Staying in Chalok Baan Kao: dive resorts, hotels and bungalows on Koh Tao's south bay

Who should stay in Chalok Baan Kao?

Chalok is for people who came to dive and want quiet evenings. Several dive schools operate straight off the bay, so a course here means walking from the room to the boat, and the resorts price rooms with the course. It is also the choice for couples and older travellers who want a village with restaurants and a 7-Eleven but without the music of southern Sairee, and for anyone who wants to be close to the sharks and turtles of the south coast: Shark Bay, Sai Daeng and Freedom Beach are all five to ten minutes away. It is less suited to travellers without a scooter who want to move around a lot, since the taxis are fewer here than at the pier, and to anyone who needs a long sandy beach: the bay is pretty and safe but shallow at low tide, and the better swimming is in the coves.

The bay is calm from November to March, when the north-east wind blows over the ridge, and usable most of the rest of the year. June Juea, twenty minutes' walk west along the coast or a short ride, has a few fan bungalows, a sunset view and no facilities. Freedom Beach, ten minutes east by scooter, is a secluded cove with a shallow reef right off the sand and a resort of old-style bungalows; day visitors pay about 100 THB, which includes a bottle of water and access to the viewpoint.

Dive resorts, hotels and bungalows in Chalok Baan Kao

The 37 properties listed here are dominated by resorts, sixteen of them, most of them dive resorts with bungalows on the beach or the slope behind it: fan and air-conditioned rooms at about 800 to 1,500 THB, mid-range rooms and pool resorts at 1,500 to 4,000 THB, and a few higher-end resorts on the headlands at 3,000 to 9,000 THB. Small hotels and guesthouses in the village charge about 1,000 to 2,500 THB for an air-conditioned double; four hostels have dormitory beds from about 450 THB, often with a dive package. Villas and apartments on the hills above the bay and towards Freedom Beach add private pools and views at 4,000 THB and up. The rated properties are mostly three and four stars, and the average guest score is among the highest of the three villages. Each listing states whether the property is on the bay, in the village or on the hill, and the road in, since the lanes up from the beach are short but steep.

How do you get to Chalok Baan Kao?

From Mae Haad pier a pick-up truck taxi costs about 440 THB per vehicle and takes under ten minutes on the paved road that climbs over the low hill south of the town; most resorts collect guests if they know the boat time, and a taxi-bike is enough for one person with a backpack. By scooter it is five to ten minutes from the pier and fifteen from Sairee, on roads that are hilly but paved. Taxis wait by the 7-Eleven at the entrance to the village; to reach Sairee in the evening it is easier to arrange the return in advance or rent a scooter, which costs about 150 to 400 THB a day. June Juea is reached by a short concrete lane or the coastal footpath, Freedom Beach by the road past the John Suwan car park, Shark Bay and Sai Daeng by the paved road east, five to ten minutes.

What is there to do in and around Chalok Baan Kao?

Diving from the bay, first: the schools here run their own boats to the southern sites, Shark Island, Southwest Pinnacle and the Sattakut wreck among them, and Open Water courses at the same 9,000 to 14,000 THB as elsewhere. The John Suwan viewpoint, a ten to fifteen-minute climb from the Freedom Beach road, gives the best view on the island over the two bays that flank the southern cape (50 to 100 THB). Shark Bay, ten minutes east, is where blacktip reef sharks and green turtles feed in knee-deep water, best before nine in the morning; Sai Daeng, next to it, has a reef a few metres from the sand and a kayak run out to Shark Island at sunset. The village has restaurants, a 7-Eleven with an ATM, a nursing clinic, dive shops and a small turtle-conservation programme run with the rescue base. Nights are quiet: a few bars on the beach, dinner on the decks, and Sairee's nightlife fifteen minutes away for those who want it.

When to stay in Chalok Baan Kao

Chalok faces south and is sheltered from November to March, when the bay is at its calmest and clearest; it stays swimmable through the green season, with more chop from July to September. November, with its rain and cancelled boats, is the low point everywhere on Koh Tao, and the cheapest weeks here are November to early December and late May to June. The dive resorts are fullest around the mid-December to February peak and in July and August, when a room without a course booking is hard to find; in the shoulder months, March to June and September to October, this is the best-value village on the island.