Boats only, from Laem Sok, about one hour. Boonsiri runs three sailings a day at 550 baht in high season and two at 600 in low season, and the low-season sheet runs 4 June to 30 September. The island is its own district since 2007 and has 105 sq km of land. Power came by 22 kV submarine cable in 2015; there is no mains water. The hospital has seven beds. Whether the island sits inside Mu Ko Chang National Park is unresolved — see section 05.
Getting there: Laem Sok, not Laem Ngop
The single most common mistake is arriving at the wrong pier. Laem Ngop is where the car ferries leave for Koh Chang. Laem Sok is where the boats leave for Koh Kood. They are different piers on different sides of Trat town.
From Bangkok it is 315 km on Sukhumvit Road to Trat by the Department of National Parks’ own reckoning. The nearest airport is Trat (TDX), which Bangkok Airways states on its own site that it owns and operates, at Khao Saming on the mainland — the same arrangement it has at Samui. Both boat operators sell an airport connection.
| Route | Departures | Crossing | Fare, baht |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laem Sok - Koh Kood (high season, 1 Oct 2026 - 31 May 2027) | 10:45, 13:15, 15:45 | 1 hr | 550 (VIP 600) |
| Laem Sok - Koh Kood (low season, 4 Jun - 30 Sep 2026) | 10:45, 15:00 | 1 hr | 600 (VIP 700) |
| Koh Kood - Laem Sok (low season) | 09:00, 13:00 | 1 hr | 600 (VIP 700) |
| Laem Sok - Koh Kood (Koh Kood Express speedboat) | 10:00 | 1 hr | 600 |
| Trat Airport (TDX) - Koh Kood (Boonsiri, low season) | 09:40, 14:00 | - | 1,000 (VIP 1,100) |
| Bangkok - Koh Kood (Boonsiri, low season) | 05:00, 08:00 | - | 1,100 (VIP 1,200) |
| Koh Kood - Koh Mak (Boonsiri) | 11:00 | 30 min | 400 |
| Koh Kood - Koh Chang, Bang Bao (Boonsiri) | 11:00 | 1 hr 30 | 900 |
All of the above is read off the operators’ own published sheets. Boonsiri lands at Ao Salad pier, Moo 6, at the island’s northern end; the island is road-connected from there to Ao Yai in the south by rural road Tor Ror 6042. The province has separately budgeted 14,597,487 baht to improve the deep-water pier at Ban Khlong Hin Dam.
Fares and departure times above are read directly off each operator’s current published sheet, checked against those sheets on 19 September 2026. Ferry operators revise timetables and fares without much notice, so treat this table as a snapshot rather than a standing rate — confirm the fare when you book.
Vehicles. Neither operator publishes a vehicle fare, and the province applies the word “ferry” only to the Ao Thammachat service to Koh Chang. We take that as a strong indication that you cannot bring a car to Koh Kood, but no official source states it outright, so we are not printing it as a rule.
Out of season, and what the timetable admits
Koh Kood is on the eastern seaboard, so its wet season is the southwest monsoon, which the Thai Meteorological Department puts over Thailand from about mid-May to mid-October. That is the reverse of the Gulf islands off Surat Thani — Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao take their heaviest weather from the northeast monsoon between October and February. If you are choosing between the two coasts, that inversion is the whole point.
The honest measure of low season here is not a rainfall chart, it is the operator’s own behaviour. Boonsiri publishes two separate timetables. The low-season sheet is dated 4 June to 30 September 2026 and the high-season sheet 1 October 2026 to 31 May 2027. Across that line the Laem Sok crossing goes from three sailings a day to two, and the fare goes up, from 550 to 600 baht. Frequency falls by a third; the crossing does not stop.
The Trat provincial public relations office, writing independently of the operator, gives the season to visit as October to the end of May or June — an exact match for Boonsiri’s commercial calendar. Two unrelated sources agreeing on the same boundary is about as good as seasonality evidence gets.
