Koh Lipe

Koh Lipe is a small island in Thailand's far south, in Satun province, close to the Malaysian border and about 90 minutes by boat from Langkawi. It has white-sand beaches, reefs you can reach from the shore and a lively little village, but no airport and no bridge: everyone arrives by boat, and the season decides which boats run.

The island covers only about four square kilometers, so you can walk from one side to the other in well under half an hour. It sits in the Adang–Rawi group, roughly 50 km west of Koh Tarutao, inside the area of Tarutao National Park. The uninhabited islands around it, Koh Adang, Koh Rawi and many smaller rocks and islets, are what make Lipe special for snorkelers and divers. Lipe itself is the one island in the group with a real village, home to the Urak Lawoi sea people long before tourism arrived.

This page is the overview. Each section below links to a guide that goes into the subject in depth.

The three beaches and the street between them

Almost everything on Koh Lipe happens along three beaches and one pedestrian lane. Pattaya Beach on the south coast is where most boats arrive, so it is the busiest stretch of sand, with resorts, restaurants and anchored longtail boats. Sunrise Beach runs along the east side and has the island's best-known shallow reefs. Sunset Beach, on the west, is smaller and quieter. Walking Street, a paved lane lined with cafés, dive shops, minimarts and massage places, links Pattaya Beach and Sunrise Beach across the middle of the island.

Which beach suits you depends on what you want from the water: calm swimming, snorkeling straight off the sand or an empty evening. Our comparison of Sunrise, Pattaya and Sunset Beach goes through each one, including how the tide changes them. When you choose a base, the same three areas plus the lanes behind Walking Street are the options; our guide on where to stay on Koh Lipe explains the trade-offs between beachfront and a room a few minutes inland. Our sister site has a separate guide to Koh Lipe's areas with more local detail on each part of the island.

Under the water: reefs, day trips and stonefish

Most visitors come for the sea. You can snorkel from the beach at several points, and longtail boats take day-trippers to the reefs and sandbars around Koh Adang, Koh Rawi and the smaller islets of the national park. Dive shops on the island run trips to deeper sites further out. Our guide to snorkeling and diving around Koh Lipe covers where to go, how the park rules work and when visibility is usually best.

The water also hides a real risk. Stonefish, which look like a lump of rock on the seabed and have extremely venomous spines, are found in the shallows here, and accidents happen every year. Read our account of what happened when one of our group stepped on a stonefish on Koh Lipe before you go. It explains the hot-water first aid that matters most in the first minutes and why reef shoes and not standing on the bottom make a difference.

If you plan to keep training on holiday, our older article on finding a gym on Koh Lipe describes the island's fitness options.

Getting there, and why the season matters

The only year-round link is the speedboat from Pak Bara pier on the Satun mainland, which takes about an hour and a half. Pak Bara is a minivan ride from the airports at Hat Yai and Trang. From mid-October or November until around May, more boats run: direct speedboats and ferries from Phuket, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and the Trang islands, and the international boat from Langkawi's Kuah Jetty in Malaysia. Our older guide on how to travel to Koh Lipe walks through the routes, the transfer at the floating pier and what to pack for the boat.

The weather follows the Andaman pattern. The southwest monsoon brings rain and rougher seas from about May to October, and that is when the long-distance boats stop, parts of the national park close and the island gets much quieter. The dry months from December to April are the peak, with the calmest water and the highest prices. Our guide to the best time to visit Koh Lipe goes month by month and lists which routes run when. If Lipe is the last stop of a longer trip down the coast, our Andaman island-hopping route from Phuket to Koh Lipe shows how the islands link up.

Arriving from Langkawi means entering Thailand by sea. The normal entry rules apply: check your visa status before you travel and fill in the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card on the official site, tdac.immigration.go.th, within three days before you land.

Money, fees and what things cost

Koh Lipe is more expensive than the mainland, because almost everything comes in by boat. Bring a cash reserve: there are ATMs on the island, but each withdrawal with a foreign card carries a bank fee of 250 baht or more, many small places take cash only, and the longtail boats and the park fee are paid in cash. The national park fee for Tarutao is 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 baht for a child (the park's category rate as of October 2026). Our guide to money and ATMs on Koh Lipe explains cards, cash and changing Malaysian ringgit if you arrive from Langkawi.

For more islands on the Andaman side, from Phi Phi to Koh Lanta, start at our overview of Thailand's islands.