Koh Kood
There is no 7-Eleven on Koh Kood, which in Thailand is a real measure of how little has been built. Two of its best beaches cannot be found on a map.
Koh Kood in a nutshell
Koh Kood: what to expect
Read against 1,756,000+ planned stops across Thailand on Stippl, this is how the island sits.
Koh Kood is an island people go to in order to do very little, and it is arranged for exactly that. It runs twenty-five kilometres end to end with no taxis, so a rented scooter is the whole transport system. Khlong Chao is the largest of the three waterfalls, free and swimmable, and the cross-island road to the stilt villages at Ao Salad and Laem Thian is the best hour on the island. You can snorkel a reef straight off the sand at Bang Bao. Most travellers give it 3 nights on Stippl.
Koh Kood is planned further ahead than anywhere else in Thailand. Travellers leave 102 days between planning a Koh Kood stop on Stippl and arriving, and 26.7% of them settle it more than six months out. The island is boat-only, forty-five kilometres off the mainland, and the bed supply is small and mostly at the comfortable end.
Three or four nights, and the point is that nothing here has to be done. Ride the cross-island road once for its own sake, find one of the southern bays by following a lane past a café rather than by navigating to a beach, and keep the two smaller waterfalls at Khlong Yai Ki and Huang Nam Khiao for after rain, which is the one thing the wet season is good for. Boats leave from Laem Sok pier near Trat and take up to an hour and a half, so both ends of the stay lose half a day.
Per chi è Koh Kood
Quiet, and honest about it
the island's whole proposition is that little happens, and the sources that like it say so plainly
Couples and honeymooners
the accommodation skews to bungalows and small resorts on quiet bays rather than to dorms and bars
Families wanting calm water
west-coast bays, shallow entries and a short list of things that can go wrong, against islands where the road is the risk
Anyone doing Koh Chang
the two are one trip rather than two, and our own planning data is emphatic about it
Crossing to or from Cambodia
the eastern seaboard is the overland corridor, and the island sits at the end of it
Snorkellers who do not dive
Bang Bao and the offshore reefs are reachable without a course or a liveaboard
Maybe not for you: solo backpackers looking for company (there is very little hostel layer and no nightlife to speak of), anyone without a scooter licence, anyone on a west-coast Andaman route, and anyone arriving between June and September, when the sea is rough, the speedboats stop and part of the island closes
Quando andare a Koh Kood
High season
1 October to mid May
the ferry companies' own calendar, and the one that governs everything else on the island. Full timetables, speedboats running, every resort open
Low season
16 May to 15 October
the ferry companies' own dates. Speedboats are withdrawn entirely and only the larger passenger ferries run, some services drop out for annual maintenance, and the timetable is explicitly weather-dependent
- The closures cluster in September rather than spreading evenly across the wet months. Sources describing an early-September visit find the island workable and a late-September one patchy
- The settled centre of the season is December to March, when the water is calmest and the visibility best; March and April are the hottest
- Low season is when the island is cheapest, and accommodation rates are lowest between May and October
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Cosa non perdere a Koh Kood
Photo by Julito Elizalde via Pexels
Photo by Anastasia Yudin via PexelsKhlong Chao waterfall
the largest of the island's three falls, free to enter, easy to reach and swimmable. Go early and you share it with a handful of people
The ride to the east coast
the cross-island road to the stilt fishing villages at Ao Salad and Laem Thian, which our sources rate as the best hour on the island for the road itself rather than the destination
Finding a beach that is not on the map
several of the southern bays are reached by following a lane past a resort or a café rather than by navigating to the beach. This is the island's actual pastime
Snorkelling straight off Bang Bao
reef reachable from the sand, without a boat, a course or a liveaboard
The other two waterfalls, Khlong Yai Ki and Huang Nam Khiao
smaller, quieter and better after rain, which is the one thing the wet season is good for
Doing nothing on a beach with nobody on it
stated plainly because it is what the sources describe and what the length of stay in our own data suggests people come for
I quartieri di Koh Kood
Khlong Chao
first-timers*
The island's centre of gravity: the longest run of accommodation, restaurants and minimarts, and the bridge everyone gives directions from
Most places to eat within walking distance, and the best waterfall starts behind it.
Ao Tapao
families*
Just north of Khlong Chao, around the old pier. Quieter, mid-range resorts, and the closest beach to the island's services
Five minutes from the hospital, bank and main stores, and still on the sand.
Ao Phrao
luxury*
A wide, quiet beach 700 to 800 m long with only a handful of resorts on it
A long beach with almost nobody on it, and a pharmacy on the main road.
Ao Salad / Ao Yai (east coast)
off-the-beaten-path*
Stilt fishing villages on the far side, working rather than touristic. One of them hosts the private medical service
See how the island earns its living, on a road that is the best ride on Koh Kood.
Ngamkho
Longer
A small bay south of Khlong Chao with a village behind it and the island's post office
Village life and a beach, without the Khlong Chao strip.
Bang Bao
Snorkellers
A southern bay the sources single out for snorkelling straight off the beach, with a few restaurants
The one bay where the reef is worth the swim out.