Healthcare: seven beds, and the 13:00 boat
This is the section that should decide the question for most people considering a long stay. The Ministry of Public Health’s facility registry lists Koh Kood Hospital as a community hospital at service level F3, the smallest tier in the Thai system, with 7 beds in actual use against 10 approved.
| Hospital, Trat province | Beds |
|---|---|
| Phra Piya Maharat (provincial, Mueang Trat) | 395 in use - general hospital, level S |
| Khao Saming | 30 |
| Bo Rai | 30 |
| Laem Ngop | 30 |
| Khlong Yai | 30 |
| Koh Chang | 30 |
| Koh Kood | 10 approved, 7 in use - community hospital, level F3 |
Koh Kood is the only hospital in the province below thirty beds. The referral runs to the provincial hospital in Mueang Trat, which the King renamed Phra Piya Maharat Hospital by royal grant with effect from 23 March 2026 — it was Trat Hospital until then, and almost every guide still uses the old name. It is a general hospital at service level S with 395 beds.
The part worth sitting with: getting from one to the other means a boat. On Boonsiri’s low-season sheet the last scheduled departure from Koh Kood is 13:00. Nothing we could find from any official source describes an after-hours medical transfer arrangement, and we could find no recompression chamber anywhere in Trat province. If you have a condition that needs a hospital at short notice, price that in honestly before you sign anything.
Power, water and the things nobody checks
Koh Kood has been on the mainland grid since 2015. The Public Debt Management Office’s evaluation of the Provincial Electricity Authority’s project records a 22 kV submarine cable, the Koh Kood leg 300 sq mm over 33 circuit-km, approved by cabinet on 13 February 2012, with supply commencing 18 May 2015 and the works completed 25 December 2018 at 1,247.35 million baht against a 1,413 million budget. Before the cable the island ran on 1.030 MW of PEA diesel, and the evaluation says plainly that residents could use electricity only in a limited way.
Water is the opposite story. The Trat provincial development plan lists the Provincial Waterworks Authority’s whole footprint in the province as two branches, Trat and Khlong Yai. Neither serves Koh Kood district. The island runs on village systems, wells, rainwater and private supply, and the province has recorded on the record that the district suffers a dry-season shortage of water for consumption and has asked for a reservoir. Set that against the same province’s figure of not fewer than 300,000 visitors a year arriving on an island whose district has 2,651 registered residents.
On internet we have nothing. No National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission coverage statement, no operator declaration, nothing on a government site that names Koh Kood. Every speed figure circulating about this island traces back to a blog, so we are not repeating any of them.
The national park question, left open
If you are looking at land or a lease on Koh Kood, this is the question that matters, and we cannot answer it from the sources we could reach.
The Department of National Parks describes Mu Ko Chang National Park — Thailand’s 45th, declared 31 December 1982, about 650 sq km of which 503 sq km is sea — as lying in Koh Chang and Koh Kood districts. That phrasing invites the assumption that Koh Kood island is inside the park. It does not establish it.
The founding royal decree names Tambon Koh Chang and Tambon Koh Mak, in what was then Laem Ngop district. Tambon Koh Kood is not named. Amphoe Koh Kood did not exist in 1982 — it was created in 2007 — and it contains two tambon, Koh Kood and Koh Mak. So the department’s modern sentence is fully accounted for by Tambon Koh Mak alone, without any part of Koh Kood island being inside the line.
That is an argument, not a finding. The decree fixes its boundary by an appended map, and we could not read it: the Royal Gazette site refused us and the department’s park servers were unreachable. We also found no park checkpoint, fee notice or park unit on Koh Kood in any official source, including at Khlong Chao waterfall, which the sub-district administration describes as flowing year-round. Absence of a fee notice is not proof there is no fee.
Where the park fee does apply in Mu Ko Chang, the band-2 rate under the December 2021 regulation, in force since 7 June 2022, is 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 for a foreign child, against 40 and 20 for Thai visitors, plus 30 baht for a car or 20 for a motorcycle. Anyone buying here should put the boundary question to the Trat Land Office and the park in writing, and should treat any agent who answers it confidently with suspicion.
Is long-stay realistic?
Koh Kood is unusual among small Thai islands in having its own district. The sub-district administration records the chain: a village under Tambon Koh Mak, raised to Tambon Koh Kood in 1980, to a minor district by Interior Ministry notification of 19 January 1990 effective 1 April 1990, and to a full district by royal decree of 24 August 2007 (Royal Gazette vol. 124, part 46 Kor, p. 14) effective 8 September 2007 — one of eighty-one new districts created for the King’s eightieth birthday. That status is why an island this size has a district office, a hospital and a school at all.
