Khao Sok is a band 2 park at 200 baht for a foreign adult — but the Ratchaprapha Dam side is published at 300, and if you do both zones in one day you pay once, at the higher rate. Keep the ticket. The park’s own raft houses on Cheow Lan lake are 400 baht a night for a two-person room. The lake is a reservoir, filled in 1987. Rafflesia flowers November to April and lasts four or five days. Access is Highway 401, about 127 km from Surat Thani.
Two prices for one park
Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 — Royal Gazette, 9 December 2021, in force 7 June 2022 — puts Khao Sok in band 2: 200 baht for a foreign adult, 100 for a foreign child, 40 and 20 for Thai visitors. That is the figure the schedule gives, and it is the figure quoted everywhere.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand, however, publishes the park as operating two rates by zone: the band figure on the mountain side and around the headquarters, and 300 / 150 for foreigners in the Ratchaprapha Dam zone — the Cheow Lan lake side, which is where most visitors actually go. Thai rates stay at 40 / 20 in both. And there is a rule for people doing both: you pay once, at the highest applicable rate, if you visit both zones on the same day. TAT’s own advice is to keep the ticket on you, because rangers check.
| Where and who | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign adult - mountain and HQ zone | 200 baht | Band 2, Schedule 1 of the DNP regulation |
| Foreign child - mountain and HQ zone | 100 baht | Band 2, Schedule 1 |
| Foreign adult - Ratchaprapha Dam zone | 300 baht | Published by TAT as the park's rate; instrument not readable today |
| Foreign child - Ratchaprapha Dam zone | 150 baht | Published by TAT as the park's rate |
| Both zones in one day, foreign adult | 300 baht once | TAT: charged once, at the highest applicable rate |
| Thai adult / child, either zone | 40 / 20 baht | Band 2, Schedule 1 |
| Car / motorcycle | 30 / 20 baht | Schedule 2, one rate nationwide |
Khao Sok is not among the five parks named in the department’s special-rate announcement of 19 September 2022, so whatever sets the 300-baht lake rate is a different instrument, and it is one we could not read today — the department’s own web estate was unreachable. Plan on 300 for a foreign adult, be pleased if the mountain gate charges 200. As everywhere, a child means age three to fourteen complete or under 140 cm, and a foreigner means anyone without Thai nationality: there is no resident rate.
The government's raft houses, and what they cost
Floating accommodation on Cheow Lan is usually sold as a package at several thousand baht a head. What is much less known is that the national park runs its own raft houses, and their prices are published in the Royal Gazette, room by room.
| Unit | Where | Sleeps | Baht / night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khao Sok 101 (Sanae Chan Khiao) | Headquarters | 4 | 800 |
| Khao Sok 102 (Bua Phut) | Headquarters | 4 | 2,500 |
| Khao Sok 103 (Phakakrong) | Headquarters | 6 | 1,800 |
| Khao Sok 911 / 912 (youth camps) | Headquarters, shared bathrooms | 6 per room | 600 |
| Phae Nang Prai 1 and 2 | Ao Somdet ranger station, on the lake | 2 per room | 400 |
| Phae Ton Toei 1 and 2 | Khlong Pae ranger station, on the lake | 2 per room | 400 |
| Phae Kraisorn 1 and 2 | Kraisorn ranger station, on the lake | 2 per room | 400 |
| Khlong Ka 601-604 and Phae Khlong Ka 1-4 | Khlong Ka, by the dam | 6 | 1,800 |
| Phae Khlong Ka 5-10 | Khlong Ka, shared bathrooms | 2 | 600 |
Three of the raft clusters — Nang Prai at the Ao Somdet ranger station, Ton Toei at Khlong Pae and Kraisorn at the Kraisorn station — are sets of single rooms sleeping two with shared bathrooms, at 400 baht a night. The Khlong Ka cluster by the dam has six-person units with two bathrooms at 1,800, and two-person rooms at 600.
What the 400 baht does not include is everything else: the boat across, food, and any guiding. A long-tail has to be hired at the dam, and Schedule 2 of the regulation charges the boat its own fee to enter the park — 50 baht for a speedboat taking up to 30 passengers, 20 for a long-tail up to 20. Camping is 30 baht per person per night on land and 80 on marine or island sites. Accommodation is discounted 30 per cent Monday to Thursday outside holidays.
The lake is a reservoir, and that is the interesting part
Cheow Lan is not a natural lake. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand built Ratchaprapha Dam — originally named Chiao Lan Dam — across the Khlong Saeng at Ban Chiao Lan, in Tambon Khao Phang, Ban Ta Khun district. EGAT’s own figures: a rockfill dam with a clay core, 94 m high, 761 m along the crest, 12 m wide at the top, impounding 5,639 million cubic metres across a reservoir of 185 square kilometres, with a 240 MW powerhouse. Construction ran from 9 February 1982 to September 1987, and the dam was formally opened on 30 September 1987.
