Koh Tao in Covid times, what is keeping us busy?

Posted May 21st, 2021 by Elisabeth

We are still more or less in lockdown on the beautiful island of Koh Tao. Not allowed to travel without doing quarantine even to different provinces within Thailand, we are fully taking advantage of the fact we can still go scuba diving, snorkeling and freediving.

Over the past weeks the weather has been increasinly more beautiful and we enjoy the stunning sunsets from Sairee beach more than ever. Despite the fact that Koh Tao is very small, the island has many beautiful, white sand beaches with warm, turqoise waters to go to. In some places you can go snorkeling off the beach, like Ao Leuk and Tanote Bay and find the baby blacktip reef sharks in the shallows again like every year in May. At the deeper dive sites we have had quite a lot of sightings of the majestic Whaleshark. Koh TAo is on the migratory route of these gentle giants and so every year in May and November (and occasionaly in other months too) we see them quite a lot!

sairee beach covid

A great advantage of having less people on the island at the moment is that the boat traffic is minimal, so paddle boarding, kayaking or even snorkeling to the neighboring island of Koh Nang Yuan is a great way to spend the day. There is a stunning view point overlooking the 3 islands of Nang Yuan that are connected with sand banks.

The past week the visibility on the deeper dive sites was stunning! And we were lucky enough to spend 2 hours with a 6m Whaleshark one day and about 20 minutes the next day with a smaller one. Of course we took a massive amount of photos! The rest of the week is spent editing.

sunset sairee palm tree

Koh Tao News FAQs

✚

Which are the best months to photograph whale sharks underwater in Thailand?

We have Whalesharks passing by all year round, but the biggest chance of diving with one will be in May and October/November and oftentimes in Augus too.

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Can I travel to Koh Tao during covid-19?

If you are coming from abroad, you will have to do 14 days quarantine in Bangkok first, but after that if you fly down straight to Koh Samui and directly travel to Koh Tao, there is no additional quarantine to you for you here on the island. If you come from Bangkok, you will have to quarantine on Koh Tao for 14 days. Some other red and dark red zones within Thailand require quarantine as well. Make sure you check the latest guidelines before heading down.

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Has coronavirus affected the scuba diving in Thailand?

It certainly is way more quiet out here since Covid started. Only very few customers make it to the scuba dive destinations. On the other hand we can see a massive improvent of the health of our reefs. It is a well deserved break for the corals. In some places you are not allowed to scuba dive at the moment (Phuket zone), but on Koh Tao some dive shops are still operating.

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