The price for the Khao Sok Lake tours are standardized, whether you book from a tour operator or from your hotel. Make sure to ask which hotel it is, especially if you want your own bathroom. The accommodation is also very basic, but each bungalow has its own bathroom attached to each unit.
This part is more for managing expectations rather than a review. The floating bungalow on the lake is very basic. At Smiley Bungalows, each unit can sleep up to people but the minimum is 2 in each unit.
The shower is cold to lukewarm at best. We found the accommodation to be more than sufficient. The only thing that can be improved is cleanliness. Some tour operators will even store your luggage for you. It is important that you only take what you need. We recommend getting the Ocean Pack 25 litre dry bag , as it is the most versatile. If you love adventure, particularly ones that involve water, this bag will come very handy for all your future trips.
They will give you more grip than trainers, so we would recommend you rent these rather than wear your trainers. We wore our usual Mares Dive Booties for the entire hike. They are meant for diving, but we use them for all our water sport activities and even hike with them when the terrain is muddy and slippery.
We absolutely love that they are super lightweight, versatile and very resilient. Your tour operator will take you for a short, long tail boat ride to the start of the hiking trail through the rainforest, to get to the entrance of the cave.
It was our first experience hiking through a pitch black cave, with only our headlamps to guide us, amongst bats, frogs, spiders and who knows what else eeek!
And to add to the adventure, the water in some parts of the cave are over 2 meters deep, which means we had to muster all the doggy paddling skills we had to manoeuvre ourselves through some very narrow sections of the cave.
Early morning wake up at AM to start your morning safari around the lake. We saw monkeys, a large monitor lizard, a variety of birds and a family of river otters. A small cave you will visit on your way back to the Ratchaprapha Marina.
This cave is dry and much easier to navigate through than Water Cave, but also less exciting. The highlight of this cave is seeing coral rocks that are thousands of years old, spotting snake eggs and even a live snake! Some tour operators are only able to book the bamboo hut floating bungalows, which has a communal bathroom to share amongst all the units. With or without bathroom, both tour packages will cost exactly the same. So take your pick based on your personal preference.
The price of the tour cost exactly the same as what the tour operators were selling. When you book with him, he includes the rubber shoes that you can use for the cave as well as a dry bag. After the boat safari, you return to enjoy breakfast. After breakfast, you will return to your accommodation. If you are following our Thailand itinerary , we recommend taking a night bus to Bangkok in the evening.
If you prefer not to travel immediately and want to relax at Khao Sok National Park, we recommend that you stay at the accommodation for 1 more night. You can easily book a bus ticket via 12go. For a small village, there are several accommodations where you can stay. Both accommodations are located next to the very unique river. You can hear all the animals that live beside the river when you are in your room.
A very unique location. Especially the 3 accommodations that we recommend, all have a good price-quality ratio. We stayed in Khaosok Riverside Cottages , very cozy cottages where you have the feeling that you are in the middle of the jungle. The terrace is beautifully situated along the river where you can relax. The rooms are very neat and spacious. You can compare this with Khaosok Riverside Cottages, only this one is more luxurious. So it is personal what you prefer.
The houses are very spacious. The restaurant is very good with a view of the river. Tip: the power of repetition: if you know when you will visit Khao Sok National Park we recommend booking your accommodation via the links above in time. When you want to book these accommodations at a later moment it can be the case that the rooms are fully booked. Accessibility of Khao Sok National Park: The village of Khlong Sok is easily accessible from most places in the south of Thailand by tourist shuttle buses.
You can easily book buses via 12go. If you follow our travel route through Thailand, your next destination is Bangkok, this is unfortunately also your last destination. Read everything you need to know about Bangkok in our article: things to do in Bangkok. Our article about Bangkok will certainly ensure that you will end your last days in Bangkok in a fantastic way.
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Get help. Privacy Policy. Password recovery. Last updated on May 24, These can be organised at the airport through the travel desks, or booked online on 12Go. You can buy these from local travel agencies in the town you are in, or else through your reception. Usually the journey involves getting a boat to the mainland and a minibus or regular bus to the park via Surat Thani. The fastest way to get to the national park from Bangkok is to fly.
Direct flights from Bangkok to Surat Thani take 1 hour and flights run each week, so you should have plenty of choice. Once you land, you can get a taxi or minibus to Khao Sok National Park around 1 hour away.
You can find a taxi driver at the airport, or else book your bus or minibus from the booking desks in arrivals. Expect to pay around baht per person for a minibus to Khao Sok Bus Station this is at the side of the road and not close to very much , or pay baht to be taken to your hotel.
