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Budget

Buddha View Dive Resort (0 7745 6074; www.buddhaview-diving.com; r 300-1500B; ) Like the other large diving operations on the island, Buddha View offers its divers discounted on-site digs in a super-social atmosphere. If you plan on staying awhile, ask about the ‘Divers Village’ across the street, which offers basic accommodation from around 4000B per month.

Tropicana (0 7745 6167; www.koh-tao-tropicana-resort.com; r from 400B) Tropicana ups the ante when it comes to quality budget digs. Low-rise hotel units are peppered across a garden campus providing fleeting glimpses of the ocean between fanned fronds and spiky palms.

JP Resort (0 7745 6099; bungalows 400-700B) This little cheapie promises a colourful menagerie of prim motel-style rooms stacked on a small scrap of jungle across the street from the sea. The sun-soaked rooms have polished pastel-coloured linoleum floor, and many of the tiled bathrooms have been recently refurbished.

Freedom Beach (0 7745 6596; bungalows 400-1500B) On its own secluded beach at the eastern end of Ao Chalok Ban Kao, Freedom feels like a classic backpacker haunt, although there’s a variety of accommodation to suit various humble budgets. The string of bungalows (from wooden shacks to sturdier huts with air-con) links the breezy seaside bar to the resort’s restaurant high on the cliff.

Midrange & Top End

New Heaven Resort (0 7745 6422; newheavenresort@yahoo.co.th; r & bungalows 1200-3900B) Just beyond the clutter of Ao Chalok Ban Kao, New Heaven delivers colourful huts perched over impossibly clear waters. A steep path of chiselled stone tumbles down the shrubby rock face revealing views ripped straight from the pages of National Geographic.

Ko Tao Resort (0 7745 6133; www.kotaoresort.com; r & bungalows 1600-3000B; ais) The entrance is a throwback to the days when taste and architecture weren’t particularly synonymous (the ’70s perhaps?), but the facilities themselves fit the true definition of a resort. The rooms are well stocked, water-sports equipment is on offer, and there are several bars primed to serve an assortment of fruity cocktails.

Chintakiri Resort (0 7745 6133; www.chintakiri.com; r & bungalows 2900-4000B; ais) Perched high over the gulf waters overlooking Chalok Ban Kao, Chintakiri (which sounds a bit too much like the top-end fave Jamahkiri) is Ko Tao’s newest luxury addition as the island furtively creeps upmarket. Rooms are spread around the inland jungle, and sport crisp white walls with lacquered finishing.

EAST COAST BEACHES

The serene eastern coast is, without a doubt, one of the best places in the region to live out your island-paradise fantasies. The views are stunning, beaches are silent, yet all of your creature comforts are 10-minutes away. Accommodation along this coast is organised from north to south.

Hin Wong

A sandy beach has been swapped for a boulder-strewn coast, but the water is crystal clear. The road to Hin Wong is paved in parts, but sudden sand pits and steep hills can toss you off your motorbike.

Hin Wong Bungalows (0 7745 6006, 08 1229 4810; bungalows from 300B) Pleasant wooden huts are scattered across vast expanses of untamed tropical terrain – it all feels a bit like Gilligan’s Island (minus the millionaire castaways). A rickety dock, jutting out just beyond the breezy restaurant, is the perfect place to dangle your legs and watch schools of black sardines slide through the cerulean water.

View Rock (0 7745 6548/9; viewrock@hotmail.com; bungalows 300-400B) When coming down the dirt road into Hin Wong, follow the signs as they lead you north (left) of Hin Wong Bungalows. View Rock is precisely that: views and rocks. The hodgepodge of wooden huts, which looks like a secluded fishing village, is built into the steep crags, offering stunning views of the bay.

Laem Thian

Laem Thian is a scenic cape with a small patch of sand.

Laem Thian (0 7745 6477; r & bungalows 400-1500B; ) Nestled far from civilisation on a lush stretch of jungle, this small boulder-filled resort is the only operation on Laem