Trat has one problem for the visitor and it is a problem of piers. There are four along 50 km of mangrove coast, they serve different islands, and the songthaew driver at the bus station will happily take you to the wrong one. So how to get to Koh Kood — or how to get to Koh Mak, its smaller, flatter neighbour — is really two questions: which pier, and which boat.
The boats are a straight choice. A speedboat is an hour of spray and engine noise with your rucksack in a bin bag for about ฿550; a catamaran is an hour in an air-conditioned seat for ฿600 with a minibus to your resort thrown in. One of these is the better deal, and it is not the one the agents push.
The short version: for Koh Kood, take a Boonsiri or Seudamgo catamaran from Laem Sok pier, 30 km south-east of Trat town — ฿600, about an hour, resort transfer included. For Koh Mak, speedboats leave from Laem Ngop pier (฿450–550, one hour, wet) or the same Laem Sok catamarans call there on the way (฿550, 30–40 minutes, dry). From Bangkok, the ฿1,100 Boonsiri bus-and-boat ticket from Khao San at 05:00 has you on Koh Kood by noon. Read the Koh Mak guide and the Trat travel guide before you choose an island.
Every boat to Koh Mak and Koh Kood, costed
One adult, one way, September 2026 prices; sailing times, not door to door. Fares drift ฿50 either way between operators and agents; the low-season section below is the timetable to trust from May to October.
| Route | Boat | Time | ฿ | When | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laem Sok → Koh Kood (Ao Salad) | Boonsiri / Seudamgo catamaran | 45–60 min | ฿600 incl. resort transfer | Year-round; 2 sailings each low season, 3–4 high | Koh Kood boats on 12Go |
| Laem Ngop → Koh Mak | Panan / Leelawadee / Koh Mak Ferry / M Marine speedboats | 60 min | ฿450–550 | 5 a day Nov–Apr, 1–2 a day May–Oct | Laem Ngop–Koh Mak on 12Go |
| Laem Sok → Koh Mak (Ao Nid) | Boonsiri / Seudamgo catamaran | 30–40 min | ฿550 | Year-round; 11:30 and 15:00 high season | Trat–Koh Mak on 12Go |
| Bangkok (Khao San) → Koh Kood | Boonsiri bus + catamaran | 7 hours | ฿1,100 all in (+฿200 from DMK) | 05:00 and 08:00 daily | Bangkok–Koh Kood on 12Go |
| Bangkok → Koh Mak | Boonsiri / Seudamgo bus + boat | 6.5 hours | ฿1,000–1,150 | 05:00–08:00 departures | Bangkok–Koh Mak on 12Go |
| Bangkok → Trat by air + van + boat | Bangkok Airways + shared minibus | 4 hours | ฿2,800–5,000 flight + ฿700 van + ฿600 boat | 3 flights daily | Flights on 12Go |
| Koh Chang (Bang Bao) → Koh Mak / Koh Kood | Boonsiri inter-island catamaran | 60 / 90 min | ฿600 / ฿900 | Daily; 1 sailing May–Oct | Koh Chang–Koh Mak on 12Go |
Trat’s piers: Laem Sok, Laem Ngop and Ao Thammachat are not the same place
Get this right and the rest is detail. Laem Sok is the Koh Kood pier, about 30 km south-east of Trat town, 20–30 minutes by songthaew and 45 minutes from Trat airport. Every catamaran to Koh Kood leaves from here and most call at Koh Mak on the way. Covered parking is ฿50 a day; there are two noodle stalls and nothing else.
Laem Ngop is the old fishing town 17 km west of Trat, and its town pier — Krom Luang Chumphon pier, at the end of the main street — is where the Koh Mak speedboats load. Ao Thammachat, 10 km before Laem Ngop on the same road, is the Koh Chang car ferry and nothing else; the neighbouring Centrepoint ferry has been suspended since 2024 and, as of September 2026, still is. Koh Chang is our Bangkok to Koh Chang guide; the point here is that Koh Kood and Koh Mak tickets send you out of Trat in opposite directions. From the bus station a shared songthaew is about ฿60 to Laem Ngop and ฿100–150 to Laem Sok; say the island, not the pier. The Trat province profile has the map.
How to get to Koh Kood: the Laem Sok catamarans
Four companies run Laem Sok to Koh Kood at ฿600 for all bar one, so you are choosing on boat and clock. Boonsiri is the 200-seat catamaran with air conditioning, toilets and wifi that works a third of the time; 10:45 and 14:20 in low season, three or four a day from October, an hour to Ao Salad on the north-east corner. Seudamgo is the newest boat, 84 seats, about 45 minutes, at 12:00 and 16:00. Koh Kood Express runs speedboats in high season to west-coast resort piers, saving a truck ride if you are on Khlong Chao. Koh Kood Princess is the budget answer: ฿400 at 12:30, 90 minutes, a mistake in June.