The scale: 105 sq km, 25 km long by 12 km wide, which the sub-district administration itself calls Thailand’s fourth-largest island after Phuket, Koh Chang and Koh Samui. That is the local authority’s claim on its own site rather than a national survey, so we report it as such. The tambon takes in three islands — Koh Kood, Koh Rad and Koh Mai Si — and six villages. Its southern boundary is Cambodian water.
The whole district, both tambon together, held 2,651 registered residents in 2,042 households in the Department of Provincial Administration’s July 2021 figures — the smallest of Trat’s seven districts, at 1.16 per cent of the province. Against that, the district has 120 accommodation properties, second only to Koh Chang’s 272 out of 513 province-wide. Roughly one hotel or resort for every twenty-two residents tells you what the local economy is.
The people who make it work here are generally the ones who do not need a city on a weekday: no school beyond the island’s own, no immigration counter that we could verify, no mains water, a seven-bed hospital and a last boat at 13:00 in the low season. What you get in exchange is an island the size of Koh Samui’s southern half with under three thousand registered residents on it.
What we could not confirm
- Whether Koh Kood island lies inside the Mu Ko Chang National Park boundary. The decree fixes the line by an appended map we could not read, and the department’s park servers were down. This is the most consequential open question on the page.
- Whether vehicles can be brought to the island. No operator publishes a vehicle fare and the province applies “ferry” only to the Koh Chang route, but nothing official says vehicles are barred.
- Anything about internet provision. No NBTC coverage data, no cable-landing record, no operator statement naming Koh Kood.
- Who supplies piped water on the island. We established only that the Provincial Waterworks Authority does not; whether it is the sub-district administration, village systems or private operators is unsourced.
- Immigration. Trat’s provincial immigration site was unreachable, so we cannot say whether any service point exists on Koh Kood or Koh Chang, and we are not going to assume one does.
- Any storm-closure announcement from the Marine Department or the province specific to Koh Kood sailings, and any recompression chamber in Trat province — neither confirmed nor ruled out.
- Koh Kood Princess. No reachable operator website, so its timetable and fares are absent from the table above rather than estimated.
Frequently asked questions
By boat from the mainland, and only by boat - there is no airport on the island and no bridge. The nearest airport is Trat (TDX), which Bangkok Airways says on its own site is owned and operated by Bangkok Airways and sits at Khao Saming on the mainland. The mainland pier for Koh Kood is Laem Sok, not Laem Ngop (Laem Ngop is the Koh Chang ferry). Boonsiri High Speed Ferries publishes a one-hour crossing from Laem Sok to Ao Salad pier at the island's north end: three sailings a day at 550 baht on its high-season sheet, and two a day at 600 baht on its low-season sheet. Koh Kood Express runs a separate speedboat, Laem Sok 10:00 to Koh Kood 11:00, at 600 baht, with a free hotel shuttle on the island. The Trat provincial government's own advisory describes the Laem Sok speedboat service as running 10:00 to 16:00. Seatran Discovery sells the crossing but lists it as "Koh Kood (by Boonsiri)" - it is reselling, not operating.
Quieter, and demonstrably less connected - but not cut off. The Thai Meteorological Department puts the southwest monsoon over Thailand from about mid-May to mid-October, and Koh Kood is on the eastern seaboard, so that is its wet season. This is the opposite phasing to Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, which take their worst weather from the northeast monsoon in the last months of the year. The clearest evidence of what that means in practice comes from the operator itself: Boonsiri publishes two separate timetables, and on the low-season sheet running 4 June to 30 September 2026 the Laem Sok crossing drops from three sailings a day to two, while the fare rises from 550 to 600 baht. The Trat provincial public relations office states independently that the season to visit runs October to the end of May or June. Service reduces; it does not stop.
