Koh Tao, also known as turtle island, is a popular diving spot. Many scuba diving as well as a few freediving schools have been founded here – most of them located at Sairee Beach on the west coast.
The beaches are stunningly beautiful and depending on where you are, the reef is just a few meters offshore, ready to be discovered.
Having stayed on Koh Tao for about one month, we have experienced some of the beauty the island has to offer.
Before going into it, let‘s talk about transportation on Koh Tao first.
Transportation & Access
Since Koh Tao does not have a public transportation system, there are other ways to move across the island:
- Motorbikes: If your focus lies on flexibility, opting to rent a motorbike may be the way to go. They usually cost about 250 B per day + a deposit.
- Taxi Car: There don‘t seem to be as many cars on Koh Tao, but the ones that are here are mostly 4WDs. Locals have build benches on their pick-ups to accommodate tourists and transport them to their desired locations. Chances are you get to try them when you hotel picks you up from the ferry.
Sairee Beach to Tanote Bay cost us about 300 B one way. When we got dropped off, our driver offered to pick us up when we were ready and shared his WhatsApp with us – a preferred way of communication on Koh Tao. - Taxi Boat: Especially the northern part of the island is difficult to access via land, so it is recommended to take a taxi boat. This costs around 3000B for two people for one day – more of an investment, but it also provides maximum flexibility, especially if you want to dive around Nang Yuan Island (north-west) or Shark Island (south-east). Taxi boats are easy to find along Sairee Beach and are usually very spontaneous: Not a lot of planning-ahead needed. Freediving Training: Freediving schools will mostly take you to deeper dive-sites for line-training. There are not many offers for fun dives along the reefs
- Freediving School Boat: You can book training session with freediving schools. Often they focus on line-training and depth, so it’s unlikely you will experience the reef when doing this. Sometimes fun dives are offered – more on this in 6. Chumphon Pinnacle.
Diving Spots
1. Japanese Garden
- Access: Taxi Boat, depth up to 15m
This dive site is on the north-western part of Koh Tao right before Nang Yuan Island. There are very shallow spots, perfect for snorkelling. If you need a break from the water, you can walk along the slim beach connecting the island parts. If you decide to stay in the water you can explore a very lively reef. The times we dived here, there was no current as the spot is pretty protected.
2. Nang Yuan Pinnacle
- Access: Taxi Boat, depth up to 20m
A hop away from Japanese Gardens is Nang Yuan Pinnacle. If you are looking for a depth at around 20m – here it is!
Close to this spot we had a line-diving session with Freedive Koh Tao – which was a lot of fun. Yet because of the depth, we were in the blue without any reef in sight. Our instructor Vera was very good in observing our technique, giving feedback and helping us grow. When a random and adorable turtle appeared, she grabbed our GoPro and swam like a ninja to get some good footage for us to look at later on (see picture below).
3. Lighthouse
- Access: Taxi Boat, depth up to 15m
We did not experience this spot as too shallow, thus it may not be a great fit for pure snorkelling. For freediving however it was nice. We saw a stingray hiding underneath coral and a school of crocodile needlefish, which we had first mistaken as barracuda.
4. Tanote Bay
- Access: Taxi Boat or Taxi Car/Motorbike, depth up to 18m
Tanote bay was one of my favorites. We entered the water from the shore and immediately met the huge school of fish that lives there – so beautiful to look at!
We also saw a black tip reef shark – only the second shark I have seen so far and a very moving experience.
Another highlight was a triggerfish sorting out some coral. We could hear how his (?) teeth were grinding against the material – we kept our distance, but even with a few meters between us I could not escape how cute he was!
If you are feeling adventurous, you can also climb the rock and jump into the ocean – be careful to make sure you hit the deep water though.
In case you come across some garbage floating in the ocean, please be mindful and pick it up. Sadly, we did see quite a lot of plastic here.
5. Shark Bay
- Access: Taxi Boat or Taxi Car/Motorbike, depth between 3-4m
Counter-intuitive regarding its name, we did not see any sharks here. Instead, there were two beautiful green sea turtles! A diving instructor told us that it‘s most likely to spot them between 4-6pm, which aligns with the time we saw them.
They were just so chilled, feeding on their coral and didn‘t seem to mind our presence at all. One even had three fish attached to it – I believe they were cleaning the turtle, being fed in return.
I cannot recommend this spot highly enough, though it is way too shallow for freediving and more suitable for snorkelling. In order to see the turtles you do have so swim a few meters out.
6. Chumphon Pinnacle
- Access: Taxi Boat/Diving School Boat, depth up to 36m
It took us quite a while to find a way to freedive Chumphon Pinnacle. It seems that a „bigger boat“ is needed to access it, as it is a few kilometers north-west of Koh Tao. With Blue Chitta we found a freediving school that offers fun-dives there, taking us on the „Sinai“.
We heard a lot about this spot being one of the top 3 diving spots with a great possibility to spot whalesharks – we were very excited. However, once we got there, the visibility was at around 8m and between 0-10m was a very strong current, resulting in many freedivers getting seasick. Stef, our freediving instructor, was a great support in managing these semi-optimal conditions.
If you visit this spot and are sensitive regarding waves, prepare yourself by e. g. taking some anti-seasickness medication beforehand. This spot is pretty much in the open ocean, so be prepared for anything!
Not really having seen anything here, it was still a great experience to line-dive here and I am curious what it will look like next time.
Diving spots we will discover in the future
Koh Tao has a lot to offer and we did not yet get to see all the diving spots that are on my list – so naturally, we will have to come back. 😊
Spots I heard great things about:
- Mango Bay
- Hin Wong Pinnacle
- Mao Bay
- Aow Leuk Bay
- Shark Island
- Chalok Baan Kao Bay
- Southwest Pinnacle
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