Islands
Koh Tao, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan: Choosing a Gulf Island
Diving certification, full moons or quiet bays — the three main Gulf islands attract completely different trips. Pick deliberately.
Marcus Reid
Islands correspondent
The full text of this guide is authored in ThaiLoka’s editorial CMS, which lands alongside the Phase 2 backend. What you are looking at is the article template: measure, heading scale, image treatment and byline are final.
Guides are structured around decisions rather than descriptions. Each one opens with the single choice a traveller has to make — which coast, which month, which base — and then gives the two or three facts that actually settle it.
How we research
Every recommendation is visited by an editor who books through the same funnel a traveller does. Where an operator falls short we remove the listing rather than soften the write-up, and nothing on ThaiLoka is a paid placement.
Keeping it current
Prices, opening hours and seasonal closures shift constantly in Thailand. Guides carry a revision date and are reviewed each season, with the marketplace listings underneath them updated continuously.
Ready to book?
Browse the experiences this guide references, with live pricing and traveller reviews.
See related experiences
