Day trip to Koh Lipe

Koh Lipe is the southern most island of Thailand and considered by many as the one with the most beautiful beaches in Thailand. We came there for a day trip from Langkawi, but you can easily get there also from the coast of Thailand or from other islands in Thailand as there are daily ferry connections between all of them.

Given we were coming from another country, while the ferry trip only took 1.5 hours we ended up spending much more time in transit due to all the immigration and custom procedures. On Malaysian side you had to be at the port 1 hour in advance, and in Thailand even 2.5 hours in advance, although you could spend part of the waiting time on the beach next to the customs.

Getting from Langkawi to Koh Lipe

At Langkawi you can take a ferry to Koh Lipe either from Telaga harbour (as we did) or from Kuah ferry terminal. We bought return tickets online the previous day and they cost roughly 60€ per person.

The ferry itself was a small catamaran carrying roughly 100 people. When we took it (early april) there was plenty of free seats on the ferry.

At Koh Lipe the ferry docks some 200m from the shore of Koh Lipe, from where smaller boats will take poeple to the shore for the immigration procedures. You also have to pay a small fee to enter the island as it’s part of the Tarutao Marina National Park (I know – gotta love the name!!!)

Exploring Koh Lipe

Koh Lipe itself is a small island with all shops and many restaurants centralised around the main walking street. This is also where an ATM is located in case you need some cash (which you’ll likely do even on a day trip). Just pay attention to not withdraw too much money like I did – I accidentally took 30 000 bhatis instead of 3000 (800€ instead of 80€). I can assure you I wasn’t feeling very proud of myself after doing that…

The most popular beach on the island seems to be the sunset beach which has amazingly white sand and super clear turquoise water. You can also snorkel directly from the beach and see some corals.

When we got to the beach we headed to the southern most part of the beach. This proved to be a great spot for snorkelling, although less experienced snorkelers and children should be careful as we felt some currents pushing us away from the shore. But it wasn’t anything a decent swimmer couldn’t handle.

The little cove was also a stunning place to spend time relaxing with trees offering natural shade.

Soon it was time for lunch and since we were feeling lazy we opted for the restaurant in the same spot, the ten moon resort where we had also stored our day packs while snorkelling. It was great to get some authentic and tasty (and properly spicy!) thai food.

After handing in our passports to immigration 2.5 hours before departure on the sunrise beach, we spent the rest of our time on the beach relaxing and swimming, and one of us also went for a massage. And yes, since we were in Thailand there were plenty of places offering a massage for a very good price!

I hope you enjoyed my post!