Between the mid thirties and late forties Koh Tao was used as a political prison due to its isolation.

A royal pardon ended Koh Tao's claim of being a prison and was left as a deserted paradise.

Soon after this, the island was settled by Thai fishermen and coconut farmers. From these modest roots, the families grew and became an established community.

Koh Tao remained virtually hidden from foreign interest until the eighties, where the first intrepid travellers found its beauty.

Only ten years ago horses and buffaloes were used as the main form of transport and dive shops were just starting to become established.

Since this time the island has been open to the influences of tourism but is still viewed as one of the least developed and most beautiful of the Gulf's holiday islands.

There is a wide selection of restaurants on Koh Tao to suit all palettes. Cuisine is generally of a high quality and excellent value for money.

Here are some of the restaurants and pubs we can highly recommend, frequented by our SJ staff, local expats and our customers.

Morava Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge

Morava is certainly worth a visit (or several visits) during your stay on Koh Tao. It is located in the heart of Sairee Village just minutes away from the beach and serves Sushi, Fondu and a mix of Western european dishes.

The Lounge Bar offers a variety of wines (by glass or bottle) and a diverse cocktail menu including the islands best mojito and special signature ice cream cocktails.

Special theme nights include on Mondays 'Ladies Night' with half price salads and glass of wine for only 80 Thb. Every Thursday night a wide selection of Sushi is available, on Wednesday it is 'Swedish Night' and Fridays is 'Mexican Night'.

The full menu can be viewed here.

There is also Happy Hour everyday from 4pm until 8 pm and free WIFI available.

Hippo Bar and Grill

Hippo, a local favorite, specializes in charcoal BBQ steaks and juicy ribs. It has a varied menu with plenty for everyone to choose from including huge salads, Thai food, pasta dishes and good old home style deserts like apple crumble cakes, not to mention the best chicken fajitas on Koh Tao.

The Happy hour is from 10-12 where all cocktails are 99 baht including fresh raspberry daiquiries and mojitos. For those not looking to drink alcohol, the ice cream 'Hippo shakes' are thick and delicious.

On top of that, you get free WIFI and funky tunes. 

Dirty Nelly's Irish Pub

With real Irish management, they have been open since 2005, as Koh Tao's largest pub they have 3 bars on 2 floors including a well decked out beer garden with huge sports screens.

Choppers

Choppers is the most popular pub on the island. It shows all major sports events live on several flat screen TVs strewn across the pub, serves excellent food and has live music every night of the week.

It is very close by 7/11 on Sairee opposite Morava.

Fizz Lounge Bar

Before you head for dinner in Morava or Hippo, why not lay back in one of the comfy bean bags and watch the sunset ?

Fizz is the best place on Sairee Beach to watch the day go by into the evening with chilled music and a cold drink.

Vibe Beach Bar

If you want to put on your party dress or pants and dance the night away, Vibe is the place to be !

Right on Sairee Beach it has DJ's playing the latest chilled tunes early evening and hot steamy dance music later in the night. This bar has always a good crowd of local expats and tourists, and for those not wanting to hop over to Koh Phangan during Full Moon, Vibe organizes a Koh Tao Full Moon Party every month. 

Before stretching your legs on the dance floor, you can gorge on fresh seafood barbecue of King Crab Restaurant adjacent to Vibe Beach Bar.

There used to be a time you needed to make sure you had cash money before coming to Koh Tao, these days are long gone now and money is readily available on the island.

Koh Tao has three full service banks - Siam City and Siam Commercial Bank are open from 9.00am 3.30pm Mondays to Fridays. Bangkok Bank is open seven days a week from 9.00 am until 16.00 pm.

There are also numerous ATM's and exchange booths around the island so money is easily accessible on Koh Tao. In case you would like to get money from overseas, Western Union outfits can be found here as well.

Diving accidents are easy to avoid. Make sure you get the right training, always dive within your limits and properly plan and conduct your dive profile. We minimize the amount of divers per group for safer control and supervision and EVERY ONE gets to use for free dive computers, which are much more accurate and safer than dive tables.

But however rare, accidents do happen and on Koh Tao there are  two companies that deal with decompression and diving accidents.

A monoplace chamber is located in Sairee, but can only treat minor diving accidents. The nearest full service decompression facility is in neighboring Koh Samui, the SSS Chamber. Decompression accidents are rarely life threatening and evacuations from Koh Tao are easily organized.

Scuba Junction is proud to be one of the first sponsors of the SSS chamber on Koh Tao and as a member our divers have following benefits through us:

All Intro Level courses (Intro, DSD and OW) 6 hour free decompression treatment, after wards extra hours (in case needed) are discounted to 5,000 THB (normal rate is 40,000 THB per hour).

Advanced courses and our fun divers have all treatment in the decompression chamber at the discounted rate of 5,000 THB per hour.

The amount of treatment you need depends on the nature of the problem, most cases need 3-6 hours of treatment.

Most travel insurances cover nowadays scuba diving up to a depth of 30 meters at no extra charge so it is worth checking out different policies before chosing your insurer.

For those diving reguraly, Divers Alert Network offers all inclusive diving insurances at an excellent rate.  DAN is active worldwide and has three main major hubs:

DAN Europe, DAN Asia and DAN Americas

Road conditions on Koh Tao range from basic concrete to interesting!

Most main areas of Koh Tao have concreted roads, but you still need to watch out for potholes on bad concrete and on dry days (the majority of the year) concrete can be covered with dust. Your wheels can easily spin and you can lose control and fall off even when driving slow.

The "interesting" roads can range from dirt tracks to roads that resemble a dried up river bed.

Because of the lack of drainage, dirt road conditions can change significantly after heavy downpours.

If you are renting any sort of vehicle we would suggest that you check conditions prior to going to the more remote areas around the island.