Which means the limestone towers standing in the water — Khao Sam Kloe, the three-peaked karst on every photograph of the place, and the ridges people paddle between — were hilltops in a forested valley within living memory. The park now covers about 738.74 square kilometres including the area above the reservoir, and it is the largest tract of evergreen rainforest in southern Thailand and a headwater forest of the Tapi river.
Rafflesia, and the rest of what is here
Bua phut, Rafflesia kerrii, is the park’s signature and the hardest thing to plan for. The flower is 50 to 60 cm across, five thick petals over a collar of overlapping brown-yellow bracts. The bud takes eight to nine months to develop; the open flower lasts four or five days and then blackens. It flowers roughly November to April, and in Thailand it occurs only in Khao Sok and in neighbouring Khlong Phanom National Park. There is a marked Rafflesia trail on the headquarters side. Ask at the park office on the morning; do not build a trip around it.
The park also holds two endemic palms, the white-backed palm and the Rahu palm, and rare birds including banded pitta. On the headquarters side the walking is waterfalls — the Bang Hua Raet to Ton Kloi trail, Sip-et Chan (“eleven tiers”), Wing Hin, Than Sawan and Mae Yai. On the dam side it is boats, the Coral Cave, the Kraisorn viewpoint and the rafts.
Getting there
From Surat Thani city, Highway 401 towards Phang Nga for about 127 km to the Khao Sok junction, then right for 1.9 km to the headquarters at Mu 6, Khlong Sok, Phanom, Surat Thani 84250.
By minivan: from the small-bus station at Talat Kaset 2 in Surat Thani, hourly between 07:30 and 17:30, about two and a half hours, and the operator will collect from Surat Thani railway station on request. Returning, minivans leave the junction by the park entrance hourly between 06:30 and 16:00. A separate Krabi–Phang Nga–Khao Lak–Takua Pa service stops at the same junction, which is what makes Khao Sok a natural stop between the Andaman coast and the Gulf rather than a dedicated trip.
What we could not confirm
- The instrument behind the 300-baht dam-zone rate. The Gazette schedule puts Khao Sok in band 2 at 200, and the park is not on the September 2022 special-rate list. The state tourism agency publishes 300 as the park’s lake-zone rate along with the same-day highest-rate-once rule, and we have used that. We could not find the announcement that authorises it, because the department’s own sites were down.
- The gazetted area and the date of establishment. Published figures we could reach disagree — 738.74 sq km from the tourism agency against other figures near 741 sq km, and dates of 22 and 23 December 1980. We have printed the government tourism figure and left the founding date out rather than pick a day.
- Opening hours and any seasonal closure. No announcement of an annual rest closure at Khao Sok was reachable. The southern wet season runs long here — this is one of the wettest places in Thailand — and trails and lake access can shut on the day.
- Whether the park raft houses can be booked as easily as the private ones. They are in the department’s reservation system in principle. Availability, transfer arrangements and whether food is provided are not things we could verify.
- Everything on the department’s park pages. On 7 September 2026 nps.dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th were unreachable from two networks, the first timing out at the TCP level. Fees and accommodation here come from the Royal Gazette text of the regulation, the zone split from the state tourism agency, and the dam figures from EGAT.
Frequently asked questions
It depends which half of the park you enter, and this is the thing almost nobody tells visitors in advance. Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 places Khao Sok in band 2, which is 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 for a foreign child, against 40 and 20 for Thai visitors. But the Tourism Authority of Thailand publishes the park as charging two different rates: 200 / 100 for foreigners in the mountain zone and around the headquarters, and 300 / 150 in the Ratchaprapha Dam zone, which is the Cheow Lan lake side. Thai rates are 40 / 20 in both. If you visit both zones on the same day you pay once, at the higher rate - so 300 for a foreign adult - and TAT advises carrying your ticket because rangers do ask to see it. We could not read the instrument that sets the 300, so budget 300 and treat 200 as the discount for staying on the mountain side.
Yes, and it is far cheaper than the tour price suggests. The Royal Gazette annex lists the national park's own raft houses on the reservoir by name: Phae Nang Prai groups 1 and 2 at the Ao Somdet ranger station, Phae Ton Toei groups 1 and 2 at Khlong Pae, and Phae Kraisorn groups 1 and 2 at the Kraisorn station - each a set of single rooms sleeping two, with shared bathrooms, at 400 baht a night. Near the dam itself, the Khlong Ka units and the first four Khlong Ka rafts take six people with two bathrooms at 1,800, and Khlong Ka rafts 5 to 10 take two at 600. Those are the government rates, not a tour package: transport across the lake, food and guiding are separate, and a long-tail boat has to be hired. Monday to Thursday, outside public holidays, the accommodation rate falls 30 per cent under clause 14 of the regulation.