Take the overnight train from Hua Lampong Station in Bangkok to Surat Thani, then get a minibus or taxi to the national park. This would most likely rule out staying on the lake for your first night. You can book your train on 12Go. Asia — I have a post about booking night trains in Thailand which will help you. Once you arrive at the station, there will be taxis, buses, and minibuses waiting to take people to the park. Make sure you arrange to get dropped off at the right part of Khao Sok, because it is a huge area.
Tell the driver your accommodation before you agree a price. Prices are usually around baht per person for a shared minibus, and 1, baht for a private taxi. You can take a bus the entire way from Bangkok to Khao Sok in 16 hours — this costs around baht for adults and baht for children.
Buses leave at 6 or 7pm each day, arriving in Khao Sok at 10 or 11am the next day. You can pre-book your bus online at 12Go. The best way to get from Chiang Mai to Khao Sok is the same as getting from Bangkok: fly to Surat Thani and get a minibus or taxi to the park. It takes a little bit of time to get to the national park from Chiang Mai, so do plan enough time there to make the journey worthwhile! If you want to stay in a floating bungalow on the lake, there are two ways you can book this: package or DIY.
Packages include your accommodation, transfers, meals, and all activities for the duration of your stay. Boat trips, hikes, kayaking etc are all included in this- the only extras are soft drinks and alcohol at your resort.
Some of the higher-end resorts also offer taxi service from nearby towns too. Packages are super convenient — you just need to make one booking and your entire stay in Khao Sok is arranged. This is not much for your average holiday maker, when you consider that your meals and activities are included, but budget backpackers will struggle to budget for such a cost.
Keep reading for information on how to book your package. DIY trips are a less common way to stay on the lake, and it was very hard to find information online when I was planning our trip. However, with a lot of research, I managed to plan an excellent two-night stay in a floating bungalow on Cheow Lan Lake.
Details on how to plan your DIY trip to stay on the lake are below. In summary — Packages are the most convenient way to plan your trip and they are much easier to plan. DIY trips take a bit more effort to organise, but are much cheaper. Packages for staying on the lake range from 2, to over 10, baht per person per night depending on which resort you opt to stay in.
Everything is included in these packages apart from getting to Khao Sok National Park, and the national park entrance fee which is baht per person, and the pier fee of 20 baht per person. These costs will be incurred on both the package and DIY trips. The following is the price to book the trip as a package here is a link to show the package details.
There are many more floating resorts on the lake, but I wanted to do a like-for-like comparison of how much you can save. While the prices above may not differ wildly for a mid-range or luxury traveller, they make a huge difference to a budget backpacker and can mean the difference between being able to stay on the lake or having to stay in the town.
Planning a package stay on Cheow Lan lake is pretty straightforward, and there are a great range of options depending on your budget.
If you are in a low- to mid-range budget, check out Khaosoklake. Here are the packages that they offer, ranging from cheapest to most expensive and fanciest:. If you have a higher budget, or are coming to Khao Sok Lake for a special occasion, here are some luxury floating resorts you can check out — these are not booked as packages, but do have some amenities included which I have listed below:. The government-run National Parks website allows you to book floating bungalows at a really cheap price without having to fork out for a package.
Now that your accommodation is booked, you will need to book your activities, transport, and meals separately. Floating bungalows can only be accessed by boat, and the boat trip takes around 1 hour from the pier. It costs roughly 2, baht for a one-way private boat to take you to the lake bungalows, so this is not a good option for budget travellers.
Here is what you can do instead:. We joined a tour that was going to Krai Son for 1 night and we paid a reduced price to go with them. We paid 1, baht each and because we stayed in Krai Son Resort for 2 nights, we did the first day of the tour on the way to the bunglows on day 1, and the second day of the tour on the 3rd day which returned us back to the pier.
On the middle day, we were able to enjoy the resort on our own as everyone else was away on tours. This was a great mix of sightseeing and relaxing, so I would definitely recommend this approach. With this approach, a two night stay cost us the same as the one night tour and we also had some personal time together.
Our tour was with Happy Tours, who run tours to many of the bungalows on the lake each day. Many people opt to stay in the town rather than on a floating bungalow — this is usually best for travellers that are short on money or time. If you stay in the town you can do a one-day tour of the lake instead of staying overnight. All accommodations will offer tours, drivers, and day trips to see the area, so you can book day trips and boat trips through reception.
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