Mu Ko Ang Thong is a band 2 park at 200 baht for a foreign adult — but a departmental announcement of 19 September 2022 sets a special rate of 300 at Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Mae Koh, which are the headquarters and the emerald lagoon, and therefore the two stops on almost every itinerary. The park is 102 sq km and 42 islands, only about 15 per cent of it land, gazetted 12 November 1980 as Thailand’s 21st national park on ground the Royal Thai Navy had held for a planned naval base. It closes annually — and the department and the park state the closure differently, which is the single most useful thing on this page.
Two hundred baht, unless you go where everyone goes
Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564 puts Mu Ko Ang Thong in band 2, the 55-park middle tier that also holds Khao Yai, Khao Sok, Phu Kradueng, Tarutao and Mu Ko Chang. That is the 200-baht figure you will see quoted everywhere.
It is not the figure most visitors pay. A separate departmental announcement dated 19 September 2022 designates specific sites in five parks as carrying a special service fee, and two of those sites are in this park: Koh Wua Ta Lap, where the headquarters, the bungalows and one of the camping grounds are, and Koh Mae Koh, where Talay Nai and its viewpoint are. At both, a foreign adult pays 300 and a foreign child 150. Those two islands are not obscure corners of the park; between them they are what an Ang Thong day trip consists of.
| Where | Foreign adult | Foreign child | Thai adult / child |
|---|---|---|---|
| The park generally (band 2) | 200 baht | 100 baht | 40 / 20 baht |
| Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Mae Koh (special rate) | 300 baht | 150 baht | Special rate applies to foreign visitors |
The announcement states the person rate covers a stay of up to five days, so hold on to the ticket rather than paying twice across a multi-day trip. A child is three to fourteen complete years, or not more than 140 cm; a foreigner is anyone without Thai nationality, with no residency rate. Clause 16(1) exempts monks, novices and clergy of other religions residing in Thailand, Thai people aged sixty complete years and over, disabled people, and children under three. The reasoning behind the two columns is on dual pricing in Thailand.
The closure: two government sources, two weeks apart
This is the thing worth reading the page for. Almost every article about Ang Thong states a closure of 1–30 November, and it is not made up — it is what the department’s own park record says, in terms:
The November period of every year is the monsoon; the sea has strong waves and wind, making travel to Mu Ko Ang Thong unsafe for visitors, and the park therefore sets an annual closure: closed 1–30 November every year, open 1 December to 31 October every year.
But that is the standing rule written on a page, not the announcement the park actually issues. The park’s own annual announcements of closure of tourism and overnight stays have in recent years run 1 November to 15 December — that was the window announced for B.E. 2567 and again for B.E. 2568, as circulated by the government’s own citizen contact centre, and the same 1 November to 15 December window appears in earlier years. Meanwhile the park has also varied it the other way in individual years, reopening part of the area early when it judged the reef recovered.
So the honest position is this: the standing rule and the annual practice do not match, and both are official. The fortnight in dispute — 1 to 15 December — is precisely when people start booking Gulf trips for the high season. Plan on the park being shut until 15 December, check the current year’s announcement before you buy anything non-refundable, and telephone the park on 0 7728 6025. We are naming the conflict rather than resolving it, because we could not read the underlying announcement document itself.
What the park actually is
Mu Ko Ang Thong is 63,750 rai, or 102 sq km, in tambon Ang Thong, amphoe Ko Samui, Surat Thani, lying about 20 km west of Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan between 9°31′ and 9°43′ north. The department’s topography section counts 42 islands, almost all of them steep limestone with cliffs, rising from 10 to 396 m above the sea. Only about 15 per cent of the park is land; the rest is water, and the soil layer on the karst is thin enough that large trees are scarce.
It was very nearly a naval base. The department records that the archipelago was a restricted area held by the Royal Thai Navy, which had a project to build a base there to control the security of the Gulf. What changed it was an article: in June 1975 a forestry officer named Somboon Wongphakdi wrote a feature headed “Mu Ko Ang Thong, a marine national park”, published in Thai Rath on 29 June 1975. The National Parks Committee took it up that October, the Ministry of Defence confirmed on 17 December 1976 that it had no objection, and the Royal Decree followed — published in the Royal Gazette, vol. 97 part 174, 12 November 2523 (1980), making Mu Ko Ang Thong Thailand’s 21st national park.
One small honesty: the department’s own page says “about 40 islands” in its general description and 42 in its topography section, on the same page. We have used 42 and told you the page disagrees with itself.
The larger islands are Koh Wua Ta Lap, Koh Phaluai, Koh Mae Koh, Koh Sam Sao, Koh Hin Dap and Koh Thai Phlao. The department records 16 mammals including the dusky langur, the long-tailed macaque, the smooth-coated otter, an island rat, an island flying fox, and dolphins and whales offshore; not fewer than 54 birds, among them the edible-nest swiftlet whose nests are a licensed concession in Thai park law; 14 reptiles including green and hawksbill turtles; and only 5 amphibians. Rainfall averages 2,000 mm a year, the annual mean temperature is 28°C, and December and January average a low of 20°C.
