Koh Kood Travel Guide: Things to Do & Where to Stay on Trat’s Best Island
When I heard there was an out-of-the-way Thai island with relatively few visitors and Maldivian turquoise blue waters… I didn’t have to think twice.
I knew what my next Thai island destination was: Koh Kood. And then that expanded outwards and I found myself planning an extended two-week trip around visiting the Trat islands: namely, Koh Chang, Koh Mak, and Koh Kood.
| ✅ In a hurry? Here are my quick picks for Koh Kood! 🏝️ Where to Stay Budget: The Mermaid House (where I stayed!) Mid-Range: Seafar Resort (on the best beach in Koh Kood!) Luxury: Soneva Kiri (the only 5-star option on the island and absolutely exquisite!) … or read my full guide to Koh Kood resorts here ⛴️ How to Get to Koh Kood: I use the website 12go to book all my overland travels in Southeast Asia. If coming from Bangkok, check prices and schedules here. You can also come from Koh Mak or Koh Chang. |
Of course, in typical Allison fashion, I overlooked that it was rainy season… but I digress.
After having mixed experiences on the other Trat islands, Koh Chang and Koh Mak, I felt immediate relief when I arrived in the central area of Khlong Prao in Koh Kood. This was the Thai island experience I had been chasing.
I instantly fell in love with Koh Kood and extended my stay… twice. I couldn’t help it!
After spending a week on the island, renting a motorbike, and exploring as much of it as possible, here’s my travel guide to Koh Kood, complete with the best things to do and where to stay on this gorgeous and still blissfully under-the-radar island.
Table of Contents
How to Get to Koh Kood
From Bangkok
While it’s a long day, the Boonsiri transfer service makes it really easy to get from Bangkok to Koh Kood. I took the Boonsiri from Bangkok to Koh Chang and then back from Koh Kood, returning to Bangkok.
I also used them for inter-island transfers (Koh Chang -> Koh Mak and Koh Mak -> Koh Kood), and every time, it was a seamless experience, from pickup to drop off.
By Thailand standards, the transfer between Koh Kood and Bangkok is a bit pricy, about $32 USD. However, it includes a comfortable shuttle bus, ferry tickets, and a shared taxi on Koh Kood. It’s a completely easy experience, so I think it’s worth it!
From Koh Chang or Koh Mak
If you’re starting your trip in the Trat Islands in Koh Chang or Koh Mak, you can quickly transfer to Koh Kood. If booking with Boonsiri, your trip will include a transfer from your Koh Chang hotel.
From Koh Mak, you’ll need to get to the Ao Nid pier, but your Koh Mak hotel should provide this as it’s quite a small island.
Getting Around Koh Kood
Being able to drive a motorbike will serve you very well in Koh Kood. Since I was visiting in the low season, I took advantage of the nearly empty roads to practice my motorbiking skills. There are a quite a few hills, but the overall road conditions are good with a paved road serving almost the entirety of the island with the exception of a few beach areas that are gravel or unpaved roads.
As someone new to motorbiking, I was really happy with the progress I was able to make and how much I enjoyed biking around Koh Kood. Renting a motorbike cost me 300 baht (about $9 USD) for an all-day rental.
You need to make the decision on whether or not you can safely drive a motorbike for yourself. So many tourists injure themselves quite seriously on motorbikes every year in Thailand. Wear a helmet, go slowly, rent from a reputable source, check your brakes, have travel insurance, and always make sure you are biking within your skill limits.
If you don’t want to or can’t ride a motorbike, don’t worry — there are other ways to get around Koh Kood, namely songthaews (shared pickup truck taxis) that serve the island in the place of regular taxis.
However, you’ll have to negotiate rates with them individually, and they are fewer and far between during the low season. I used songthaews exclusively to get around Koh Chang and it worked just fine, so I imagine Koh Kood is similar.
Best Time to Visit Koh Kood
I visited Koh Kood in June and it was a mixed bag. While I appreciated the low prices and lack of crowds, it did mean that quite a few places were closed and there were many days where it rained so much I could barely do anything.
