Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui

By joint bus and ferry service the journey from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui is scheduled to take from 4 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours depending upon which service you take.

Bus Times from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui

There are currently 13 services a day from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui available to book online.

Buy Tickets from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui

Use the Search Box to buy your tickets from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui.

As well as services from Cheow Lan Lake to Krabi Town there are also services which travel from Cheow Lan Lake to Ao Nang and Krabi Airport.

Cheow Lan Lake Bus Stop

All services from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui depart from Cheow Lan Pier, which is also known as Ratchaprapha Pier.

Koh Samui Bus Stop

Many of the services from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui arrive at the Seatran Ferry Pier in Nathon, which is in the west of the island.

About Travel to Koh Samui

All joint bus and ferry services from Cheow Lan Lake to Koh Samui follow almost exactly the same route, which has 3 stages. The major difference between the various services is which of two car ferry services passengers travel on. The two ferry services arrive at different places on Koh Samui.

Stage 1 of the Journey

The first stage of the journey is by road from Cheow Lan Pier to Surat Thani City. The reason bus services depart from Cheow Lan Pier is that this is the place where tourist boats depart and arrive from. If you are staying at a floating bungalow operation in Khao Sok National Park this is where the tour or hotel operator will pick you up from and return you at the end of your stay.

The distance by road from Cheow Lan Pier to Surat Thani City is around 80 km depending upon which route the bus takes. The journey will normally take from 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Stage 2 of the Journey

For the second stage of the journey from Cheow Lan Pier to Koh Samui passengers transfer to a second bus which will take passengers from Surat Thani City to a ferry port in Donsak, which is coastal district of Surat Thani Province located to the north east of Surat Thani City.

Depending upon the service passengers will wait around 1 hour in Surat Thani City to board the next bus. This second stage of the journey then involves a roughly 70 km journey by road which typically takes from 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Stage 3 of the Journey

The third and final stage of the journey from Cheow Lan Pier to Koh Samui is a ferry crossing from Donsak to Koh Samui.

All of the service providers on this route, except for Raja Ferry, use the Seatran Ferry service. This is a car ferry service which is scheduled to complete the journey to Koh Samui in 90 minutes. The other ferry service, which is the Raja Ferry, is very similar. It’s also a car ferry service which is scheduled to take 90 minutes to complete the journey. The two ferry ports are also very close to each as well.

Both Seatran Ferry and Raja Ferry services have outdoor and indoor seating, toilets, and a shop to buy snacks.

Arrival in Koh Samui

Seatran Ferry and Raja Ferry services arrive at different places on Koh Samui:

• Seatran Ferry: Nathon
• Raja Ferry: Lipa Noi

Both Nathon and Lipa Noi are located on the west coast of Koh Samui. Nathon is located 9 km by road to the north of Lipa Noi.

The west coast of Koh Samui is the least popular part of the island with leisure travellers. Although Nathon itself offers great cultural experiences for visitors and great food, it’s largely overlooked by holiday makers in favour of the popular beach side destinations in the east of the island such as Chaweng, Bophut and Lamai. It’s quite a long distance from either Lipa Noi (28 km) or Nathon (23 km) to Chaweng and taxi services on Koh Samui tend to be relatively expensive compared to the rest of Thailand.

Because of the price of taxi fares in Koh Samui many travellers choose to use other forms of local transport. The cheapest local transport in Koh Samui is the network of shared taxi services which ply the ring road around Koh Samui, with stops at Bophut, Chaweng and Lamai. In terms of using shared taxi services in Koh Samui the better option is to arrive into Nathon on a Seatran Ferry service. From Nathon it’s fairly easy to find a shared taxi service in Nathon travelling northward and then eastward around the ring road. Shared taxis often stop and wait for customers at the car park close to the main pier in Nathon, which is only 250 metres walking distance south of the Seatran Ferry Pier.