One hospital, and it is small enough that the number is worth knowing before you commit to living there. The Ministry of Public Health's facility registry lists Koh Kood Hospital as a community hospital at service level F3 - the smallest tier - with 7 beds in actual use against 10 approved, at 49 Moo 1. For comparison, the Trat provincial development plan's own table shows every other district hospital in the province at 30 beds, and the provincial hospital at Mueang Trat - renamed Phra Piya Maharat by royal grant with effect from 23 March 2026, and still 395 beds in the MOPH registry - as the tertiary referral point. Koh Kood is the only hospital in Trat province below 30 beds. Anything the island cannot handle means a boat to Laem Sok and a road journey to Trat town, and the last scheduled Boonsiri departure from the island on the low-season sheet is 13:00.
Electricity yes, water no. The Public Debt Management Office's evaluation of the Provincial Electricity Authority's submarine cable project records a 22 kV cable to Koh Kood and Koh Mak - the Koh Kood leg 300 sq mm over 33 circuit-km - approved by cabinet on 13 February 2012, with supply commencing 18 May 2015 and the project completed on 25 December 2018 at 1,247.35 million baht against a 1,413 million budget. Before the cable, PEA ran the island on 1.030 MW of diesel generation and, in the evaluation's own words, residents of both islands could use electricity only in a limited way. Water is a different story. The Trat provincial development plan lists the Provincial Waterworks Authority's entire footprint in the province as two branches, Trat and Khlong Yai, and neither covers Koh Kood district. The island is on village systems, wells, rainwater and private supply. The province has separately recorded the district's dry-season shortage of water for consumption and its request for a reservoir.
We could not confirm it either way, and we are not going to guess. The Department of National Parks says Mu Ko Chang National Park - Thailand's 45th, declared 31 December 1982, about 650 sq km of which 503 sq km is sea - lies in Koh Chang and Koh Kood districts. But the founding royal decree names Tambon Koh Chang and Tambon Koh Mak, in what was then Laem Ngop district; Tambon Koh Kood is not named. Amphoe Koh Kood did not exist in 1982 and today contains two tambon, Koh Kood and Koh Mak, so the department's modern phrasing is fully explained by Tambon Koh Mak alone. The decree fixes its boundary by an appended map, which we could not read, and the department's park servers were unreachable. If you are buying, treat the boundary as an open question to be answered by the Land Office and the park, not by a guide. See the Koh Mak island guide, which works through the same Mu Ko Chang boundary question for the neighbouring tambon. Where a national park fee does apply in this park, the band-2 rate is 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 for a foreign child, against 40 and 20 for Thai visitors.
For some people, and the constraints are specific rather than vague. Koh Kood has been its own district since 8 September 2007, which brings a district office, a hospital and a school - Koh Kood Wittayakhom at 104 Moo 1 - that a village of this size would not otherwise have. The whole district, both tambon together, had 2,651 registered residents in 2,042 households in the Department of Provincial Administration's July 2021 figures, and the province counts not fewer than 300,000 visitors a year against that. The island is road-connected end to end - rural road Tor Ror 6042 runs Ao Salad to Ao Yai - and 120 of Trat's 513 accommodation properties are in this district, second only to Koh Chang's 272. What we could not verify is anything about internet provision, and we could find no immigration office on the island, so do not assume ninety-day reporting or an extension can be done without a trip to the mainland.
Related guides
- Koh Mak — the other island in this district, thirty minutes away and on the same cable.
- Koh Chang — the province’s big island, and the one with the car ferry.
- Cost of living in Koh Chang — the nearest budget tables we hold for this coast.
- Getting around Koh Chang — the Ao Thammachat ferry and the Trat Airport transfer.
- Island living in Thailand — how the islands differ on the things that decide a move.
- National parks in Thailand — the fee bands and the rules that carry a fine.
- DTV visa and LTR visa — the two routes most people ask about for a long island stay.
- Explore Thailand — the section this guide sits in.
An island the size of half of Samui, with 2,651 people on the district roll
If the trade you are weighing is quiet against convenience, the eastern seaboard is where it is sharpest. Start with what is actually listed.
