Pig Island Tours from Koh Samui

Pig Island is not called that on any chart. Its name is Koh Madsum, and it sits a short way off the southern tip of Koh Samui, close enough that on a clear morning you can see it from the road at Thong Krut. It is small, low and mostly undeveloped: one long crescent of white sand, a fringe of trees behind it, and a sandbar that appears and disappears with the tide. What made it famous is a herd of pigs that wanders down to the shallows whenever a boat comes in.

How the pigs got there is not documented in any way that would satisfy a historian. The account you will hear from boat captains is that a local bought a family of underfed pigs on the mainland and released them on the island, and that the animals did what pigs do in a place with no predators and a steady supply of visitors carrying fruit. They are semi-wild. They are not penned, not trained and not anybody’s pets, and the sensible way to treat them is as large animals with their own ideas, which is also what the better operators tell you before you land.

Two islands, not one

Almost nobody sells a trip to Koh Madsum on its own. The standard itinerary pairs it with Koh Tan, also spelled Koh Taen, which lies about five kilometres off the south coast and carries some of the most reachable coral in the area. Koh Tan is where the snorkelling happens. The reef sits shallow and close to the beach, so it works for people who are not strong swimmers, and every trip on this site includes mask and life jacket in the price.

The order varies. Some boats do the reef first and the beach second; some do the reverse, and a few swap on the day depending on the tide. It matters less than the listings imply. What does matter is how long you get at each stop, and that is almost entirely a function of how many hours you have booked.

The boats are the real decision

Trips from Koh Samui run on two kinds of hull, and the choice shapes the day more than the itinerary does.

A speedboat crosses to Koh Tan in about twenty minutes. It is faster, drier and firmer under you, and it is what most of the half-day trips use. A longtail is the traditional wooden boat with the engine on a long shaft at the stern. It takes longer, it is loud, it sits low in the water, and for a lot of people it is the better half of the experience. It is also cheaper: the least expensive trip with transfers and island fees included is a longtail.

Then there is the private option. Longtails are chartered by the boat rather than by the seat, which changes the arithmetic completely for a couple: a private boat for two people can land close to the price of two seats on a shared speedboat, and you get to set your own pace at both stops. Our speedboat versus longtail comparison goes through what each one is actually like on the water.

The fee nobody puts in the headline price

Koh Madsum charges 50 baht per person to land. It is collected in cash on the beach, it is not payable by card, and most operators exclude it from the ticket. A handful include it, which is worth checking on the listing rather than assuming. Bring small notes.

The other thing operators tend to bury: outside food and drink are not allowed ashore on Koh Madsum, including the water carried on your own boat. On the trips that include lunch, lunch is served on Koh Tan or back on the mainland, never on the pig beach.

Where the boats leave from

Every Pig Island trip departs from the south coast, either Thong Krut or the fishing harbour at Bang Kao. Nothing leaves from Chaweng or Bophut, which is where most visitors are staying, so the hotel transfer that comes with your ticket is a 40 to 50 minute drive each way. That is not dead time exactly, but it is time, and it is the main reason a “half-day” trip takes five hours door to door. If you are staying in Lamai or on the south coast itself, you get a chunk of that back. The full logistics, including how to reach the island without a tour at all, are in our guide to getting to Pig Island.

When to go

The Gulf coast runs on a different calendar from Phuket and the Andaman side. Koh Samui misses the southwest monsoon, so May to September is generally drier here than it is on the west coast. The wet season arrives with the northeast monsoon in October and peaks in November, the wettest month of the year on the island, and sea conditions in that stretch are the main reason boat trips get cancelled. From mid-December the weather settles, and the dry window runs from late January through April, with February the driest month of the year at around 65 mm against November’s 445 mm.

Within a single day, the choice is morning or afternoon. Morning boats get flatter water and more active pigs. Afternoon and sunset departures get an emptier beach, because the morning fleet has already gone home. Both arguments are good ones, and we have laid them out properly in the best time to visit guide.

Choosing between the listings

There are more than fifty bookable Pig Island trips from Koh Samui and most of them describe the same two islands in the same words, which is why the price spread from about $26 to several hundred dollars looks arbitrary until you know what moves it. Duration, boat type, whether a meal is included, and whether the boat is shared or yours are the four variables that account for almost all of it.

If you want that reasoned through with the actual numbers, our which Pig Island tour is right for you guide compares the formats side by side and says plainly who each one suits. And if you have never done a trip like this and want to know what the day feels like from the minibus onward, start with what to expect on a Pig Island tour.

Three listings account for most of the bookings, and we have broken each of them down in full. The three-hour speedboat trip is the shortest format sold and carries more reviews than any other Pig Island tour by a wide margin. The full-day island hopping trip is the one to take if you want a real afternoon at Koh Tan rather than a forty-five minute swim. And the private longtail charter is the one that surprises couples, because it is priced by the boat. Everything we track is on the all tours page.