Wander Women Koh Tao:
A Beginner Dive + Yoga Retreat
Koh Tao, Thailand
April 8-15, 2025
Join Wander Women as we return to our roots for a learn-to-scuba-dive retreat in the heart of where it all began — Koh Tao, Thailand. This beginner-friendly adventure will allow you to experience the tranquility of yoga and the healing power of the ocean while also celebrating Songkran, Thailand’s New Year festival — also known as the world’s largest water fight!
Always wanted to learn to dive? This is the ultimate curated opportunity to do so! We’ll take in some of the Gulf of Thailand’s most famous dive sites alongside an all-female boss babe PADI Instructor team, and a built-in squad of future dive besties as you become a certified Open Water Diver — or ReActivate an existing certification! — in the world’s most idyllic and supportive learning environment. Previously been certified, but don’t quite feel at home beneath the surface? Join us to ReActivate your existing certification and get comfortable in the water again. By the end of either course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to confidently dive at home or abroad, and become an ambassador for the underwater world.
And that’s not all – this is truly the birthplace of Wander Women! As Alex’s home for many years, and Nik’s current home, you’ll get an all access pass to the best kept secrets on Koh Tao. In between underwater adventures and recharging with a daily yoga flow, we’ve got beaches, hiking, temples, and viewpoints to conquer. We’ll talk daydreams and swap travel stories, from our beach floaties with (rum filled) coconuts in hand. You’ll also meet the incredible Koh Tao tribe who have been making this magic happen since our first-ever Wander Women Retreat right on this island in 2018!
Want to see more of Thailand? Check out our pre and post retreat extensions here: Bangkok Extension + Elephant Extension
You’ve never seen a more beautiful place to transform into our island-wide yoga shala! From sunrise mountain terraces to floating stand up paddleboards, we’ll explore creative vinyasa flows and bliss out to a yin massage — there might even be a Sip + Salutations class on the itinerary (okay, there definitely is.) And all along the way, we’ll explore the connection between scuba diving and yoga, both of which hold conscious breathing at their core. This trip is for beginners — and that applies to diving as well as yoga! All are welcome.
In classic Wander Women fashion, we’ll also learn about keeping our beautiful oceans sparkling with a conservation workshop, a Project Aware certification, a beach cleanup, and a private documentary screening at a local cinema.
A photographer will be behind the lens every step of the way, ensuring everyone leaves with profile-picture worthy shots of themselves. You’ll end the retreat with professional photos, including underwater portraits by an experienced underwater photographer who will give you posing tips, too.
The Details
This eight day retreat will be held from April 8-15, 2025. The cost, including just about everything, is just $2,750 per person for a shared room or $3,150 for a single.
Update — This retreat has met the minimum booking number and is now a guaranteed departure!
What’s Included
• Seven nights accommodation at a beachfront boutique hotel
• Two meals a day
• Daily yoga
• PADI Open Water or PADI ReActivate course
• Scuba diving gear rental
• All outlined activities — see below!
• A free Wanderland Guide To Koh Tao e-book
• All on-island transportation including arrival + departure transfers
• A custom welcome bag
• Local tipping for activities, meals and drivers (we generously tip on your behalf, removing the stress and anxiety of when and how much to tip in a new culture!)
• Professional photos of the trip (above + blow water)
• Donation to a local on-island charity
What’s Not Included
• Flights
• Mandatory travel + dive insurance
• Additional meals, alcohol or activities not specified in the itinerary
• Transport to and from Koh Tao — unless you join our extensions!
• Dive instructor gratuities — due to the different levels of service guests require, we leave tipping our dive professionals up to you but we’ll be happy to make recommendations
The Itinerary
Subject to change, but you’re going to have a magical time — here’s the general idea!
Day 1: Arrivals from around the globe, or from our Pre-Retreat Bangkok Extension! Enjoy slow flow yoga to iron out those travel kinks and a guided meander through town to get your bearings. In the evening we’ll head to a chic beach bar for a customized welcome cocktail and let the sunset put on a show for us before settling in to a locally curated chef’s table dining experience.
Day 2: Dive into the day with a blissful yoga session, nourishing breakfast and an introduction to ice-bathing workshop where we’ll learn about enhancing your mind-body connection through controlled breathing — a key element to both yoga and diving! Body and breath prepared for the day, you’ll then meet your dive team and for an orientation on the course ahead. After lunch at one of Koh Tao’s newest hip cafes, it’s into the pool for your swim test and skills training. At sunset, we’ll toast to your progress before heading to a charming island cinema for dinner and a private ocean-themed screening.