The constantly overcast skies also meant that I usually couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the water color… I had just one and a half days where I could really understand how beautiful this island’s beaches are.
When I visit Koh Kood again — and it’s a when, not an if!! — I will certainly come during the high season which runs from November to February each year. I would probably go in November so I could hopefully also still see the waterfalls, as I imagine they are nearly completely dry by mid-January or February.
The Best Things to Do in Koh Kood
Explore the island’s best beaches.
Hands down, Koh Kood has some of the most spectacular beaches of any Thai island. Unfortunately, I visited in the rainy season when the waters weren’t at their best… but on the few sunny days I got in between the showers and storms, I could easily see why Koh Kood draws so many comparisons to the Maldives.
Ranked in order of my personal preference, here are what I think the most spectacular beaches are in Koh Kood:
1) Ao Taphao Beach: Located by the Sea Far Resort (as well as a few other resorts, like Medee Resort and Koh Kood Paradise Beach Resort), this beach has some of the most spectacular waters on the island.
The sand is extremely fine and soft, perfect for walking. There are several sub-sections of the beach that you can enjoy. There’s the stretch between two piers, which has crystalline-clear water in beautiful tones. Down the pier, there’s a catamaran netting you can sit on as well as a swing that’s perfect for vacation naps!
There’s a small sheltered area between the Sea Far pier and a small rocky area, which is excellent for families who don’t want to worry about large waves.
And then, to the left, past the rocky area, there’s an undeveloped stretch of beach. It didn’t have a single soul on it when I visited and I think this would be a great spot to visit during high season as it’s not connected to any resort as far as I’m aware of.
2) Bang Bao Beach: Located near the Koh Kood Resort and The Beach Natural Resort, this stunning beach is in a natural bay, which gives the inlet calm waters for swimming, stand-up paddle boarding, or kayaking. I’m not sure how the snorkeling is here, but you can also rent snorkel gear here!
There are a few piers, and you can walk from one sandy part near the resorts to the other via a more rocky stretch of the beach (bring water shoes for this part).
Otherwise, pick one stretch of the beach and settle down there. I was able to access Bang Bao via the Koh Kood Resort since I had a meal there, and there was no problem with not being a guest. I don’t know if the same standards apply during the high season, though!
3) Ao Phrao Beach: This stunning beach is a bit out of the way, but it’s worth going to if you really want to make a pilgrimage to all of Koh Kood’s best beaches.
It’s located near a few small resorts, like Koh Kut Ao Phrao Beach Resort, and there are two restaurants in the beach area—one belonging to a resort and another independent one just before you get to the beach.
Some cute blue-and-white hammocks jut out from the ocean during high tide… both times I visited, it happened to be low tide, so the hammocks were just on stilts along the beach. Still lovely, but not the classic “overwater hammock” view.
4) White Beach: While this is the longest and busiest stretch of beach in Koh Kood, it wasn’t particularly scenic when I visited during the rainy season.
However, I was told that was primarily because of the water conditions in June/July; supposedly, in the high season months (November-February), the water is that beautiful, glassy turquoise blue.
Regardless, this was my ‘home beach’ as I was staying across the street at Mermaid House, and I enjoyed walking on this beach every night for sunset.
5) Ao Jark Beach: One of the lesser-known beaches in Koh Kood, this beach is next to Rimlay Café and an accompanying guesthouse. It’s a great choice if you want to escape the crowds a little bit!
This beach feels incredibly natural, sheltered a bit from the open ocean by the shape of the coastline, and has some spectacular jungle lushness on either side of the sandy beach.
6) Tolani Beach: To be honest, this beach is more of a sub-section of White Beach, created where the Khlong Prao River splits the beach in two. It’s quite easy to get here, as it’s just by the roadside, but the beach is tiny compared to the larger stretch of White Sand Beach.
There are also a few beaches I didn’t get to visit, but I have bookmarked for a future trip.