Sources & References
- Koh Kood Subdistrict Administrative Organisation (อบต.เกาะกูด) - general information: the island at 105 sq km / 65,625 rai, 25 km long and 12 km wide, described by that authority as Thailand's fourth-largest island after Phuket, Koh Chang and Koh Samui; the tambon's three islands and six villages; the southern boundary against Cambodian waters; Khlong Chao waterfall flowing year-round
- Koh Kood Subdistrict Administrative Organisation - history: a village under Tambon Koh Mak, raised to Tambon Koh Kood in 1980, to a minor district by Interior Ministry notification of 19 January 1990 effective 1 April 1990, and to a full district by royal decree of 24 August 2007 effective 8 September 2007; the settlers who came from Koh Kong after it passed to France in 1904
- Royal Gazette (Ratchakitcha) - the decree elevating 81 minor districts including Koh Kood to full district (amphoe) status: vol. 124, part 46 Kor, page 14, dated 24 August 2007 B.E. 2550. Cited via the Wikipedia article on Ko Kut district, which references the printed Gazette directly, since ratchakitcha.soc.go.th returned an access error to this worker
- Department of National Parks - Mu Ko Chang National Park: Thailand's 45th national park, declared 31 December 1982, spanning Koh Chang and Koh Kood districts in Trat, about 650 sq km of which 503 sq km is sea; and the road route, 315 km from Bangkok on Sukhumvit Road to Trat plus a further 17 km to the Laem Ngop pier
- Department of National Parks - the national park fee bands under the DNP regulation of 9 December 2021, in force 7 June 2022. Mu Ko Chang sits in band 2: Thai child 20 and adult 40, foreign child 100 and adult 200 baht, with vehicle charges of 30 baht for a four-wheel car and 20 for a motorcycle charged on top
- Boonsiri High Speed Ferries - the operator's own timetables, published as two separate seasonal sheets, low season 4 June to 30 September 2026 and high season 1 October 2026 to 31 May 2027, with the Laem Sok crossing, the Ao Salad pier, the Trat Airport and Bangkok connections and the Koh Mak and Koh Chang legs
- Koh Kood Express Ferry - the operator's own schedule: Laem Sok to Koh Kood by speedboat, one hour, 10:00 to 11:00, 600 baht, with a free hotel shuttle except on Koh Mak
- Government Public Relations Department, Trat - the province's published island sailings, including the Laem Sok to Koh Kood speedboat service running 10:00 to 16:00, and the province's own statement that the season to visit Koh Kood runs from October to the end of May or June
- Ministry of Public Health health-facility registry - Koh Kood Hospital (โรงพยาบาลเกาะกูด), facility code 10849, a community hospital at service level F3 (small community hospital), 7 beds in actual use against 10 approved, at 49 Moo 1, Tambon Koh Kood, Amphoe Koh Kood, Trat
- Ministry of Public Health health-facility registry - Phra Piya Maharat Hospital (โรงพยาบาลพระปิยมหาราช), the Trat provincial hospital, formerly named โรงพยาบาลตราด, a general hospital at service level S with 395 beds in actual use, at 108 Sukhumvit Road, Tambon Wang Krachae, Mueang Trat
- Government Public Relations Department, Trat - the royal grant renaming Trat Hospital as Phra Piya Maharat Hospital, effective 23 March 2026
- Thai Meteorological Department - the monsoon calendar: the southwest monsoon covers Thailand from about mid-May to mid-October, and the northeast monsoon from about mid-October to mid-February
- Public Debt Management Office - project evaluation of the Provincial Electricity Authority's submarine cable to Koh Kood and Koh Mak: a 22 kV system, the Koh Kood leg 300 sq mm over 33 circuit-km, cabinet approval 13 February 2012, supply commencing 18 May 2015, project completion 25 December 2018, budget 1,413 million baht against 1,247.35 million actually spent; before it, Koh Kood ran on 1.030 MW of PEA diesel generation
- Trat provincial development plan 2566-2570 - the Provincial Waterworks Authority's footprint in Trat (two branches, Trat and Khlong Yai, neither covering Koh Kood district); the provincial hospital bed table showing Koh Kood at 10 approved beds against 30 at every other district hospital; the district's accommodation count; the deep-water pier improvement at Ban Khlong Hin Dam; and the Department of Provincial Administration registration figures for the district
- Government Public Relations Department, Trat - the district's dry-season shortage of water for consumption and its request for a reservoir, recorded during a ministerial visit, alongside the province's figure of not fewer than 300,000 visitors a year
- Bangkok Airways - Trat Airport (TDX) is owned and operated by Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited and sits at Khao Saming, Trat, on the mainland
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.
