Smells like sewage and plenty of garbage in and around the water. The diving boats drop liters upon liters of oil into the water everyday so you are swimming in that as well. The restaurants and bars along the beach are pretty low quality catering to drunk teenagers. Overall, it's your typical Thai beach. Don't go with high expectations.

Just loved everything about this place. The vibe was buzzy without being busy. Plenty of hotels and restaurants of various types from luxury to backpacker along the beach. Clean sand. Clear water what’s not to love?

I'm reviewing the place in general not just the beach. Im staying in a lovely villa up on the hill with a stunning view and our own infinity pool, brilliant. The beach is lovely fine sand with quite a bit of plastic pollution though, the sea is really warm. It the bit between, can't stand it, scuffy, crowded, mopeds everywhere, I'm just too old maybe. It's just not what I expected. Some of the restaurants are good and are in a great spot for tables with stunning views. When you get off the ferry expect the taxis to fleece you, 400bht for a 1.3km journey, haggled to 300bht. All the prices are tourist rates, big step up from Bangkok.

This area of Koh Tao was beautiful. There are lots of restaurants and bars on the ocean and just back from the ocean. The biggest thing we noticed was the age group. I would suggest the area is for predominantly younger clientele. Both of us at 62 and 66 respectively, felt the vibe just wasn’t great for us. To be clear, nobody said or did anything to us, it was just the vibe/music that didn’t fit.