Sleeping in the park, at Royal Gazette prices
All of the park’s government accommodation is in one zone — the headquarters on Koh Wua Ta Lap — and the annex to Schedule 4 of the fee regulation prices every unit of it by name. Six bungalows, and that is the entire built capacity of a 42-island national park.
| Unit | Layout | Sleeps | Baht / night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ang Thong 106 (Nang Nuan) | 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms | 7 | 2,000 |
| Ang Thong 101 (Lom Huan) | 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms | 8 | 1,500 |
| Ang Thong 103 (Bin La Dong) | 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms | 8 | 1,500 |
| Ang Thong 102 (Kalpangha) | 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms | 6 | 1,000 |
| Ang Thong 104 (Pakarang 1) | 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom | 2 | 600 |
| Ang Thong 105 (Pakarang 2) | 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom | 2 | 600 |
Clause 14(1)(a) discounts accommodation 30 per cent Monday to Thursday outside public holidays. Your own tent is 80 baht per person per night — the marine and island rate, not the 30 baht of a land park — and the park lists camping grounds on Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Sam Sao and rents a three-person park dome tent at 450. Mooring a boat to sleep aboard is 1,000 baht a night up to twenty passengers and 2,000 above. Snorkel mask and snorkel are 50 baht a set a day and the park lists snorkel gear at five islands; a marine kayak is 200 baht an hour or 1,000 a day, and kayaks are listed at Koh Wua Ta Lap, Koh Phi, Koh Mae Koh, Sam Sao and Na Thap-Tham Rang.
Getting there, and where the park expects you to start
There is no road. Everything arrives by boat from Ko Samui or Ko Pha Ngan, about 20 km east of the archipelago. The clearest signal of how the department expects a visit to work is in its own facilities list: the park’s visitor centre is on Ko Samui, not in the park, while inside the park there are piers at Koh Sam Sao and Koh Mae Koh, fee collection points on Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Mae Koh, and mooring buoys at Koh Wua Ta Lap, Koh Sam Sao and Koh Mae Koh.
The park’s administrative office is on the mainland at 145/1 Thanon Talat Lang, Tambon Talat, Amphoe Mueang Surat Thani, Surat Thani 84000, telephone 0 7728 6025 and 0 7728 0222, fax 0 7728 6588. Whatever boat you travel on pays its own vessel fee under Schedule 2 — 20 baht for a long-tail up to twenty passengers, 50 for a speedboat up to thirty, up to 2,500 for a large vessel carrying over three hundred — charged on the boat rather than per head, which is why it disappears inside a tour price.
What we could not confirm
- Which closure window applies this year. Named, not resolved. The department’s standing rule and the park’s recent annual announcements differ by two weeks, and we could not read the underlying announcement document.
- Crossing times, operators and ticket prices. Quoted everywhere, published by the department nowhere. The only boat figure on this page is the statutory vessel fee.
- Opening hours and the climb to the Talay Nai viewpoint. Distance, steps and timing are stated all over the internet and by no government source we could read, so they are not here.
- Whether the special 300-baht rate is collected at every visit. The 19 September 2022 announcement is clear about the sites and the amounts. How it is applied in practice when a boat calls only briefly is not something we can source, and we are not going to guess at it.
- The department’s own live pages. On 8 September 2026, for the third consecutive run of this work, nps.dnp.go.th did not answer at all and dnp.go.th and portal.dnp.go.th returned an automated challenge rather than content, from two separate networks. What is attributed to the department here was read from its fee-regulation PDF, which is still served, and from an Internet Archive capture of its park record taken on 5 December 2025.
Frequently asked questions
The band rate is 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 for a foreign child, against 40 and 20 for Thai visitors - band 2 of Schedule 1 of the Department of National Parks regulation B.E. 2564, the same band as Khao Yai, Khao Sok, Tarutao and Mu Ko Chang. But a separate departmental announcement of 19 September 2022 sets a special rate at named sites in five parks, and two of the sites are here: Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Mae Koh, where a foreign adult pays 300 and a foreign child 150. Those two islands are the park headquarters and the emerald lagoon, which is to say they are the two places a normal day trip stops. So the realistic answer for most visitors is 300 baht, not 200. The announcement states that the person rate covers a stay of up to five days, so keep your ticket.
Two government sources state it two different ways, and we are not going to pick one. The department's own park record says the closure runs from 1 to 30 November every year, with the season open from 1 December to 31 October, and gives the reason as the monsoon: strong waves and wind that make the crossing unsafe. But the park's own annual announcements in recent years have run from 1 November to 15 December - that was the announced window for B.E. 2567 and again for B.E. 2568, as circulated by the government's own citizen contact centre, and the same 1 November to 15 December window appears in earlier years too. That is two weeks of difference in mid-December, which is exactly the fortnight people book flights around. Assume the park may be shut until 15 December, check the park's announcement for the year before you commit, and telephone 0 7728 6025.