See every Koh Kood neighbourhood on one map
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Dove alloggiare a Koh Kood
The range is barbell-shaped: simple bungalows and guesthouses at one end, small resorts at the other, and a luxury resort at the very top of the Thai market. The middle is thinner than on any comparable island
Khlong Chao
€40–90
The island's centre of gravity: the longest run of accommodation, restaurants and minimarts, and the bridge everyone gives directions from
Ao Tapao
€35–80
Just north of Khlong Chao, around the old pier. Quieter, mid-range resorts, and the closest beach to the island's services
Ao Phrao
€40–100
A wide, quiet beach 700 to 800 m long with only a handful of resorts on it
Ao Salad / Ao Yai (east coast)
Stilt fishing villages on the far side, working rather than touristic. One of them hosts the private medical service
Ngamkho
€25–60
A small bay south of Khlong Chao with a village behind it and the island's post office
Bang Bao
€35–80
A southern bay the sources single out for snorkelling straight off the beach, with a few restaurants
Cosa mangiare a Koh Kood
Whatever the boats brought in, grilled or in a curry. The island still fishes for a living
The sour orange curry of the southern and eastern coasts, made with fish
Rice soup, the standard Thai breakfast
The dish every visitor orders; for what it should cost
Griddled sweet flatbread, the standard Thai island dessert
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Koh Kood customs and what not to do
The etiquette is national
Thai social codes, respect for the monarchy, temple dress and the wai greeting all apply without local variation
A working island first
fishing families live at Ao Salad, Ao Yai and Laem Thian, and the villages are places of work rather than attractions. Photograph people only with a nod first
Crime barely registers
the local guide says so in as many words: the police station exists mostly for accident reports and insurance paperwork
Bring it or do without
sources repeat that if you know you need something, bring it, because the island may simply not have it
Beachwear stays on the beach
as everywhere in Thailand; no source raises this as a local issue on Koh Kood specifically
Sì
- Carry cash for the small places, even though the ATMs now exist
- Ask at the accommodation before riding to a beach that has no road sign
- Take food and water to the southern bays
- Slow down on the cross-island road: it is narrow, it has hills and there is no ambulance behind you
No
- Assume a restaurant can turn a table quickly
- Plan a tight connection off the island in low season
- Ride without the licence your insurance requires
- Expect a 7-Eleven, a pharmacy on every corner, or a bar strip
Budget giornaliero a Koh Kood
Budget
€25–35
a simple bungalow or guesthouse room, local restaurants, a shared scooter
Mid-range
€60–100
a beach resort room with air conditioning, resort meals, a scooter of your own
High-end
€200+
the small luxury resorts, and at the very top a rate in a different bracket entirely
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Curiosità su Koh Kood
There is no 7-Eleven on the island, which in Thailand is a genuine measure of how undeveloped somewhere is
No vehicle ferry has ever served the island, which is the mechanism behind everything visitors like about it
Two of the island's better beaches cannot be found by searching for them on a map; the sources give directions via a resort or a café instead
The island's electricity came from generators until a mainland cable was laid, and the change is recent enough that most published descriptions have not caught up
Consigli locali per Koh Kood
Four boats work Laem Sok
Boonsiri, Seudamgo, Koh Kood Express and Koh Kood Princess. Three of them run three or four daily sailings each way in high season
The standard fare is 600 ฿
each way, with Koh Kood Princess the cheap option at 400 ฿ (2025–26 season). One page of the same source also quotes 350 ฿ for that operator, so treat the low end as approximate
Low season stops the speedboats
and the timetable thins to about six sailings a day each way, weather permitting
The scooter is the network
there is no bus, no taxi rank and no songthaew. A rented scooter is the transport system, usually arranged through the accommodation
The road is the real risk
the WHO estimated 18,218 road deaths in Thailand in 2021, about 50 a day, ranking the country ninth of 175, and the great majority of victims are on two wheels. On Koh Kood the specific hazards are hills, a single narrow road and no traffic to slow you down
There is a hospital
a small public one on the inland road at Hin Dam near Ao Tapao, handling day-to-day problems. This directly contradicts the impression the island's marketing gives
Domande frequenti su Koh Kood
By boat from Laem Sok pier near Trat, in forty-five minutes to an hour and a half, and there is no airport. Getting to Trat is a flight or a long drive from Bangkok, so both ends of the stay take half a day. Lay those halves into the route in Stippl rather than counting them as beach days.
Quiet by Thai standards and deliberately so: 2.90% of Thailand trips planned on Stippl include Koh Kood. There are no taxis, very little at the budget end of the beds, and several of the best beaches are reached by following a lane past a resort rather than by navigating to them.
Straight off the sand at Bang Bao, without a boat, a course or a liveaboard, which is unusual on this coast. The reef sits close enough in to swim to. For anything further out, the dive operations are mostly on Koh Chang rather than here, so bring the ambition and leave the tanks.
Most people do, because they sit in the same chain south of Trat and one boat run connects them. Koh Chang is bigger, busier and easier to reach, while Koh Kood is emptier and further out. Only 18.3% of Koh Kood stops planned on Stippl are a single night, so treat it as the longer half of the pair.
Three for most, and the longest stays run to 6 nights on Stippl. That is what an island costing half a day to reach from the mainland and half a day to leave tends to produce, and it is why almost nobody treats Koh Kood as a stop between two other places.
November to April, with December to March the settled centre of it. Outside those months the boats reduce, some places close for the season, and the two smaller waterfalls are the only thing that improves. The island runs on the Gulf's east-coast calendar, which is the opposite of the Andaman's.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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