Bangkok to Koh Samui

Bangkok Airways built Samui's airport, still owns it, and remains the only airline landing there from Bangkok. It flies the route from both Bangkok airports, about 20 departures a day from Suvarnabhumi between about 06:00 and 20:00, and three a day from Don Mueang on a route it opened on 29 October 2023 that most older guides still don't mention. The aircraft are Airbus A319s and ATR 72 turboprops, the flight is scheduled at 1 hour 05 to 1 hour 15, and the open-air garden terminal you land in is the nicest arrival in Thailand.

On the booking engines the one-way fare runs from about ฿2,800 in a quiet month to ฿6,000–6,800 in the December–January and Songkran weeks, with the cheapest seats going three to six weeks out. That is roughly double what a competitive route of this length costs, and it is the whole reason the Surat Thani workaround below exists. Two things soften it. A checked bag is included, and a fare booked early for a shoulder-season date is often only ฿1,000–1,500 more than the flight-plus-ferry combination, a fair price for saving three hours and two transfers with children or dive gear.

The Don Mueang flights matter if you're connecting from an AirAsia or Nok Air domestic leg or staying in the north of the city; Suvarnabhumi is the one for international connections, and its evening departures fill first. Samui's airport is on the island's northeast corner, 10 to 20 minutes from Chaweng, Choeng Mon and Bophut, with prepaid taxi counters, and Grab a short walk away on the main road.

Thai AirAsia, Nok Air and Thai Lion Air fly Don Mueang to Surat Thani (URT) in about 1 hour 15, with fares commonly ฿1,000–2,000 one way and rarely above ฿3,000. In the arrivals hall the combo counters sell one ticket for the coach to Donsak pier and the ferry across, from Phantip with the Seatran ferry to Nathon at the cheap end, through Raja Ferry to Lipa Noi at about ฿550, to Lomprayah's and Boonsiri's catamarans at ฿750–1,000. AirAsia also sells the whole flight-plus-ferry as a single booking.

Budget 5 to 7 hours from take-off to your hotel and ฿1,500–3,000 a head all in, about half the direct fare, for three extra hours. Buy the combination as one ticket, because the through-ticket operators hold you for the next boat if the flight is late, and watch the clock, since the last combined tickets leave the airport around 16:00 and Raja's last car ferry leaves Donsak at 19:00. Every operator, departure and fare from the airport, the train station and the town, and the ferries from Donsak, are in our Surat Thani to Koh Samui guide.

Ten trains a day leave Bangkok's Krung Thep Aphiwat terminal (not Hua Lamphong, whatever an older blog says) for the south, and all of them stop at Surat Thani's station, which is at Phun Phin, 14 km west of the town. Nine are overnight trains to the deep south that happen to pass Surat Thani between 01:11 and 07:50, all with sleepers except the 22:50 railcar; one, Special Express No. 43, is a daytime air-conditioned railcar that leaves at 07:30 and arrives at 16:20 for ฿524, in time for a late boat only if everything runs to the minute.

The one to book is Express No. 85 (19:50 to 06:23), because it arrives after the counters open and in time for the whole morning of coach-and-ferry departures, and it carries 1st-class two-berth cabins, 2nd-class air-conditioned sleepers and cheap fan seats. Rapid No. 167 (20:30 to 07:16) is the same trip an hour later without the 1st class. No. 83 (18:50 to 04:58) and No. 169 (17:30, or 17:50 by some sellers, to 04:06) get you in before dawn, which means a wait at the forecourt cafés that open around 04:00. The 22:50 railcar (No. 39/41) is seats only, but the cheapest way to arrive at 07:50 with a full night behind you.

Station fares, per person. A 2nd-class air-conditioned berth is about ฿700 for an upper and ฿900 for a lower, a 1st-class berth about ฿1,300–1,500 in a two-berth cabin (a solo traveler pays for both), the 2nd-class air-con seat on No. 43 ฿524, and a 3rd-class fan seat about ฿250. Online sellers add ฿100–200. Two rules for booking. SRT opens sales 90 days ahead on trains where Surat Thani is 60% or more of the route, which is every train here except the two Sungai Kolok trains, No. 171 and No. 37 (30 days), and lower berths and the 1st-class cabins sell out weeks ahead from December to February. Book on D-Ticket or 12Go. The station forecourt is where you buy the coach-and-ferry ticket to the island (฿420–1,000 depending on the boat), and the operators meet every arriving train.

Second-class air-con sleepers are pairs of facing seats along a corridor that the attendant converts into an upper and a lower bunk around 20:00–21:00, each with a curtain, a mattress, a pillow and a blanket; the lower is wider and has the window, which is why it costs ฿200 more. First class is a two-berth cabin with a lockable door, a washbasin and a shared shower at the end of the carriage; on No. 31 the carriages are the newest on the network, on No. 85 and No. 83 they are the older but well-kept stock. A family booking three 1st-class berths in June 2026 paid €115 for the three and found themselves in three separate cabins, so if you're traveling together, book the cabin as a pair rather than as individual berths.

The restaurant car and the snack cart are priced for tourists (a set meal was quoted at ฿780–980 to a couple in March 2026, a small beer at ฿100), so eat before you board or bring food from the 7-Eleven at the terminal. The southern line loses 30 to 60 minutes overnight more often than not; if you bought the coach-and-ferry as a through ticket, the operator holds you for the next boat, which is the whole reason to buy it that way.

Lomprayah's own coach-and-catamaran ticket is the tidiest overland option. A bus from its Khao San office at 06:00 or 22:00 meets its high-speed catamaran at Chumphon, and the boat lands at Pralarn pier in Maenam at about 17:30 for the day bus or 11:30 the next morning for the night bus. The 21:30 bus connects with the slow ferry instead, changes boat at Koh Tao and lands at Bangrak at 11:15. Its 2026 price list has the standard bus at ฿1,250–1,450 and the VIP bus at ฿1,750, plus about ฿150 for a drop at your hotel. The same ticket continues to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, which is why the boat calls there first and why Samui is the last stop rather than the first.

