Twins

Boat trips reach Twin Peaks in about 10-15 minutes from Koh Tao's main piers, running out to the west side of Koh Nang Yuan. Two large granite pinnacles anchor the site on a roughly east-west line, and some accounts add a smaller, deeper third alongside them, separated from the main pair by sand channels. The formations sit in 5-20 metres of water: shallowest on the eastern side, around 5-14 metres, and deepest at the western pinnacle's base. Natural swim-throughs and small caves cut through the rock, and the sand channels between pinnacles give an easy route to follow without much navigation.

A Saddleback Clownfish family has held the same anemone here for well over a decade, reported present as far back as 2010 and still there today. Green turtles are reported on many dives, and blue-spotted stingrays, moray eels and titan triggerfish sit among the rocks and sand. Barracuda pass through the deeper sections, and the crevices and sandy patches hold nudibranchs, pipefish, shrimp and yellow boxfish for anyone diving slow.

Twin Peaks is where Koh Tao does most of its beginner diving. An estimated 80% of the island's dive schools use it for first Open Water dives, and the pattern shows up on nearly every operator's own site page. Next to the pinnacles sits Buoyancy World, a purpose-built artificial-reef training area where instructors run skills drills without divers touching the natural coral, and the same patch of reef is used for coral-nursery and marine-population monitoring. Between them, the site gives Koh Tao a training ground with its own reef life worth diving on its own merits, not just a sandy patch to kneel on. Certified divers use it too, for Advanced Open Water navigation runs and buoyancy practice, and at night the site is reportedly just as good, with a different cast of creatures out under torchlight.

A nationwide dive-safety rule took effect on 22 April 2025: certified group dives are capped at one guide per four divers, and try-dive or introductory sessions at one instructor per two learners.1 Since Twin Peaks runs so much first-time and training diving, the smaller ratios apply here more often than at most Koh Tao sites. The same rule bars cameras on training or instructional dives unless the diver holds Advanced Open Water certification or has logged 40 or more dives, and sets a two-metre no-contact buffer around coral and marine life.

Titan triggerfish are present among the rocks; elsewhere on Koh Tao the species is reported to turn territorial and charge divers near nesting sites during breeding season, so give any triggerfish guarding a patch of sand or rubble a wide berth. In August 2026 a diver filming for a dive centre reported several stinging jellyfish drifting past the pinnacles, a rare and one-off sighting rather than a regular hazard, but worth knowing they sting on contact. Diving here is always sold as part of a standard Open Water course or fun-dive package, never billed separately.