Day 3: Today we take in sunrise at one of the island’s incredible viewpoints where you’ll experience a yoga class in the clouds. After breakfast, we’ll make our way back to sea level to do a beach clean up and meet a local eco-organisation that turns plastic waste like what we just collected into functional and funky colorful items… some of which may just feature in your welcome bag! Over lunch we’ll jump back into your scuba academics to review your training, then head out on our private charter boat for your first two ocean dives — it’s time to dive into the true magic of the underwater world. Tonight, we’ll cheers to your first open water experience over a private catered dinner at our favorite toes-in-the-sand beach restaurant. Feeling the vibes? Pop next door with us to boogie to some live music at a local beachfront hot spot.
Day 4: Picture this: You’re on the top deck of a private dive boat, listening to a playlist of perfectly curated bops alongside your new travel babes. You just finished your final two certification dives at the most celebrated dive sites in the Gulf of Thailand, and you’re about to eat lunch onboard as you cruise back to a paradise island. Life is good! After some toes up time, we’ll regroup for a bop around Alex and Nik’s favorite beaches, including a partner yoga class on the sand. Tonight is a choose-your-own-adventure, with the option to head to the mountains to upgrade to an exclusive ‘trust the chef’ Thai culinary experience, or stick to sea level and opt for a beachside restaurant of your choice. For those keen to experience the night life of Koh Tao, you will be treated to a show at the Queen’s Cabaret, a quintessential Thailand experience.
Day 5: Design your day to your liking. After breakfast, you have the option to upgrade to an additional post-certification dive, join Nik (and her dogs!) for a hike to a hidden beach, or relax and take the morning at your own speed. We’ll gather again for a lunchtime cooking demo at a Thai cooking school, check out the local temple, and in the afternoon try your balance with a SUP yoga session. It’s Songkran Eve, and the island really comes to life with an annual show at the local trapeze school that’s a hit with expats, locals and tourists alike.
Day 6: You thought fireworks were cool? Just wait until you see how Thailand marks the start of the Buddhist New Year: with a nationwide water fight. This is real life! Before we get wet and wild, we will rendezvous for a sip + stretch yoga class — buckets, a traditional backpacker drink of Thailand, will be provided of course! — kicking off a day of non-stop fun. Dress-up is strongly encouraged — think tropical prints, sequins and fun inflatables! Water pistols locked loaded, we’ll start the shenanigans with a boozy brunch feast at a popular beachfront cafe, then head back to town to join the splash fest. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Day 7: Today is all about recharging your batteries! Hydration sachets and a hearty breakfast will see you swerve any fuzzy feelings from yesterday’s festivities… and we’ll throw a massage in just to be safe 😉 Later we’ll head to a shady beach with floaties at the ready, to sip coconuts with your toes in the sand. Once rejuvenated, we’ll sweat out any final toxins with a short hike to the most instagrammable viewpoint on the island — new profile pic guaranteed — and stretch out any funky feels with slow flow yoga. This evening we’ll toast to each other as the sun sets and we marvel at a private rooftop banquet for our beautiful closing meal.
Day 8: I’m not crying, you’re crying! Today we say farewell to our beautiful Koh Tao and to each other — unless you’re joining us in Koh Samui for our Post-Retreat Elephant Extension. In that case, get ready to continue the fun for another three days!
Where We’ll Stay and What We’ll Eat
We’ll be resting our heads at a boutique hotel in the heart of Sairee Village, on beach road with shopping, massages and plenty of great places to eat and drink. There are two room categories to choose from — Deluxe suites have a one extra large cloud-like bed, giant en suite bathroom, plenty of space for happy dances, and their very own rooftop pool and sundeck — this is Alex’s go to whenever she’s in Koh Tao these days, the ultimate oasis for relaxation.
For those who’d rather spend their travel budget on extra massages or mango sticky rice (we get it!), we also have Standard rooms which are a more accessible option. Standard rooms are beach facing with a balcony and either twin or king beds and a private en suite.
Of course, you can room with a friend but if you’re traveling solo, fear not, so are most of our Wander Women guests! We’ll do our best to pair you with someone we think you’ll click with based on your intake forms — and we’ll all be besties by the end anyway.
Koh Tao is a foodie’s paradise and we’re excited to show off the best of the best! Every day, two meals will be included; typically breakfast and either lunch or dinner. We’ll mix things up each day from local Thai hole-in-the-wall joints, to east-meets-west fusion cafes and restaurants. Expect it not only to be delicious but healthy and balanced — and vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and other diets can easily be accommodated. For non-included meals we’ll bring you to a favorite spot where you can order at your own expense, or branch off and do your own thing — there’s plenty within stumbling distance from our accommodation! Don’t forget to check our eat list in Alex’s Wanderland Guide To Koh Tao (a copy is included!) to choose your own adventure.
