I’m a sucker for a good view, and honestly my favorite part about hiking is the view you get when you get to the top. Koh Tao has quite a few mountains for being such a small island, and I made it my mission to check out the views from as many peaks as possible. These are my 3 favorite hikes with excellent views as your reward for getting to the top!

Hiking Koh Tao

Fraggle Rock

Difficulty: Moderate, it’s not a long hike, but it’s quite steep and there is some scrambling up boulders at the end.

Directions: Go up the street from the 7/11 in Sairee Beach towards Mango Bay, past Koh Tao Gym & Fitness. The road gets really steep, so if you are on a scooter you have two choices you can continue up the hill or you can park it and start walking. The road is sort of paved so you could potentially scooter your way up most of the hike. Continue up the hill when you hit a fork in the road, there will be a sign pointing left to Mango Bay, you’ll want to keep to the right. A few meters down you’ll take another right up what looks like a steep driveway. Keep going up, past an abandoned building on your left that looks like it would have been a cool hotel. There will be a big rock with wooden stairs going up it, this isn’t Fraggle Rock, but it’s a cool view. I’d stop to check it out. At some point a really little and steep path with split off to the right and that’s the path you’ll want to take. When you get to the crest of that steep part there’s a sign pointing to the Fraggle Rock. You’ll know you are there when you see a bunch of boulders, scramble up them for the view.

Why it’s cool: You get to scramble up boulders which I always think is fun, and the jungle leading up to it reminds me of an Indiana Jones movie. Once you’ve gotten up the boulders you have a great view of Sairee beach and town, it’s pretty awesome.

Top of the Rock/ View Point 2

Difficulty: Easy – Moderate, it’s partially paved, but can get quite steep at parts. The last part leading up to the rock is a steep dirt trail with some rock steps.

Directions: From Mae Haad take the main road leading to Chalok, then turn left at the sign for Tanote. There will be a sign on the left saying “top of the rock restaurant and viewpoint 2”, it’s a small path and you start heading up from there. The path with split at one point, follow the signs to “top of the rock”. You’ll pass an old restaurant called Golden View, continue up the path till you reach a sort of dead end. From there turn up the dirt path leading up to the rock on the left.

Why it’s cool: You get a panoramic view of the island as you walk around the rock. It doesn’t seem like a popular hike so you will most likely have the place to yourself. The walk up is through coconut palm groves is very pretty.

The better than OK View

Difficulty: Difficult, the paved road is super steep and once you get off the paved part the trail is not only steep but quite rutted out. The rocks at the very top are probably a bit dangerous as the drop down is pretty far.

Directions: From the main road between Mae Haad and Sairee, about half way between the two there is a sign for the “OK view”. Go up that path, but when you get to the fork go to the left rather than following the signs for the OK view. Every so often there will be a sign pointing toward the view point, so just keep following those signs. When you see a rutted out dirt path turn right up it and follow that path to the top. It is quite steep in some parts but will have a few spots where it flattens out. The best place to see the sunset is just before the top, there is a large open area with boulders facing west. At the very top you have a good view of the east side of the island, be careful climbing out on those rocks though.

Why it’s cool: It’s an awesome spot to watch the sunset, I climbed up onto one of the boulders and just chilled, it was really nice. At the very top you get a spectacular view of the jungle on the other side of the island. And while the hike up might be difficult all the plants and vegetation are quite pretty, you almost forget you are near civilization.

Life in Wanderlust