Everything you need to sort before you land, and everything we sort once you are here.
Two things to sort before boarding: check that your nationality still gets a visa exemption, and fill in the digital arrival card. Both are free and take about ten minutes.
| What | Where it stands (checked 31 Aug 2026) |
|---|---|
| Visa exemption | 60 days per entry until 14 September 2026, then 30 days from 15 September 2026, for 59 nationalities including all 27 EU countries. |
| Extension | One 30-day extension at an immigration office, 1,900 THB. On Koh Samui the office is at Maenam, on the north coast. |
| Digital arrival card (TDAC) | Mandatory for every foreign traveller since 1 May 2025. Free, online, to be filled within the 3 days before arrival - one per entry, even if you leave and come back. |
| Passport | Valid at least 6 months on the day you land. |
| Onward ticket | Rarely checked by immigration, regularly checked by airlines at check-in. Have a printed or saved return or onward flight. |
| Visa on arrival | Now limited to three nationalities. If yours no longer appears on the exemption list, apply for an e-visa before flying. |
Thailand is cutting its visa exemption from 60 to 30 days. If you booked a long stay under the old rule and land after that date, count your nights again: overstaying costs 500 THB a day and is recorded on your passport.
Immigration rules are the one thing on this page we cannot keep permanently current. Check the two official sites a week before you fly, tdac.immigration.go.th for the arrival card and thaievisa.go.th for visas - and trust them over any blog, ours included.
The TDAC is free. Any site charging you for it is a reseller, not the government.
Koh Samui takes cards almost everywhere a tourist goes, and cash everywhere else. The one thing worth knowing is how much a badly-timed withdrawal costs you.
220 THB per withdrawalEvery Thai ATM charges a flat foreign-card fee, on top of whatever your own bank takes. Withdrawing 20,000 THB once costs the same fee as withdrawing 2,000.
Always refuse the conversionWhen the ATM or the card machine offers to charge you in euros or pounds, say no and pay in baht. That 'courtesy' rate costs 3 to 7 %.
Cards up the coast, cash inlandResorts, restaurants and dive shops take cards. Markets, longtail boats, songthaews, massage huts and most family kitchens do not.
Skip the airport counterExchange booths in Chaweng and Lamai give a noticeably better rate than the arrivals hall. Bring clean, unmarked notes.
| Item | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Bottle of water, 7-Eleven | 15 ฿ |
| Plate of pad thai at a street kitchen | 60–90 ฿ |
| Beer in a beach bar | 90–160 ฿ |
| One hour of Thai massage | 300–450 ฿ |
| Songthaew hop along the coast road | 50–100 ฿ |
| Taxi, airport to Chaweng | 500–700 ฿ |
Prices seen on the island in 2026, for orientation only. Our tour rates are on each tour page and include hotel pick-up.
Tourist SIM at the airportAIS and TrueMove counters sit in the arrivals garden at Samui airport. Around 300–600 THB buys 8 to 15 days of data that you will not manage to use up.
eSIM if your phone takes oneBuy it before you fly and you land connected, with no queue and no counter. Same networks underneath.
Your passport is requiredThai law ties every SIM to an identity. Registration happens at the counter in two minutes, you cannot buy an anonymous prepaid card.
Coverage is a coast thing4G and 5G are excellent along the ring road and on every beach. It thins out in the hills behind Maenam and disappears entirely around the Ang Thong islands.
Hotel and restaurant wifi is generally fast and free across the island. On our boats there is no signal for part of the day, that is rather the point.
Koh Samui's climate runs on its own calendar, the island's wet months are not Thailand's. It rains here when Phuket is at its driest.
The colour is the season, not tomorrow's forecast. Koh Samui sits on the Gulf side: our wettest weeks land in November, when the Andaman coast is at its best.
Dry, sunny days and water like glass, the best underwater visibility of the year. Everything runs, every day.
Our advice · The best season for every tour. Book Ang Thong and private boats a few weeks ahead, February and March sell out first.
Good days for: Ang Thong Marine Park · Koh Tao & Koh Nang Yuan
Hot, with a loud twenty-minute shower most afternoons and sun on either side of it. The island empties and prices follow.
Our advice · A lovely period with fewer crowds, and the best value of the year on a private boat. Plan the sea for the morning.
Good days for: Private charters · Sunset cruise
Changeable: brilliant mornings, heavier afternoons, and a sea that can turn within a day. The quietest weeks of the year.
Our advice · Trips are confirmed the evening before, weather permitting. Keep one spare day in your plan and you will get your day out.
Good days for: Koh Madsum · Island tour & temples
The island's wet weeks. November is the peak of it; December usually dries out around the 20th, then turns festive.
Our advice · Favour land tours - jungle, temples, waterfalls, cooking class - and take the sea whenever it gives us a window.
Good days for: Jungle safari · Thai cooking class
Rain here arrives as a heavy hour, not a grey week. Even in November most days have a usable morning, which is why we confirm sea tours the evening before rather than cancelling a month in advance.
