By joint ferry and public bus services it takes between 6 hours and 7 hours 10 minutes to travel from Koh Tao to Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Bus Timetable from Koh Tao to Nakhon Si Thammarat
- Click on the ‘Koh Tao – Nakhon Si Thammarat’ link in the timetable below for more information and to buy tickets.
Koh Tao - Nakhon Si Thammarat āļŋ 1,000–1,100 5h 40m – 7h 10m | |
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Departure from Koh Tao
Joint ferry and bus services to Nakhon Si Thammarat commence with a ferry service from Mae Haad in Koh Tao.
Arrival in Nakhon Si Thammarat
Joint ferry and bus services from Koh Tao go to both Nakhon Si Thammarat city centre and Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport.
About Nakhon Si Thammarat
With a population of over 100,000 people, Nakhon Si Thammarat is the second largest city (after Hat Yai) in Southern Thailand and also the Southern Thai City with perhaps the most interesting history having been established as as an outpost of the Indonesian kingdom of Srivijaya in 775 or thereabouts. Few foreign visitors ever go to Nakhon Si Thammarat, except for passing through on a bus or a train or flying into Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport to the north of the city on the way to Koh Samui or Koh Phangan.

There is more, however, to Nakhon Si Thammarat than simply a name on a map or a large urban area in a not particularly touristy part of Thailand. For starters, Nakhon Si Thammarat is the location of Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan which is one of the 6 most important temples in Thailand established in the 13th Century on site where, according to legend, a important holy relic was placed inside a small chedi in 291 AD. The temple is famous for its 78 metre tall chedi surrounded by 173 smaller white chedi. It’s an impressive temple and the other attractions in the city are not as grand but they are interesting if you have the inclination to learn more about the distinctive culture of Southern Thailand. Nakhon Si Thammarat has some great markets with unusual Thai food, Baan Tan Khun, which is brilliant wooden house in the middle of the city, and it also has Ban Nang Talung, which is Thailand’s only museum dedicated to the traditional Southern Thai performance art of shadow puppetry, and Nakhon Si Thammarat National Museum, which has many artefacts relating to long and multi-cultural history of Southern Thailand.