Finding the best Koh Tao Hotel for your Thailand Holiday shouldn’t be left to chance. Many people don’t do enough research before booking a Thailand vacation, and they just pick a Thailand Hotel out of a brochure, and if they get it wrong, then they won’t have a great Thailand vacation, and they might also find that the beautiful Thailand beach they were promised in the brochure isn’t what it was cracked up to be.

It pays to do research, and it is worth discovering Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is a beautiful island off the coast of Thailand just north of Koh Samui. The best hotel on Koh Tao is  the Charm Churee Villa which sits very close to Jansom Bay. This is one of Koh Tao’s most beautiful and private beaches in the south west corner of the island.

The best way to get to Koh Tao is to fly into Koh Samui and get the catamaran over. Do pay extra and get seats in the VIP lounge. To get to the Charm Churee you’ll be picked up by water taxi and taken to the small private beach.

You need to book a Sunset Villa at the Charm Churee. They are huge, even ....................

If you want to go to Koh Tao, and you don’t want to rough it, but are looking for a high class Spa & Resort, then look no further than the Jamahkiri Resort & Spa. It looks like a Greek Resort, because it is built into the side of a cliff and overlooks a gorgeous bay, and all the bungalows are whitewashed

The three main things you need on Koh Tao apart from a good diving school, are somewhere to stay, somewhere to eat, and somewhere to party.

The first priority for anyone is getting a roof over your head, and you can if push comes to shove find accommodation at the pier when you arrive off one of the many ferries. You shouldn’t do this at peak times, because you might end up......

Scuba diving is by far the biggest attraction on Ko Tao, and it is easy, fun, and you will see a lot of fish, perhaps even turtles, stingrays, barracuda, reef sharks, and even a whale shark if you get lucky .

You will get good diving weather on Koh Tao apart from November, when the sea is choppy, and visibility is poorer than normal. The visibility can be over 40 metres during the rest of the year.

You will find a lot of dive operators on the island, and some of them offer accommodation. Just beware that when you read the accommodation is free, it’s not really, because they will offer discounts if you stay somewhere else.

In 2006 you will pay in the region of 10,000 bht for a PADI open water certificate, and this should include the new PADI training manual, proper professional instruction, rental equipment, boat dives etc. This may include insurance and basic accommodation, but shop around, and remember the methods of instruction may differ enormously.

A few hints include avoiding shops that use swimming pools to teach you in. You’ll find it cold, boring, and unhygienic, bearing in mind this is a very popular diving island, and they will have literally hundreds of students .

Choose one that will take you to a private beach so you will see fish and coral right away, it is a lot more interesting, and you will probably get more dives!!

Koh Tao which literally means Turtle Island, is an island in the Gulf of Thailand, and  is a great place for divers who want to escape from places like Koh Samui, because it is a bit quieter, perhaps because it isn’t very easy to reach, in fact your only option is by boat.

The options depend on where you are travelling from:

From the south it will take about three hours by ferry from Surat Thani on the mainland, one and a half hours from Koh Samui, and around an hour from Ko Pha Ngan. You might wish to take an overnight ferry from Surat Thani, it leaves about eleven o’ clock at night and arrives early morning, but if you use this option, get there early to grab a good mattress position, and be warned they are old cargo boats, and very basic, so you might feel happier with your own inflatable life jacket!!