- Haad Klong Hin Beach: I tried to get here by motorbike, but I’m not a particularly experienced biker, and I got a little intimidated by the crappy gravel roads here. This beach is located near The Hideout and Khlongin Beach Resort. It looked stunning, but I struggled to figure out how to get there, and the jungle mosquitoes were eating me alive in the meantime. I’d love to give it another try sometime.
- Khlong Han Beach & Secret Sunset Beach: I also tried to visit here, but apparently, I didn’t charge my phone as I thought I had, and my phone died en route. I couldn’t figure out how to get the rest of the way there without getting lost. Khlong Han is one stretch of the beach, and then the Secret Sunset portion appears to be just around the corner, where you get a better view of the setting sun.
Enjoy some spectacular waterfalls.
I was told that the rainy season was a great time to explore the island’s waterfalls. Unfortunately, it was actually a bit too rainy, and it overflowed the waterfalls into rushing rivers, making it unsafe for swimming or even hiking to the main viewpoint of each waterfall.
However, I’ve seen photos of the Khlong Prao Waterfall and swimming hole when the conditions are better, and it’s absolutely spectacular: a cascading fall, a deep natural water pool, and even a rope swing to plunge into the water with! I’d love to go for a dip there in the right conditions.
However, I couldn’t even walk up to the viewpoint, let alone the swimming area, when I visited. Please, please, please: be incredibly careful when a river is rushing and overflowing. When I was younger, my brother lost two young friends this way. Ever since then, I am very cautious with overflowing water and river currents.
The Khlong Yai Kee Waterfall is similarly lovely, but again, the excessive rains made it feel a bit dicey, so I avoided getting in the water. It was still a charming hike—plus, each waterfall is easy to walk to, only needing about a 10-minute walk, which you can do in walking shoes or even flip-flops since it’s not particularly difficult.
I visited the Trat Islands during a particularly bad storm system, so perhaps other times it would be just fine. I also heard that the waterfalls are no more than a trickle during the dry season! Maybe the best time to visit would be around October or early November when there’s still some water left over from the rainy season, but it’s not totally washed out like it was during my June visit.
There’s a third waterfall on the island, Huang Nam Khiao Waterfall, but after seeing how rained-out both waterfalls I visited were, I didn’t make the extra trek to this one. I’ve read that the road here is particularly dicey and challenging, and as a beginner motorbike user, I didn’t want to put myself at any risk, especially with rainy road conditions.
Along the hike to this waterfall, you can also see some old and beautiful trees, Sai Yai (Big Chai Tree) and the Giant Maca Tree, but I didn’t get a chance to do this on this visit due to the rain and road conditions.
Kayak in bays and rivers surrounded by mangroves.
One of the more relaxing activities you can do in Koh Kood is go for a kayak. You have a few choices on where you can go kayaking depending on what kind of experience you want.
For beautiful blue ocean paddling, you can go for a sea paddle in one of the more sheltered bays like Bang Bao. For a more lush, jungly option, you can go up along the Khlong Prao River, which brings you through a mangrove forest area.
Kayak rentals start at about 50 baht per hour but can go up to 150 baht per hour depending on where you rent. For the Bang Bao beach area, you can ask for kayak rental at the beach area near Koh Kood Resort.
For the mangrove forests, you can start at the edge of White Sand Beach, where you can ask the staff at Peter Pan Resort beach club area, as I think they are in charge of kayak rental here.
Take in the view from Wat Ao Phrao temple.
There aren’t many temples on the islands, but this one is a beauty and since it’s located on a hillside up a steep set of stairs, you can get an absolutely stunning view of the surrounding landscape, including the beach in the distance.
The temple itself is a little bit in disrepair and you can’t enter the interior, but it’s still nice to walk around the grounds and admire the view with Buddha statues and small shrines in the foreground.
Visit the cute fisherman village of Ao Yai.
All the way at the end of the road in Koh Kood is the fishing village of Ao Yai, which is completely built on stilts over the water. I have never seen anything quite like it before, actually; I found it extremely unique!
There are a few restaurants here where you can order seafood dishes to try some of the local fare, freshly caught! It’s a bitdead during the low season, though, with only one restaurant open that I saw.