The Diving
Koh Tao is one of the world’s top destinations when it comes to number of annual dive certifications issued. Travelers flock from across the world to take their first breaths underwater in the coral reefs fringing this little rock – Nik + Alex included! – and it’s simple to see why: teaching standards are high, conditions are breezy, dive sites are abundant, and it’s a seriously blissful place to decompress after a day underwater.
We’ll hit some of the Gulf’s top dive sites and enjoy Koh Tao’s unique coral gardens, rocky swim throughs, and artificial reefs.
We’re running this retreat and course exactly the way we believe it should be done — with experienced and patient instructors, with confined sessions in the calm setting of a pool, and with the bulk of the academics completed ahead of time, on your own schedule, so you can make the most of paradise.
This retreat includes access to PADI eLearning (a $230 value) for either program, which will allow you to watch the course videos, absorb the academic readings, and complete the quizzes in the comfort of your own home, before you even touch down in Thailand. And fear not! Your instructors will do plenty of poolside knowledge reviews and go over anything you don’t feel completely confident on.
We know that many divers come to Wander Women certified, but maybe haven’t had much opportunity to put it to good use and therefore want to build competence or confidence to make diving regularly a reality. For certified divers who are using this retreat as an opportunity to refresh their rusty skills, you’ll be going through the PADI ReActivate Scuba Refresher Program. PADI ReActivate is a fully personalized scuba refresher program that covers the areas where your skills and knowledge need refreshing. Move quickly through topics you know well, then dive deeper where your knowledge may have lapsed. You’re welcome to join every moment of classroom time and confined skill sessions, but if you finish your requirements and want to enjoy some extra diving or free time for massages or beach naps, you’ll have that opportunity too!
Getting There and Away
Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) is the largest international airport in the country and most likely your port of arrival. Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) serves as a secondary hub for low cost carriers and both are viable options for your arrival into Bangkok. Thailand is a visa-free country for most passports. If you’re from the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and most of Europe, you can enter for thirty days visa-free. We’ve been navigating Thailand’s visa rules for years and are happy to help you figure out your specific situation.
A lengthy and in depth section on the many ways you can make your way from Bangkok to Koh Tao is included in the Wanderland Guide To Koh Tao e-book (again, included in your booking!). Budget anywhere from $40-$200 depending on your preferred mode of transport — plane, train or automobile! On arrival to Koh Tao, a driver will be waiting to collect you at the pier and whisk you to our accommodation.
Should you join the Pre-Retreat Bangkok Extension, you’ll be expertly guided down to Koh Tao by Alex. Should you join the Post-Retreat Elephants Extension, you’ll end on Koh Samui, fifteen minutes from an airport where you can be whisked to your connecting international flight.
Travel With Us
For this retreat you will be team hosted by travel enthusiasts and hostesses with the mostesses — Alexandra Baackes and Nik Turnbull!
Alexandra Baackes is the founder of Wander Women Retreats and Alex in Wanderland as well as a PADI Divemaster, an AmbassaDiver, and a Women Divers’ Hall of Fame Associate Member. She also called Thailand home for the better part of seven years! Alex has worked in the dive industry as an underwater videographer, a writer for publications like Sport Diver and Scuba Diver magazines, and as the creator of Wander Women Retreats. She is also a RYT 200 Registered Yoga Teacher, an RYT 50 Aerial Yoga Teacher, a Buti Bands and Sculpt instructor, and a regular yoga practitioner for more than a decade — she can’t wait to practice with you.
Nik originally hails from Australia and has over ten years experience working in the travel industry, from tour guiding in the Greek Islands to charter boats on Sydney Harbor and running a backpacker hostel in Italy. She came to the island in 2019 to learn to dive (surprise-surprise!) and after completing her Open Water course she was hooked! Nik is now a certified Divemaster and freediver, has worked on the Great Barrier Reef in conservation research and loves to introduce people to the underwater world. Koh Tao is where Nik calls home now and where she first met Alex — her very friendly next door neighbor! In 2023 Nik joined the Wander Women team as Retreat Manager, she can’t wait to show you her favourite rock that she calls home.
The Wander Women team on Koh Tao consists of one of the most experienced, energetic female dive teams on the island and an incredible community of female entrepreneurs we partner with. You’re just going to be blown away — we know we are!
Health + Safety
Scuba diving is a completely safe and enjoyable activity, however in order to complete your Open Water certification you will need to complete a standard medical health form. If you have any existing health conditions or concerns, we suggest looking over this diver medical form and double checking with your local physician if anything stands out, or seeking out the advice of a dive medic for specialized concerns.