It is a saltwater lake inside Koh Mae Koh, connected to the sea underground through the limestone, and the department leads its own description of the whole park with the line 'Talay Nai, the only one in the Gulf of Thailand'. You reach it by a steep climb from the beach to a viewpoint above it. The park's facilities list confirms the shape of a visit: a fee collection point and a viewpoint on Koh Mae Koh, a pier there and at Koh Sam Sao, and the headquarters, restaurant, souvenir shop and bungalows on Koh Wua Ta Lap. Koh Mae Koh is also one of the two islands carrying the 300-baht special rate, so the lagoon is a large part of what that rate is charging for.
Yes, on Koh Wua Ta Lap, where the park headquarters is. The annex to Schedule 4 of the fee regulation prices six government bungalows there and nowhere else in the park: two units sleeping two at 600 baht a night, one sleeping six at 1,000, two sleeping eight and seven at 1,500 and 2,000. Clause 14(1)(a) discounts accommodation 30 per cent from Monday to Thursday outside public holidays. Camping in your own tent is 80 baht per person per night, the marine and island rate rather than the 30 baht of a land park, and the park lists camping grounds on Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Sam Sao. If you sleep aboard a moored boat that is 1,000 baht a night up to twenty passengers and 2,000 above that.
By boat, from Ko Samui or Ko Pha Ngan. The department places the archipelago about 20 km west of both islands, and puts the park's visitor centre on Ko Samui itself rather than in the park - which tells you where a visit is expected to begin. The park's administrative office is on the mainland at 145/1 Thanon Talat Lang, Tambon Talat, Amphoe Mueang Surat Thani. We could not read the department's own travel directions or any official crossing time, and there are no operator names or ferry timings on this page for that reason. The vessel your boat travels in pays its own fee under Schedule 2, from 20 baht for a small long-tail to 2,500 for a large passenger vessel carrying over three hundred.
Both are, and they are quite different propositions. Samui has the international airport, the largest private hospitals in the archipelago, an established long-stay community and correspondingly the highest prices; Pha Ngan is cheaper and quieter with a much thinner medical and schooling base, and everything arrives by boat. What the park adds to that calculation is seasonal: the monsoon window that closes Ang Thong in November and December is the same weather that makes crossings rough and flights unreliable across the whole western Gulf, and it lands at the opposite time of year from the Andaman coast's low season. If you are weighing a Gulf island against Phuket or Krabi, that inversion is worth planning around rather than discovering.
Related guides
- National parks in Thailand — the four bands, the booking system and the rules that carry a fine.
- Ko Samui — the island the park is visited from, and what living there costs.
- Ko Pha Ngan — the cheaper, thinner-serviced alternative next door.
- Surat Thani — the mainland province, and where the park office actually sits.
- Island living in Thailand — healthcare, internet and the boat, year round.
- Mu Ko Similan National Park — the Andaman equivalent, band 4, closed five months.
- Thailand’s seasons — why the Gulf and the Andaman close at opposite times of year.
- Scuba diving and snorkelling — the statutory dive fee and where it applies.
The Gulf islands run on the opposite season to the Andaman
Which matters more to a buyer than to a visitor. Worth weighing before you choose a coast.
Sources & References
- Royal Gazette, vol. 138 special part 301 Ngor, 9 December 2021, pages 57-58 - Department of National Parks Regulation B.E. 2564 on the collection of service fees. Read directly from the department's own PDF for this guide. Schedule 1 places Mu Ko Ang Thong in band 2 (Thai adult 40 / child 20, foreign adult 200 / child 100); Schedule 2 sets the separate vessel fee by boat type and capacity; Schedule 3 prices snorkel gear and marine kayaks; Schedule 4 sets island camping at 80 baht per person per night and boat mooring at 1,000 or 2,000, and its annex prices all six Mu Ko Ang Thong bungalows by name in one zone on Koh Wua Ta Lap
- Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation - the department's own park record for Mu Ko Ang Thong on its booking site (nps.dnp.go.th, park id 31), last edited 7 October 2568. Source for the annual closure of 1-30 November and its stated reason, the Royal Decree and its Royal Gazette citation, the 102 sq km area, the 42 islands, the park's rank as Thailand's 21st, the naval history, the species counts, the facilities by island, and the park office address and telephone numbers. Read via the Internet Archive capture of 5 December 2025 because the department's own host did not answer on 8 September 2026
- Department of National Parks announcement of 19 September 2022 on tourist sites carrying a special service fee, full text reproduced by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. It names five parks only. For Mu Ko Ang Thong the special rate of 300 baht for a foreign adult and 150 for a foreign child applies at Koh Wua Ta Lap and Koh Mae Koh, and the person rate covers a stay of up to five days
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.