Don’t forget to stop at the viewpoint along the way!
It’s marked as “Scenic Lookout” on Google Maps and has the most spectacular view of Ao Yai imaginable. I loved all the scenery along the way biking to Ao Yai; in fact, this was one of my favorite things I did on Koh Kood.
Note that there are a lot of hills on this route (and honestly, on all of Koh Kood in general). While the roads are in relatively good condition (until the last stretch of road right down to the village, which is a bit patchy), you still need to be comfortable on a motorbike with many hills and curves!
Go diving or snorkeling.
I had originally planned to go diving several times during my trip to Koh Kood. However, while I was visiting Koh Chang, I went diving and found that the entire reef system is undergoing a mass bleaching event.
It’s unfortunate, but hopefully the massive rain system that was happening during my stay will help cool down the waters and reverse some of the bleaching before it becomes permanent. Fingers crossed!
So instead of diving while I was in Koh Kood, I went snorkeling instead. We went to two different snorkel spots and alsostopped in front of a deserted beach that you can only access by boat (and swimming!) for a lunch stop. It was a fun way to spend a day, but it confirmed my fears that Koh Kood is also dealing with a lot of bleaching in the area.
The bleaching wasn’t as bad in Koh Kood as it was in the Koh Rang Marine Park area, but it’s still a pretty significant loss of the reef system. I did see a lot more hope for this area though, with lots of parrotfish (a signal of a healthy reef!) — so my fingers and toes are crossed that this reef system can recover.
I went snorkeling with Koh Kood Divers, and despite the less-than-ideal situation with the reefs, it was still a really fun day out. It cost 1,000 baht (about $27 USD) for a half-day outing (about 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM).
Tip: If you stay Mermaid House, they offer a 10% discount, making it just 900 baht!
Diving on Koh Kood and the Trat islands is expensive by Southeast Asia standards (at least, compared to Bali, where I usually dive. Expect to pay about 3,500 baht for a 2-tank dive or 4,500 baht for a 3-tank dive ($95 or $120 USD, respectively)
Where to Stay in Koh Kood
If you’re on a budget, the best choice is The Mermaid House, located right by White Beach and Khlong Prao waterfall.
The in-house restaurant is absolutely delicious (I ate there so many times — the pad se ew is especially delicious), and they have free all-day coffee and tea, as well as always-cold refrigerated water that is free to grab at any time.
I appreciate that so much, as I hate always having to worry about buying enough water and wasting a lot of plastic water bottles that I don’t know will be recycled properly.
The bungalows are an adorable seafoam-green color and have a white patio that overlooks the little garden area. Inside, the rooms are very basic—think mattress on a raised platform on the floor and not much else—but the A/C works well, the room and bathroom are clean, and the price can’t be beat elsewhere on Koh Kood.
If you have more money to spend and want a good mid-range option, I’d recommend Seafar Resort, as it’s located on my favorite beach on the island, which is pretty hard to beat in terms of water clarity and overall beauty.
The on-site coffee shop was delicious and made great smoothies, and the restaurant also looked to have a great food selection. The bungalows I saw looked absolutely adorable too, but I didn’t get to check out the interiors.
Another mid-range option would be Koh Kood Resort, located right on Bang Bao Beach, which has some of the calmest waters which makes it a good choice for families.
They have some beautiful pools overlooking the waters and you can rent kayaks and stand-up paddleboards here, so it’s a really nice spot where you don’t have to even leave to enjoy the best of Koh Kood. I also had a meal at the restaurant here and it was pretty good!
And if you really have a sky’s-the-limit type of budget, the best resort on the island is, hands-down, the Soneva Kiri Resort & Residences — there’s not even a question about it.
The price is steep, though, so it’s definitely a splurge! I didn’t get a chance to visit this part of the island as the resort is very private, but I’d love to stay there in the future if I can afford it.
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016, visiting 75+ countries in total. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. As a former educator, she merges her writing and educational experience to encourage ethical, sustainable travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and TBEX. Her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. When she’s not on the road, she lives in Bangkok, Thailand.