The government-run Transport Co coaches leave the Southern Terminal (Sai Tai Mai, on Borommaratchachonnani Road in Thonburi, a 30-minute taxi from the old city) and Mo Chit in the late afternoon and evening, ride to Donsak overnight and put you on the Seatran ferry to Nathon; the through ticket is about ฿620 for the express coach and ฿960 for the 24-seat VIP at the counter, ฿1,130–1,530 on 12Go, and the whole thing takes 12 to 16 hours. Boonsiri, the Koh Kood ferry company, runs a 22:00 coach from Khao San that connects with its own catamaran at Chumphon and lands at Bangrak at 11:30 the next morning, for ฿1,450. A dozen Khao San agencies (Montanatip, Krungsiam Tour and others) sell 19:00 coach-and-ferry tickets for ฿1,100–1,500 that land at Lipa Noi on the Raja ferry, 14 hours when nothing goes wrong; in a February 2026 vlog the bus broke down at midnight and a replacement took two hours.

My rule for buses is to take Lomprayah's or the government coach, book the whole thing as one ticket, eat before you board, and pack a sweater. The midnight stop's food is basic and every one of these buses runs cold.

There is one direct boat from Bangkok to Koh Samui and it is a car ferry with hotel rooms on it. The Seahorse Ferry sails from the Saengthong Rice pier on Rat Burana Road, a 40-minute taxi south of the old city on the Chao Phraya, down the Gulf to Nathon pier in 20 to 22 hours. It sails on announced dates rather than a daily timetable, typically a handful a month in season. The service ran from Sattahip until 2024 and then moved to Bangkok itself, its website's posted schedule covered September to December 2025, and its Facebook page listed April 2026 crossings. The dates for the months ahead are published on that Facebook page and its own booking site, not on any aggregator.

Its price list runs from a ฿1,500 recliner seat (not always bookable online) through a ฿3,500 sleeping capsule and a ฿5,500 single room to cabins at ฿12,600–19,800 and a ฿22,500 jacuzzi suite; vehicles are extra, ฿180 for a bicycle, ฿900 for a scooter, ฿2,250 for a car. On board there are restaurants, a café, showers and a kids' zone, and the food is priced like a hotel's (฿200 for a rice dish, ฿420 for a pizza). A 14:00 departure lands you at Nathon around 11:00–12:00 the next day.

It is not the cheap way (the recliner costs the same as the whole train-and-ferry trip) and not the fast way. It is the way for anyone bringing a car or a motorbike to the island, and a genuinely pleasant overnight for anyone who likes boats. Check the dates before you plan around it, and treat this section as seasonal, because the operator changes its schedule every few months.

When Surat Thani fares spike, AirAsia, Nok Air and Thai Lion also fly Don Mueang to Nakhon Si Thammarat, whose airport is about 3.5 hours from the island by the Lomprayah or Raja Ferry through-tickets sold at arrivals. It is a longer ground leg than Surat Thani's, but on the same day the flight is often cheaper, and Nakhon's combo counters run to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao too.

And if your trip is Koh Tao first, don't come via Surat Thani at all. Lomprayah's and Boonsiri's boats to Koh Tao leave from Chumphon, which is where both companies' Bangkok buses go anyway, and on that boat Samui is the last stop rather than the first. The Koh Samui to Koh Tao ferry guide has the island-to-island timings.

The airport is on the northeast corner, 10 to 15 minutes to Chaweng, Choeng Mon and Bophut, 30 to Lamai, 45 to the west coast; the prepaid taxi counters quote ฿300–600 by zone and Grab is a little less. Nathon, where Seatran, Songserm and the Lomprayah and Boonsiri boats from Donsak land, is the island's administrative town on the west coast, 40 minutes from the airport side. The red songthaews charge ฿100 a head to Chaweng and ฿50 for a short hop, the operators' shared minivans ฿150 to your hotel, and a Bolt or Grab car ฿200–600 depending on distance and surge. Lipa Noi pier, where Raja lands, is 8 km south of Nathon and the same story with fewer songthaews. Pralarn, where Lomprayah's Bangkok catamaran lands, is in Maenam on the north coast, west of Bophut. Bangrak, where Boonsiri's Bangkok bus lands, is on the north coast between Bophut's Fisherman's Village and the airport and is the best placed of them all, 10 minutes to the airport or Chaweng and 5 to Bophut.

The return is the arrival in reverse, with one difference. You choose the boat by the connection at the other end. Bangkok Airways flies Samui to Suvarnabhumi about 20 times a day and to Don Mueang three times, from about ฿2,800. Lomprayah's boat-and-bus leaves the island at 08:00 and 12:30 and lands on Khao San at 20:30 and 00:45 for ฿1,450 (VIP ฿1,750), or at either Bangkok airport for ฿1,950–2,250. For the train, the ferry-and-van tickets sold at every Samui pier office put you at Phun Phin for the nine evening trains north, which leave between 18:25 and 23:28 and reach Krung Thep Aphiwat between 03:45 and 10:50; the 09:00 day railcar (No. 40, ฿524 in 2nd-class air-con, arrives 18:05) is the comfortable daytime option if you take the first boat. And for a cheap flight home, the same combo counters run to Surat Thani airport in 2.5 to 5.5 hours, so an afternoon AirAsia departure works from a morning boat, but a flight before about 11:00 means sleeping in Surat Thani. The Koh Samui to Bangkok guide has every departure.