Whichever you choose, the ticket includes a minibus from the pier to your resort and back — collection an hour before the return sailing — a necessity, not a courtesy, because Ao Salad is a fishing village with no taxi rank. Give the desk your resort name; booking on 12Go’s Koh Kood page, put it in the notes. Returns run 09:00 to 14:30, so the 17:50 flight out of Trat is makeable and nothing later is.
Verdict: Boonsiri for the seat, Seudamgo for the clock, Koh Kood Express if your resort is on the west coast. Book the bed first — Koh Kood hotels on Agoda — because the pick-up depends on the resort knowing you are coming.
How to get to Koh Mak: Laem Ngop speedboats versus the Laem Sok catamaran
Koh Mak is the odd one out because it has two mainland piers and the cheaper one is the worse one. From Laem Ngop town pier, five speedboat outfits run in high season, each tied to a resort and its jetty: M Marine at 10:00 and Koh Mak Ferry — Seatales until 2023 — at 11:30, both to Ao Nid on the east coast; Panan at 12:30 into Koh Mak Resort’s pier in the north-west; The Mak Resort at 13:15; Leelawadee at 14:00 into the Makathanee jetty on the south-west beach. All take an hour and charge ฿450–550 as of September 2026; pick the one landing nearest your bungalow, because the wrong end of the island is a ฿100 motorbike taxi. Tickets at the pier, or on 12Go’s Laem Ngop–Koh Mak page.
Now the honest bit. These are open speedboats. In November they are a pleasant hour skimming past Koh Kham; in any wind they are an hour of being slapped by the Gulf of Thailand, luggage under a tarpaulin and passengers under a smaller one. The alternative is Laem Sok: Boonsiri (11:30 and 15:00 in high season) or Seudamgo (12:00) to Ao Nid for ฿550, 30–40 minutes, with a roof, a toilet and a coffee, for the same money. The only reason to take the speedboat is that Laem Ngop is where your bus stopped — compare both on 12Go’s Trat–Koh Mak page.
Verdict: catamaran from Laem Sok if you are planning the day from scratch; speedboat if you have landed at Laem Ngop anyway and the sea is flat. Never a speedboat with a laptop in September.
From Bangkok: the bus-and-boat tickets, and flying to Trat
The combined ticket is the good deal on this route and the reason you need not think about Trat’s piers at all. Boonsiri runs its own minibuses from the Khao San Road area at 05:00 (for the 10:45 boat, Koh Kood by noon) and 08:00 (Koh Kood by 15:30), with a Suvarnabhumi pick-up on the way; from 1 October the second bus moves to 09:00. The all-in fare is ฿1,100 as of September 2026, ฿200 more from Don Mueang, boat and resort truck included; Boonsiri’s own site still quotes ฿850 in places, so budget the higher figure. Seudamgo sells the same at ฿1,150 from 05:00 and 07:00. Both are on 12Go’s Bangkok–Koh Kood page; the Koh Mak versions, ฿1,000–1,150, on Bangkok–Koh Mak. Doing it yourself by Cherdchai bus and songthaew saves about ฿100 and costs an argument; the 999 coach from Suvarnabhumi goes to the Koh Chang ferry, not Laem Sok — our Suvarnabhumi arrival guide has the bus bays.
Flying means Bangkok Airways, which owns Trat airport and prices the hour-long turboprop hop at ฿2,800–5,000 one way. PG301 lands at 09:15 for the 10:45 Boonsiri; PG305 lands at 12:40 in summer, 13:45 in winter, for the afternoon boats. The airline’s shared minibus is ฿700 to Laem Sok and ฿600 to Laem Ngop; a private car meeting the flight is ฿1,500–1,800. Hotel to beach is about four hours and ฿4,500–6,500 against ฿1,100 and seven hours on the bus — fares on 12Go’s Bangkok–Trat page. A private SUV from Bangkok to Laem Sok is ฿4,200, a minibus ฿5,200: the family answer, drivers on GetYourGuide.
Verdict: the 05:00 Boonsiri bus. Unglamorous, but ฿1,100 from Khao San to a Koh Kood bungalow with every connection handled is the best transport value on this coast. Fly when someone else pays.
Island-hopping: Koh Chang to Koh Mak to Koh Kood
The three islands line up south-east from the mainland and Boonsiri runs the chain daily from Bang Bao, the stilt-village pier at Koh Chang’s southern tip. In high season the boat leaves Koh Kood at 11:00 and 14:30, calls at Koh Mak 30 minutes later and reaches Bang Bao at 12:30 or 16:00; ฿400 Koh Kood to Koh Mak, ฿600 Koh Mak to Koh Chang, ฿900 the whole way. Koh Chang Express ran a rival speedboat but is closed until 30 September 2026. Bang Bao is a ฿150 songthaew from the north-coast beaches and the boat does not wait; seats on 12Go’s Koh Chang–Koh Mak page. The sensible order is Koh Chang first, then down the chain and home from Koh Kood with the bus attached; our Koh Chang guide has the island end.
