Koh Tao Thailand vacation outdoor activities
Koh Tao, literally Turtle Island, is an island at theCentral Gulf Coast of Southern Thailand. It is the beautiful place seascape in Thailand. You will happy with site seeing and many activities at here such as skin diving or scuba with your own diving accessories or you can rent from the Diving resort. If you interest in scuba diving but you don't have skill. You can take cause at here. You will enjoy with scuba diving activities and got certificate of scuba skill in same time. You don't worry about diving accessories because they will serve you for all necessary accessories and equipment of diving. And I show picture of Koh Tao site seeing when I took scuba cause in April 2011.
The map and travel guide of Koh Tao
By plane
The nearest airports are in Ko Samui and Surat Thani, which are fairly well connected to major cities in the region such as Bangkok, Penang and Singapore. Only Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways operate from the private airport in Ko Samuiand both charge artificially high rates. Bangkok Airways runs many more daily flights to and from Ko Samui than Thai Airways. When flying out of Ko Samui keep in mind that there is a 300 baht departure tax, the highest in Thailand. Several airlines, including Thai Air Asia, China Southern Airlines, TransAsia Airways, Nok Air, and Thai Airways, operate from the Surat Thani Airport at lower prices.
Once you fly in, you'll have to take a ferry to Ko Tao.
By boat
From Surat Thani
If you're coming from the south, you can take a ferry from Surat Thani on the mainland with a travel time of around 3 hr for the morning ferry, or from Ko Samui, 1.5 hr, or Ko Pha Ngan 1 hr. If you're taking a boat from Surat Thani, one possibility might be an overnight ferry. These depart around 11PM and arrive in the morning, about 6AM (subject to changes). It's advisable to arrive early to grab a mattress. As most of the boats are formerly cargo boats the passenger facilities are basic.
From Bangkok/Chumphon
The northern terminal for the island ferry service is Chumphon. Numerous agents sell tickets for a variety of boats of varying size and speed travelling in from the north. The fastest takes about 90 min, the slowest almost 5 hr.
These ferries only depart Chumphon at 7AM, 1PM, 11PM and midnight. The ferries at 7AM and 1PM are the normal passenger ones offered by Lomprayah [1], Seatran [2] and Songserm [3]
The late night ferries are normally vehicle or cargo ferries, making for a slower (5-6 hr trip, arriving at 5AM) and are a less comfortable ride. If you are arriving via bus or train, be sure to arrive well before the ferry times, as the ferry terminal is around 1 hr travel time from the train station, and a missed connection either results in a late night trip on the vehicle/cargo ferry or an overnight stay and a 5:30AM start to catch the bus to the ferry terminal for the first ferry the next day.
Sangserm offer "VIP" combined coach and boat tickets from Bangkok, claiming to take 6 hr by bus and 1.5 hr by boat - in fact, it takes closer to 9 hr by bus and 3 hr by boat, neither of which are particularly comfortable. Also, Songserm does not go when there are high waves and they do not inform their customers about it upon arrival. Furthermore, they deny refunds and are extremely rude about it. This agency should be avoided.
A good solution if coming from Bangkok is to book Sleeper Train #85; leaving Bangkok around 5:30PM and arriving in Chumphon at 3:57AM and then have a ticket booked for the 7AM ferry. Most ferry operators can pick you up from the station where you can while away the 3 hr connection gap. You can also buy your ferry ticket at the station when you get off the train at 4AM. Lomprayah have a ticket office and a ticket on a waiting comfortable large bus is included in the price.
From the other islands
You can also day trip on diving charters from Ko Samui. Many have high speed boats that can make the trip to Ko Tao in about 1 hr.
Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran [4] or Seatran [5] are the fastest and most comfortable way to get to Ko Tao. They run twice a day from Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan, Surat Thani, and Chumphon. They also have online booking - useful for checking availability at peak times and all their boats have air conditioning and movies for passengers.
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