Tourism
[edit]
See also: Koh Tao murders
Sairee Beach
Bluespotted ribbontail ray photographed in the waters around Ko Tao
Ko Tao is one of Thailand's most popular tourist spots. The Bangkok Post has cited its annual visitor count as 132,000 and three million.
The island is well known for scuba diving and snorkeling, as well as hiking, rock climbing, and bouldering. The most popular place for tourists is Sairee on the west coast, which has a white sandy beach of 1.7 km interrupted only by a few huge boulders and a scattering of medium budget resorts and restaurants. Chalok Baan Khao, to the south of the island, is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative for those wishing to escape the crowds. A great many granite boulders, both in the forests and on the beaches of Ko Tao, attract a growing number of climbers. Ko Tao has a little over 25 dive sites to explore.
A series of tourist deaths – including murder and alleged suicide – particularly since 2014, has prompted some to advise that tourists avoid visiting Ko Tao, with some British tabloids labelling it as "Death Island". Although tourist arrivals to the island dropped in the months immediately following the murders in 2014, there was little lasting effect.
Dive sites[edit]
Name
Max. depth
Visibility
Average depth
Level
Features
Marine life
Shark Island
28m
5-30m
15m
Open water +
Boulders and rock formations, soft corals. Drift diving for the experienced.
Resident turtle, great barracuda, titan triggerfish and clown triggerfish
Hin Wong Pinnacle
40 m
15–20 m
17 m
Open water +
Tabletop rock formation covered with a variety of hard and soft corals.
Hawksbill turtle, snapper, sweetlips, porcupine pufferfish, juvenile boxfish
Mango Bay
16 m
5–20 m
10 m
Beginner +
Only accessible by boat and suitable for training dives with a sandy bottom and shallow reef. Also accessible by a recently built road through the jungle from Sairee Beach
Small reef fish, pufferfish, moray eels
White rock
20 m
10–30 m
12 m
Open water +
A wide band of coral reef with a diversity of hard and soft corals.
Wrasses, butterflyfish, angelfish, moray eels, clownfish, and triggerfish.
Nang Yuan Pinnacle (Red Rock)
19 m
10–30 m
10 m
Open water +
A large boulder with swim-through arches and to the west a large cave to explore.
Giant whiptail ray, moray, pipefish, crabs, titan triggerfish and reef shark.
Twins
22 m
10–25 m
12 m
Open water +
Three groups of granite rocks covered in corals and sponges, divided by sandy patches and a backdrop of coral garden.
Bluespotted ribbontail ray, juvenile bluering angelfish, six-barred angelfish, clownfish, scorpionfish and pink anemone.
Green rock
28 m
10–30 m
16 m
Open water+
A maze of swim-throughs, canyons, caverns, and caves created by large boulders.
Yellow-margin and titan triggerfish, giant trevallies, cobias and stingrays, occasional reef shark sightings.
Japanese gardens
14 m
10–15 m
10 m
Beginner +
Hundreds of hard and soft coral formations creating the impression of an oriental garden. A dive boat also rests at around 15 meters, which was destroyed in the summer of 2009 and was towed to the site.
Abundance of small coral fish and a variety of nudibranchs.
Chumphon pinnacle
45 m
5–30 m
24 m
Experienced diver[clarification needed]
Four granite pinnacles carpeted with anemones.
Whale shark (seasonal), giant grouper, barracuda, bull shark, batfish and tuna.
Southwest pinnacle
33 m
10–30 m
20 m
Advanced +
A collection of pinnacles with a unique topographical arrangement,[clarification needed] giant fan corals.
Whale shark (seasonal), giant grouper, barracuda, occasional leopard shark.
Sail rock
45 m
15–35 m
30 m
All levels
Huge rock chimmey with a vertical swim-through that ascends from 18 m to 8 m. Amongst the Gulf of Thailands first diving sites
Large pelagics, king mackerel, tuna, whale shark and manta.
Map of scuba diving sites