📖 Read our month-by-month guide: Best time to visit Koh Samui · Which beach to choose
Not sharks, not snakes, not food. On Koh Samui it is scooters, sunburn and the one afternoon somebody swam out past the reef line in October.
Scooters, by a distanceThe island's main injury cause, every single year. You need a licence valid for motorbikes plus an international permit - without them your travel insurance will not pay, whatever the policy says on the cover.
The sun at 12°NThe UV index sits at extreme between 11 am and 3 pm. Marine parks ban sunscreens containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-MBC or butylparaben, bring a reef-safe one or you will be turned back at Ang Thong.
Water and iceTap water is not drinkable; bottled water costs 15 THB everywhere. Ice is industrially made and perfectly safe, the cylinders with a hole through the middle are the giveaway.
Mosquitoes at duskDengue is present on the island year-round. Repellent at sunrise and sunset does the job; there is no malaria risk on Samui.
Give the dogs spaceBeach dogs are usually placid and always unvaccinated. Do not pet, do not feed, and treat any bite or scratch as a same-day hospital visit.
Travel insurance, seriouslyPrivate hospitals here are excellent and want a card or a guarantee of payment before treatment. A night in one costs more than the flight that brought you.
| Number | Who answers |
|---|---|
| 1155 | Tourist Police - English spoken, the number to call first |
| 1669 | Ambulance and emergency medical services, free, nationwide |
| 191 | Police |
| 199 | Fire and rescue |
| +66 77 42 xxxx | Your hotel reception, save it before you go out. It is the fastest translator you will find at 3 am. |
Koh Samui has three private hospitals used to treating foreign visitors - Bangkok Hospital Samui, Samui International Hospital and Thai International Hospital - all on the north-east side, within 10 to 20 minutes of Chaweng and Bophut. They run 24-hour emergency departments and English-speaking staff. Serious cases are flown to Bangkok, which is one more reason to carry insurance that covers medical evacuation.
On a tour with us: the crew carries a first-aid kit and a charged phone with signal for the coastal legs, and every guide knows the fastest route back to a pier. Tell us about allergies, asthma, a heart condition or a pregnancy when you book, it changes nothing to the price and quite a lot to how we plan the day.
In templesShoulders and knees covered, shoes off before the last step, and never point your feet at a Buddha image. Women should not hand anything directly to a monk.
Head high, feet lowThe head is the noblest part of the body, the feet the lowest. Do not ruffle a child's hair, do not step over someone sitting on the floor.
The monarchyCriticising the royal family is a criminal offence in Thailand, prosecuted seriously, including for things said online. Stand for the anthem in cinemas.
AlcoholSold from 11 am to midnight since the afternoon ban was lifted on 28 May 2026. Sales still stop entirely on major Buddhist holidays and on election days.
CannabisPrescription-only since June 2025, the free-for-all is over. Buying without a Thai prescription, and smoking in public, are offences.
On the beachTopless and nude sunbathing are illegal, however empty the beach looks. Cover up when you leave the sand for a shop or a restaurant.
None of this is enforced aggressively against visitors who are visibly making an effort, and the effort is noticed. A wai returned, shoes left at a door and a covered shoulder in a temple will change the temperature of your whole trip.
SongthaewThe red pick-up trucks run the ring road all day. Wave one down, agree the fare before you climb in, ring the bell to get off. 50–100 THB along the coast.
Grab and BoltBoth work on Samui and both show the price before you accept, which removes the whole negotiation. Fewer cars late at night.
TaxisMeters exist and are almost never used. Agree the price through the window before you open the door, or take a Grab.
Our transfersAirport, pier and hotel runs at a fixed price agreed in advance, with a driver who waits if the flight is late.
Airport arrivals, pier connections and evening returns, see fixed prices per destination.
📖 Read more: Getting around Koh Samui · How to get to Koh Samui
Swimsuit, quick-dry towel and a change of clothes for days at sea.
Required in marine parks. Buy it at home, the choice here is thin and expensive.
Covers shoulders in a temple, doubles as a beach towel and a sunshade on the boat.
Reef sandals for rocky entries and the Na Muang waterfall trail. Flip-flops slide on wet rock.
Motion-sickness tablets, plasters, and any prescription in its original box with the prescription.
220 V, 50 Hz, sockets that take European round pins and American flat pins. UK three-pin plugs need an adapter.
For markets, songthaews, massages and tips. Cards cover the rest.
There is no shade on a boat deck between 11 am and 3 pm, and no wind either when we are anchored.
On board we provide the rest: waterproof phone pouches, snorkelling gear in every size, life jackets, drinking water and fruit.
Airport, piers and hospital, each with its coordinates, and the rest of the island mapped.
Samui Airport (USM)Big Buddha Pier (Bang Rak)Nathon PierMaenam PierLipa Noi car ferryBangkok Hospital Samui
Browse the whole category: Arrivals & useful spots · Open the island map