Sunrise Beach (Ko Lipe)
WORTH A DETOUR

Thailand · Ko Lipe · #3 of Thailand's ten by fame

Sunrise Beach (Ko Lipe)

A national park fee, a 1.5-hour speedboat, and room for everyone.

How we rated it: up one for third place on the fame list. No hazard on record. Photo: travelourplanet.com · CC BY 2.0

The hang

Sunrise Beach is the long one on Ko Lipe, 1,492 metres by our measurement, and big enough to find your own patch even in high season. It is inside Tarutao National Park, so foreign visitors pay ฿200 an adult and ฿100 a child, and rangers check the ticket on snorkel trips. Speedboats run from Pak Bara pier in about an hour and a half for about ฿700. Walking Street links it with Pattaya Beach on the south coast, five minutes from the restaurants and dive shops. The island is generally only reachable from mid-October to mid-May.


The real intel

Status, dated 2026-10-05: Tarutao National Park fee for foreign visitors: ฿200 adults, ฿100 children aged 2 to 11.

Best months · warmest sea
August (31.1 °C), then July and May. Coolest: November (29.2 °C). One year of data, 2025.
Best months · emptiest
No crowd data by month. It is big enough to find a spot in high season.
Getting there
Speedboat from Pak Bara pier in Satun, about 1.5 hours, about ฿700. Generally only from mid-October to mid-May.
Cost reality
Tarutao National Park fee for foreign visitors: ฿200 adults, ฿100 children aged 2 to 11.
The catch nobody tells you
Longtails come and go close to shore in the middle of the beach, so swim away from the moored boats. From May to October it is monsoon season and many businesses close.

The year at Sunrise Beach (Ko Lipe)

Warmest sea in August. Fewest wet days in February. Pick your fight.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Sea (°C)
29.3
29.9
30.3
30.6
30.8
30.7
31
31.1
30.5
29.9
29.2
29.3
Air (°C)
27.7
28
28.7
27.9
28.5
28.5
29.1
28.4
28
27.7
27.3
27.9
Sun (h/day)
10.4
10.5
10.7
9.5
8.9
9
10.6
9.4
9
8.3
7.7
10.8
Rain (days)
12
7
15
29
27
19
15
26
19
28
24
9

One year of data, 2025, from Open-Meteo at this beach's coordinates. A rain day is 1 mm or more. The red bar is the month to aim for in each row.


The neighbours

6 beaches within 6 km, as the gull flies. We have rated 1.

  1. 485 mAo Khra31 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.
  2. 485 mAo Cho Ro Na31 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.
  3. 664 mAo Ta Lo So139 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.
  4. 915 mSunset BeachQuiet all day, then the whole island turns up at six.ONLY IF YOU'RE ALREADY THERE
  5. 969 mPattaya Beach988 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.
  6. 1.2 kmSu Ta Beach94 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.

Straight-line distances from the mapped beach shapes (OpenStreetMap). Roads are longer, and in Bali they are much longer.


The crowd

Room to spare, even in high season.


The facts · we measured

Length
1,492 m
Mean width
24.4 m
Area
36,421 m²
Warmest sea (2025)
31.1 °C in Aug
Coldest sea (2025)
29.2 °C in Nov
Sea by month, °C
Jan 29.3 · Feb 29.9 · Mar 30.3 · Apr 30.6 · May 30.8 · Jun 30.7 · Jul 31.0 · Aug 31.1 · Sep 30.5 · Oct 29.9 · Nov 29.2 · Dec 29.3

Questions people ask

How do you get to Ko Lipe?

By speedboat from Pak Bara pier in Satun, about 1.5 hours for about ฿700, generally only from mid-October to mid-May.

Is there a fee for Sunrise Beach on Ko Lipe?

Foreign visitors pay the Tarutao National Park fee: ฿200 for adults and ฿100 for children aged 2 to 11.