Koh Lipe, a hidden pearl of Thailand! »

Koh Lipe is a Thai island located at the Southern West side of Thailand, close to Malaysia. It’s a true and hidden paradise, since the island is still very quiet and unspoiled. I’ve visited Koh Lipe during my roundtrip through Malaysia and loved every single minute of my time on the island.

This guide will help you prepare your trip to Koh Lipe (or will hopefully convince you to go to Koh Lipe)!

Must sees and do’s

Koh Lipe is a small island, but there’s enough to do and discover. Click here for tips on how to get to Koh Lipe and continue reading to find out all the fun things to do!

Walking Street
The most well-known street of Koh Lipe will probably Walking Street. Here you can find most of the shops and restaurants which the island has to offer. Both during the day and evening you can entertain yourself in Walking Street. The atmosphere at night is very nice, which makes it a great place to have a drink at one of the bars.

Snorkeling or diving
Koh Lipe is thé island for snorkeling and diving. The water is crystal clear, very quiet and the coral reefs are very close to the beaches. The location of the coral reefs is perfect, because you don’t have to take a boat to reach the snorkel and dive spots. You can just walk into the water and you can go snorkeling or diving straight away.

Kayaking
Because the water is so quiet, Koh Lipe also is a great place to go kayaking. You can rent a kayak for a small price and have a sporty afternoon.

Koh Adang
You can easily make a trip to Koh Adang, an island close to Koh LIpe. From the Nothern part of Sunrise beach you can take a long tail boat to Koh Adang. Besides beautiful, white beaches, you can also find here a magnificent viewpoint on top of the mountain. It’s nice to have a walk to the viewpoint and to watch the amazing views.

You can pay a visit to Koh Adang as a day trip, but it’s also possible to stay the night on the island. Although Koh Adang is a little bigger than Koh Lipe, it’s also even more quiet.

Koh Lipe’s beaches

Koh Lipe has some beautiful beaches. Pattaya Beach probably is the biggest and most developed beach, where you can also find the most accommodations. Therefor, this beach is the most crowded one. From here you can walk straight into Walking Street. If you don’t want to go far from Pattaya Beach, you can go around a corner and lay down at Sanom Beach; which is much more quiet.

Sunset Beach and Sunrise Beach are other beautiful beaches. Like the names already tell, at Sunset Beach you can watch the sunset and at Sunrise Beach you can watch a beautiful sunrise.

The most quiet beach will probably be Secret Beach (Patai Galah Beach). You have to walk a little through a “jungle” path, but you won’t be disappointed!

Getting around Koh Lipe

Like told before, Koh Lipe is a very small island so you can easily reach the beaches and Walking Street by foot. There are no cars or buses, what gives a relaxing atmosphere. The only public transportation you can take, is a scooter with sidecar (most accommodations also offer a free transfer with a scooter from the place where you arrive on the island).

Or you can travel around the island by long tail boat. You can find them anywhere on Koh Lipe! By long tail boat you can go on a snorkel tour or you can go to Koh Adang for example.

Where to stay?

Nowadays, there are enough accommodations to chose from for you stay on Koh Lipe. The island still is truly a hidden paradise, however it’s also true that more and more people hear about Koh Lipe and want to travel to the island. Most accommodations can be found on Pattaya Beach. You’ve luxurious accommodations, but also more budget ones.

During our stay on Koh Lipe, we’ve stayed at the Zodiac Beach Resort. The accommodation offers nice rooms in little beach houses. From your little house you can walk straight to the beach and the water. It’s beautiful.

How to get to the island

Koh Lipe is only reachable by boat. Most travelers stay around Krabi before they go to Koh Lipe. From here you can easily take a ferry. Same is for Phuket and other islands, like Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and Koh Tarutao.

Traveling from Langkawi (Malaysia) to Koh Lipe

Thanks to the fact that Koh Lipe is located near Langkawi, a Malaysian island, it’s quite easy to reach Koh Lipe by ferry from Langkawi (this takes around 1,5 hour). The ferries go from the months October to May. During the other months they don’t go due to the rain season. Keep in mind that it take some more time to enter the island when you come from Langkawi, because you need to go through immigration for a temporary, Thai visa.

At the ferry terminal in Langkawi you need to fill in an arrival card and you’ll get a stamp in your passport. You need to give the passport to the employees on the ferry, who gives the passports at arrival to the immigration office. When you arrive on Koh Lipe, you need to wait at the immigration office, where you’ll get your passport back. At that point you’ll have a temporary visa of 30 days. (watch out: it may differ per traveler’s nationality how the visa regime works. The process I’ve described is for, among other countries, the Netherlands; my home country)

Have you ever heard of, or been to Koh Lipe before?

Author: Tamara

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