Tarutao National Park

Thailand’s first marine national park protects 51 islands scattered across roughly 1,490 square kilometres of the Andaman Sea, hard against the Malaysian maritime border. Ko Tarutao itself — the largest island and the park’s main gateway — pairs jungle-covered mountains with long, mostly empty beaches; the better coral reefs sit further out around Koh Adang and Koh Lipe. Entry runs 200 THB for foreign adults (100 THB for children) and 40 THB for Thai adults, with the main gate open daily 08:30-16:30.

Tarutao’s other history is what separates it from every other Andaman island brochure. The Thai government built a penal colony here in the late 1930s, holding both ordinary criminals and political prisoners — the population peaked at around 3,000. When World War II cut the island off from mainland supply boats, food and medicine ran out; close to a third of the prisoners died of starvation, malaria, and mistreatment by guards. Survivors on both sides, prisoners and warders alike, turned to piracy in the Malacca Strait, raiding an estimated 130 vessels before British forces stepped in after the war. The prison closed for good by 1948. Weathered building foundations near Talo Wao Bay are what’s left of it — no reconstruction, no plaques dramatising it, just brick footings being reclaimed by forest and one of the more sobering pieces of 20th-century Thai history hiding inside a national park brochure.

The government declared Tarutao Thailand’s first marine national park in 1974 — the same remoteness that made it a workable prison in the 1930s is what kept its reefs, forest, and beaches largely undeveloped once the designation protected them.

Insider Tip: Skip straight past the crowded viewpoint selfie spots and hike to Toe Boo Cliff at sunset — it’s a 20-30 minute climb from the ranger station and most day-trippers never make it up.

Trails cut through rainforest thick with hornbills and langurs, and a longtail boat trip through Tham Chorakhe (Crocodile Cave) winds beneath a mangrove canopy for about a kilometre. Green and hawksbill turtles use several of the park’s quieter beaches to nest in the cooler months, though sightings are opportunistic, not guaranteed. Facilities are deliberately basic — park bungalows and a campground are the only overnight options on Tarutao itself, with no private resorts permitted on the island.

The wider Adang-Rawi group, reachable by a second boat leg from Tarutao or a direct crossing from Pak Bara, is where most of the postcard reef and pale sand actually is — Tarutao itself is the bigger, wilder island, better suited to trekking and history than to a single afternoon of snorkelling. Koh Lipe, part of the same archipelago but administered with more tourist infrastructure, sits close enough that day-trippers sometimes combine the two, though the crossing adds hours to a schedule that’s easy to underestimate.

Watch out: ATMs and card payment don’t exist on Tarutao — bring enough cash for your whole stay, including park fees, food, and any bungalow balance not already paid online.

Boats leave from Pak Bara Pier in Satun’s La-ngu district, with crossing times varying by boat and how rough the Andaman is that day. Pack insect repellent, reef-safe sunscreen, and cash, since facilities stay minimal by design — the whole point of Koh Tarutao is that development stopped decades ago and the park has kept it that way.