What should I avoid in Koh Tao?

The scooter is the trap that hurts the most people. Rentals near Mae Haad pier run 200 to 300 baht a day, about 6 to 9 US dollars, and many shops ask for your passport as the deposit. Don't give it: offer cash instead, then photograph every panel, both mirrors and the fuel gauge before you leave the lot, because the classic Koh Tao shakedown is a bill of several thousand baht for a scratch that was already there. The roads are the bigger problem. The descents to Ao Tanote and Ao Leuk are steep concrete ramps that overheat brakes, and near the bottom they turn into sand and loose gravel, which is how people end up around Sairee with scraped shins and bandaged elbows in what the island calls the Koh Tao tattoo. If you have never ridden a scooter, take a songthaew pickup truck from Mae Haad instead. Fares are usually fixed at around 100 to 200 baht per person to Sairee or Chalok Baan Kao, with a higher minimum if you ride alone.

Sairee Beach after 11pm is where most of the island's bad nights start. The beachfront bars sell buckets, a plastic pail of Thai whisky, Red Bull and mixer, for 200 to 300 baht, and they tend to use the cheapest spirit on the island, which in Thailand has occasionally meant bootleg alcohol, so order a sealed bottle of Chang or Singha instead. The fire shows on the sand near Lotus Bar are worth watching from the back, but the fire-rope skipping games that pull tourists in are not, because the burns turn up at the Mae Haad clinics the next morning. The 2 km beach is a good walk at sunset: the sand is still warm underfoot and you can smell grilled squid from the stalls. After dark, walk back with friends. TTDI rates solo-traveler safety 7.6/10 (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), which is a decent score, but on the unlit Sairee path home it still makes sense to have company.

Koh Tao is said to certify more new divers than almost anywhere in the world, so cheap courses are the ones to avoid. An Open Water course runs around 11,000 baht at most schools in Sairee and Chalok Baan Kao, and a shop quoting far below that is likely cutting instructor time or running eight students to one teacher. Before you pay, ask about the student-to-instructor ratio and which boat they use. We'd skip the round-island snorkel tours that reach Shark Bay at midday with 40 people in the water: the blacktip reef sharks tend to show up before about 9am, and by noon the water over the shallow reef is cloudy with stirred-up sand. Swim out from the beach at Ao Thian Ok at 7am on your own. Koh Nang Yuan, the three islands joined by a sandbar off the northwest coast, charges a landing fee and bans plastic bottles and fins. The morning longtail boats there cost less and are quieter than the 2pm tour boats.

Timing matters right now. Koh Tao sits on the Gulf of Thailand side, where the northeast monsoon usually brings the heaviest rain and swell from late October through December, and on 9 October the island sat at 28.1°C under overcast skies with 73% humidity, the sticky kind where your shirt clings by noon. Lomprayah and Songserm cancel or delay crossings to Chumphon and Koh Phangan when the swell rises, so never book an international flight from Bangkok or Samui on the same day you leave the island. Leave a spare night. In rough weather, skip the overnight cargo boat from Surat Thani as well, where the deck mats smell of diesel and the boat rolls for hours. The John-Suwan Mountain Viewpoint above Chalok Baan Kao charges a small entry fee, and the last 10 minutes are a rock scramble that gets slick after rain. Wear shoes with grip, not flip-flops.