Low season, May to October: what actually runs to Koh Kood and Koh Mak
Trat is the wettest province in Thailand outside Ranong and the monsoon arrives from the sea, so the boats feel it first. From mid-May to mid-October the Laem Sok operators drop to one or two sailings a day each — Boonsiri 10:45 and 14:20, Seudamgo 12:00 and 16:00, Koh Kood Express 11:30 only — and stop using speedboats. The Laem Ngop speedboats to Koh Mak thin to around two departures, 11:30 and 16:00, and on rough days some do not go; the resort rings you the night before. The inter-island Boonsiri drops to one boat, 11:00 from Koh Kood and 13:00 back from Bang Bao, and in bad weather becomes a ferry-road-ferry shuffle via the mainland.
None of this means don’t go — Koh Kood in July is green, empty and half price, and the catamaran crosses in a swell that would flatten a speedboat — but book the sailing on the timetable, not the one a Bangkok agent promised, and never chain a 16:00 boat to a 17:50 flight. When to visit Thailand has the month-by-month rain; September is the worst of it.
Cash, ATMs and what to bring to the pier
Koh Kood has an ATM — one, near the hospital, and it dislikes Mastercard and goes out of service for days at a time. Koh Mak has one in theory, out of cash or out of order often enough that every guide tells you to arrive with money, which is what we are doing now. Resorts on both islands take cards for the room, some with a 3–5 per cent surcharge; everything else — the motorbike taxi, the ฿60 pad kra pao, the boat back — is baht. Draw it in Trat town, where the machines still charge the ฿220 foreign-card fee we cover in Money in Thailand, and budget ฿1,500 a day a head on top of the room. Bring a dry bag for the speedboat and your resort name written down; the touts at Trat bus station selling “the only boat today” are working the Thailand scams seam, and every fare here is on our Thailand Price Index.
Getting to Koh Mak and Koh Kood: your questions, answered
Which pier do I need for Koh Kood?
Laem Sok, about 30 km south-east of Trat town and 45 minutes from Trat airport. Every Koh Kood boat leaves from there; nothing to Koh Kood leaves from Laem Ngop or Ao Thammachat, which serve Koh Mak and Koh Chang. A shared songthaew from Trat bus station is ฿100–150.
How much is the boat to Koh Kood?
฿600 one way on Boonsiri, Seudamgo or Koh Kood Express as of September 2026, including the minibus from the pier to your resort; the Koh Kood Princess slow boat is ฿400. From Bangkok, the combined bus-and-boat ticket is ฿1,100 all in.
How do I get to Koh Mak from Bangkok?
Easiest is a Boonsiri or Seudamgo bus-and-boat ticket from Khao San, ฿1,000–1,150, leaving 05:00–08:00 and landing you at Ao Nid pier by early afternoon via the Laem Sok catamaran. Doing it yourself: bus to Trat, ฿60 songthaew to Laem Ngop pier, ฿450–550 speedboat; about seven hours either way.
Can I go directly from Koh Chang to Koh Kood?
Yes. Boonsiri’s inter-island catamaran runs Bang Bao pier to Koh Kood via Koh Mak in about 90 minutes for ฿900, twice a day from October to May and once a day (13:00 from Bang Bao) from June to September. In rough weather the low-season sailing is sometimes replaced by a ferry-and-road transfer via the mainland.
Do the boats to Koh Kood and Koh Mak run in low season?
They do, thinner. From mid-May to mid-October each Laem Sok operator drops to one or two catamaran sailings a day and stops using speedboats; the Laem Ngop speedboats to Koh Mak shrink to about two a day and skip the roughest days. Book the sailing you can see on the timetable and leave a buffer before any flight.
Related guides
- Koh Mak: The Quiet Island Between Koh Chang and Koh Kood
- Bangkok to Koh Chang: Every Option Costed
- Trat Travel Guide
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Bed first: the boat ticket includes a transfer to a named resort, so pick your Koh Kood hotel on Agoda before the sailing; for a night either side, Trat town hotels start around ฿500. Boats: Bangkok to Koh Kood and Bangkok to Koh Mak for the bus-and-boat tickets; from Trat, Laem Ngop to Koh Mak speedboats and Trat to Koh Mak catamarans; Koh Chang to Koh Mak for island-hoppers. Flying: Bangkok to Trat for fares, plus the Trat to Koh Chang transfer if the big island comes first. Not sure these are your islands at all? Our Where to Go in Thailand matcher scores all 77 provinces against your month, your budget and what you actually want.
