
Tonight: fire show on the beach, or a beer in the sand. Both count.
First dives. Theory in the morning, then your first dives in shallow water. Koh Tao is the cheapest place on earth to do this, and you will notice that in how many schools there are.
Tonight: early night. Diving and drinking genuinely do not mix.
Certificate day. The last open water dives, and then it is yours. Not diving? Take a longtail out to Koh Nang Yuan instead, which is three islands joined by a sandbar and looks ridiculous.
Tonight: sunset at John Suwan Viewpoint in the south.
The island on two wheels. The quiet bays in the south and east: Tanote Bay, Freedom Beach, Sai Nuan. The roads there are steep and loose, so only ride them if you have actually ridden before.
Tonight: the night market in Mae Haad, where the dive instructors eat.
Chumphon Pinnacle, or nothing at all. The island's most famous dive site, with a real chance of whale sharks. It sits below eighteen metres so you need your Advanced for it. Staying dry? This is your Sairee Beach day.
Tonight: night boat or ferry to Koh Phangan or the mainland. Flying on? Leave eighteen hours between your last dive and take-off.
Food and drink in Koh Tao
Koh Tao is small and lives off tourism, so there are as many banana pancakes as there are curries. The good news is that the best and cheapest food is not on the beach: it is one street back, behind Sairee.
Go to the night market in Mae Haad, where the dive instructors eat on their own money. A plate there costs around €1.50, which is roughly one fifth of what the same thing costs with a sea view.
What to eat here:
Diving? Skip the beer until after your last dive of the day. Alcohol and nitrogen in your blood are a genuinely bad combination.
Getting there and onward
Koh Tao is boat-only. The ferries are timed to meet the night train and the night bus from Bangkok, and the combined ticket is the easiest way to do it.
Getting there. From Bangkok, take the night train or night bus to Chumphon or Surat Thani, then the catamaran across. Fifteen to eighteen hours door to door, and most of it asleep.
On the island. Mae Haad and Sairee are a walk apart. Anything else needs a scooter, and the hills are steep enough that this is where most people’s trips go wrong.
Onward. Koh Phangan is an hour and a half away, Koh Samui two and a half. Most people do all three in a row, in whichever order the full moon dictates.
- CatamaranChumphon 1.5 hrs · Surat Thani 3 hrs
- To the neighboursKoh Phangan 1.5 hrs · Koh Samui 2.5 hrs
- Night trainBangkok to Chumphon, around 8 hrs
- ScooterFrom about €6 a day, steep hills
- Dive boatOut to the sites, half a day
Staying safe on Koh Tao
Small island, steep roads, and a lot of people getting on a scooter for the first time in their lives. That combination is far and away the biggest risk here, and it is not close.
- Film the scooter before you ride off, every existing scratch included
- Only dive with a school that will show you its certificates and insurance
- Check your cover: plenty of travel insurance policies stop at eighteen metres
- Walk or take a taxi to the steep bays, even though it costs more
- Leave your passport as a deposit at the rental shop. A copy is enough
- Ride in flip-flops. Most injuries here are legs, and they are avoidable
- Fly within 18 hours of your last dive
- Drink and then ride the hill back up to your hostel
The scooter damage trick is a known problem here: you return the bike and a scratch has appeared. Video at pickup is your entire defence, and renting through the place your hostel recommends is worth more than saving fifty baht.
Rebels on the Road tip
Even if you have never had a regulator in your mouth: do a try dive at the very least, or just get the Open Water done with Below Zero Divers. Small groups, a briefing that is actually a briefing, and the same school all the way up if you catch the bug. Koh Tao is one of the cheapest and best places on earth to learn, and almost nobody regrets doing it here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Koh Tao good for first-time divers?
Yes, and it is one of the best in the world for it. The bays are shallow, calm and warm, and there are more instructors per square kilometre here than almost anywhere.
How many days do you need on Koh Tao?
Three to five. If you are diving, make it at least four: an Open Water course runs three to four days and you do not want to rush the last one.
Is Koh Tao expensive?
No. Around €22 a day covers a bed, food and getting about, and the diving is cheaper here than practically anywhere else on the planet.
Is Koh Tao only worth it if you dive?
Not at all. The snorkelling, the viewpoints and the pace of the place stand on their own. Plenty of people never get in a tank and still stay a week.
Is the snorkelling any good?
Some of the best in Thailand. Shark Bay and Koh Nang Yuan are the two everyone goes to, and both deserve it.
Is Koh Tao a party island?
There is a scene, and it is a good one, but it is a long way off Koh Phi Phi. Think beach bars and live music rather than buckets and body paint.
Do you need a scooter on Koh Tao?
Only for the far bays, and only if you can actually ride. Some of these hills are steeper than anything you will have ridden at home, and this is where holidays end.
What should you not miss on Koh Tao?
Sunset from Sairee Beach or John-Suwan Viewpoint, and at least one trip out on the water, mask on.