It is a reservoir, and a young one. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand built Ratchaprapha Dam - formerly named Chiao Lan Dam - across the Khlong Saeng at Ban Chiao Lan in Tambon Khao Phang, Ban Ta Khun district, Surat Thani. EGAT gives it as a rockfill dam with a clay core, 94 metres high, 761 metres along the crest and 12 metres wide at the top, impounding 5,639 million cubic metres over a reservoir of 185 square kilometres, with a 240 MW powerhouse. Construction ran from 9 February 1982 to September 1987 and the dam was formally opened on 30 September 1987. The limestone towers rising straight out of the water - the reason the lake is nicknamed Thailand's Guilin - are the tops of hills that were dry land inside living memory. Khao Sam Kloe, the three-peaked karst on every photograph of the lake, is one of them.
Bua phut - Rafflesia kerrii - flowers roughly November to April, and in Thailand it grows only in Khao Sok National Park and neighbouring Khlong Phanom National Park. The timing is the hard part: the bud takes eight to nine months to develop and the open flower lasts only four or five days before it blackens and rots. So there is no reliable date, only a season and local knowledge of which buds are close. The flower itself is 50 to 60 centimetres across with five thick petals and a brown-yellow collar of overlapping bracts at the base. There is a marked Rafflesia trail on the headquarters side of the park, and it is one of the few things worth asking the park office about on the morning rather than planning around.
From Surat Thani city, take Highway 401 towards Phang Nga for about 127 km to the Khao Sok junction, then turn right for 1.9 km to the park headquarters at Mu 6, Khlong Sok, Phanom. Without a car there are minivans: from the small-bus station at Talat Kaset 2 in Surat Thani they leave hourly between 07:30 and 17:30 and take about two and a half hours, and the operator will collect from Surat Thani railway station on request. Going the other way, minivans leave the junction by the park entrance hourly between 06:30 and 16:00. There is also a Krabi to Phang Nga to Khao Lak to Takua Pa service that stops at the same junction, which makes Khao Sok an easy stop between the Andaman coast and the Gulf rather than a dedicated trip.
Honestly, mostly to visit. Khlong Sok is a small village strung along one road, and the practical business of living - hospitals, schools, an airport, a supermarket that stocks what you expect - is in Surat Thani. What the area does offer is the thing coastal southern Thailand mostly cannot: forest, cool water and no beach traffic, about two hours inland from both coasts. The realistic pattern is a base in Surat Thani or on the Andaman side with the park as a regular weekend, rather than a house in the valley. If forest rather than sea is the reason you are looking at the south at all, that trade is worth thinking about before you commit to an island.
Related guides
- National parks in Thailand — the bands, the booking system and the rules that carry a fine.
- Surat Thani — the mainland base for the park and the Gulf islands.
- Island living in Thailand — the alternative the same province offers.
- Sea kayaking — the other way to see limestone from the water.
- Trekking in Thailand — the protected areas and the guide rule.
- Doi Inthanon National Park — the other end of the country and the other extreme of forest.
- Explore Thailand — the section this guide sits in.
Forest instead of beach, two hours from both coasts
Southern Thailand is sold as sea. Khao Sok is the argument for a mainland base with the water inland rather than out the front door.
Sources & References
- Royal Gazette, vol. 138 special part 301 Ngor, 9 December 2021 - DNP Regulation B.E. 2564 on service fees. Schedule 1 places Khao Sok in band 2 at Thai adult 40 / child 20 and foreign adult 200 / child 100; Schedule 2 sets vehicle and boat rates; Schedule 4 and its annex set camping and accommodation rates including every Khao Sok bungalow and raft-house room by zone and price
- Department of National Parks news service, 2 June 2022 - the band lists park by park with provinces; Khao Sok appears in band 2 under Surat Thani
- Tourism Authority of Thailand - Khao Sok National Park: about 738.74 sq km including the area above the Ratchaprapha reservoir; two different entry rates, 200 / 100 for foreigners in the mountain and headquarters zone and 300 / 150 in the Ratchaprapha Dam zone, with a single highest-rate charge if you visit both in one day; headquarters at Mu 6, Khlong Sok, Phanom, Surat Thani 84250, tel 0 7739 5139 and 0 7739 5154-5; the Rafflesia kerrii description, its 50-60 cm flower, its 8-9 month bud and 4-5 day bloom, its November to April season and its occurrence in Thailand only in Khao Sok and Khlong Phanom national parks; the Highway 401 route and the minivan services
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand - Ratchaprapha Dam: a rockfill dam with a clay core, 94 m high, 761 m crest length, 12 m crest width, reservoir capacity 5,639 million cubic metres over 185 square kilometres, powerhouse 240 MW, built 9 February 1982 to September 1987 and opened 30 September 1987, formerly named Chiao Lan Dam
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand - Ratchaprapha Dam as a visitor destination, noting that the national park's own raft houses sit inside the reservoir alongside private ones and that long-tail boats can be hired to tour it
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
