Koh Tao is world renown for scuba diving and Dave and I originally added Koh Tao to our Thailand itinerary because we planned to get our PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Certification. But after spending four days here, we fell in love. Not only was the under water world incredible, but there was so much to see and do in Koh Tao.
Sairee Beach
When you visit, book your stay in Sairee Beach area. Every night the beach bars offer free fire shows and live music. And the best part is that it’s all completely walk able. There is one main road through town, so it’s impossible to get lost.
We stayed in the poolside villas at Sairee Cottage ($67 per night) which was very convenient because it was in the middle of all of the bars and restaurants and we didn’t have to walk far to meet up with our scuba class since it was held only a few steps from our room.
We met multiple people during our visit that came to vacation and never left. Our scuba instructor was one of them. He came for an overnight stay fourteen years earlier and decided that he liked it so much that he didn’t want to go back to Australia, where he was living at the time. Now that we’ve visited Koh Tao, it’s easy to understand why so many people decide to stay!
Scuba Diving
Koh Tao is world renown for scuba diving. There are over 50 five star diving resorts on the island that offer everything from introductory fun dives to more advanced certifications. We booked our Open Water Certification course with Sairee Cottage and we couldn’t have been happier with our choice.
Our class had 3 instructors for a group of 4 students (including us). We elected to take the course material online in advance so that we could spend our mornings relaxing on the beach and exploring Koh Tao. The course consisted of one day of pool training followed by two days of open water dives. The cost was $383 per person, inclusive of the online course materials.
If I would have known how much we liked scuba diving, I would have booked one more night which would have allowed us get our Advanced Open Water Certification also (additional two days of diving). But now we have a reason to go back!
Helpful Hint: The prices for the dive classes are the same at all of the dive shops. A few years ago, there was so much price competition that Koh Tao decided to set prices for all of the classes to prevent the dive shops from having to cut corners to stay afloat. It’s still one of the cheapest places in the world to get your scuba certification!
Fire Dancing
Every night on the beach you can find super talented fire dancers putting on free shows outside many of the popular beach bars. The shows were some of the best that I’ve ever seen in my travels, including French Polynesia and Hawaii. After seeing a few shows, Dave and I actually got brave and decided to try it ourselves. Let’s just say that neither of us will be quitting our day jobs anytime soon!
Read all about our trip to French Polynesia
Watch the Sunset
The sunsets over Sairee Beach are out of this world. Every day, after we completed our dives, we grabbed a drink at one of the many beach bars and watched the sunset. I just couldn’t get enough of the way the sky lit up with color as the palm trees swayed in the breeze. Our two favorite spots to watch the sunset were Fizz Beach Lounge (shown below) and the restaurant next to Sairee Cottage (shown above).
Try Barbecue Barracuda
We had so many great meals in Thailand that its really hard to pick favorites. However, if I had to do it, it would be Barracuda Rooftop Restaurant. We ordered the Barracuda “All In” Seafood Platter ($30 for 2 people) which consisted of market fresh barracuda, steamed whole snapper, garlic pan fried prawns, baked green lip mussels, barracuda cakes, steamed prawns & calamari. Our friends got another special to share that consisted of different Indian dishes ($24 for 2 people) that was equally as good.
Attend a Cabaret Show with Lady Boys
The Queen’s Cabaret is located right off the main street in Sairee Beach and they put on a free show every night at 10:30pm. It’s something that everyone should see once. If I’m being honest, the singing wasn’t the best, but some of the performances were entertaining. Have a drink before you go and you’ll have a good time!
Visit Koh Nang Yuan
Koh Nang Yuan is a set of three island connected by an enormous sandbar. It’s privately owned by the same guy that makes Chang Beer and located about 10 minutes by long tail boat from Sairee Beach.
The price is typically by boat, not per person and costs $6-$12 (200-400 baht) round trip. The island opens each day at 10am and there is a small entrance fee of $3 (100 baht) per person to enter from the pier. You should definitely plan to go early as it gets extremely busy later in the day.
The white sand beaches and turquoise waters are gorgeous so it’s definitely worth spending 2-4 hours here. We went for 2 hours which gave us enough time to take pictures at the look out point and snorkel before heading back to complete our PADI Open Water Certification.
Nightlife
The nightlife in Koh Tao was top notch! We would typically start the night with cocktails at Fizz Beach Lounge and then head next door to the Lotus Bar which offered live DJs and fire dancing until 2am. To finish the night, we walked down to the other end of Sairee Beach to the Beach Bar which played music until 4am. With so many late nights, we were glad that we had done all of our classroom training for our scuba class before our trip to Thailand!
After four fantastic days it was time to leave Koh Tao and head to Kho Phangan for the world famous Full Moon, Jungle Experience, and Waterfall parties!