Extend Your Adventure
Can’t imagine visiting Thailand without seeing the Grand Palace, sipping a drink at a Bangkok rooftop bar, or hitting a market for a street food feast? Before heading to the tranquil islands of the south, join us for a three-night Pre-Retreat Bangkok Extension hosted by Alexandra Baackes, founder of Wander Women Retreats!
Not ready to head home so soon after? Island hop with us for a two-night Post-Retreat Elephant Extension to Koh Tao’s neighboring island of Koh Samui. We’ll hit the ultimate Thailand bucket list moment of meeting elephants, Thailand’s national animal, and slip into ultimate bliss for an afternoon at the trendiest Koh Samui beach club to toast to the trip of a lifetime.
Join Us
We have had more guests fill out inquiry forms about this trip than we have spaces on it — book soon to secure your spot on this beloved signature Wander Women retreat!
This trip is now a guaranteed departure! We have met the minimum required bookings, so you can jump straight into holiday planning mode and book your travel for this retreat.
Can’t make this one? Don’t sweat — sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when enrollment opens on future retreats. Don’t hesitate to email us at retreats@alexinwanderland.com with any and all questions or concerns over if this is the right retreat for you. We’re always here to chat.
Wander Women Koh Tao: A Beginner Dive + Yoga Retreat, 2025
$2,750.00 – $4,250.00
F.A.Q.
So does non-refundable really mean non-refundable?
Yes, all payments are non-refundable. If the trip must be postponed or canceled due to events beyond our control, you will be offered the choice between a full refund and applying your payments to a future trip.
The reason payments are non-refundable is that we start incurring costs from the moment someone presses “book” — from credit card fees to high hourly wages for our team who correspond with guests, manage trip inventory and our e-commerce platform, analyze forms to create room assignments, coordinate with our local vendors, and beyond.
There’s nothing we want more than for our guests to take and enjoy the travel they have worked hard and paid for. Thank you so much for your understanding and respect of our need to enforce this policy strictly. We want to be here to travel with you for years to come!
Will I need travel and dive insurance?
Yes, it is mandatory for all Wander Women Retreat guests to have personal travel and dive insurance for the duration of the trip, either through a travel insurance provider such as World Nomads, or an industry specific membership insurance such as Divers Alert Network (DAN). World Nomads offers coverage at affordable rates. We recommend you book your travel insurance as soon as you make your trip deposit to protect your investment.
What about visas?
Good news! Entering Thailand is a relatively straightforward process as tourist visas are not necessary when you hold a US, UK, Canadian or Australian passport — along with many other countries. Before traveling you will just need to make sure that you have at least six months validity from your intended return date and a blank passport page — hurray, another stamp!
Why women only?
Girls just wanna have fun! Diving is still a male-dominated industry, and we want to take a week to connect like-minded women and celebrate the female scuba community.
Will I have time to do my own thing?
Absolutely. This is your retreat and we want you to make it exactly what you want! There’s a lot to see and experience, so we’ve tried to design an itinerary that balances the best of activity and downtime. While there are certain mandatory elements to your PADI Open Water course that you will need to complete if you want to be certified, all other activities are totally optional, and we’re happy to help facilitate you doing your own thing.
Do I need to be good at yoga?
Absolutely not. (And frankly, we don’t believe in the idea of being “good” at yoga!) We have a range of yogis from brand-new beginners to talented instructors join us on our trips. You’ll get the opportunity to sample a wide range of yoga styles, and you can opt in or out of as many classes as you wish.
I want to extend my trip. Can you help me?
Absolutely! Alex and the Wander Women team have traveled Thailand extensively. We offer an hour of complimentary consultation on expanding your trip, after which we will offer our hourly consulting at a special retreat guest rate.
How much money will I need to bring?
Thailand has plenty of options when it comes to food which makes it easy to eat like a queen no matter the budget. Munch on street stall pad thai for only $2.50, order a whole BBQ’d fish for $10 or treat yourself to a steak dinner for $15, you will be hard pressed to spend more than $20 for a fantastic meal! When it comes to alcohol, budget $2-3 for beer, $4-8 for cocktails and $8-10 for a decent glass of wine.
Is there an age requirement?
You must be 18 years or older for this retreat. We love the age diversity of the Wander Women community, which includes travelers ages 18 to 68! We get a lot of questions from those concerned they will be the oldest or youngest on a retreat — all are welcome, truly.
Is there a waiting list?
There will be a waiting list on a first-come, first-served basis in case spaces open up. If the retreat is full and you’re still interested, email us at retreats@alexinwanderland.com to be added to the waiting list.
I still have questions, or cute photos of my dog. Can I contact you?
Um, yes please! Our email is retreats@alexinwanderland.com.