Specialist removals to Koh Samui and the Gulf islands handled end-to-end from our Lower Dicker depot — full and shared-container sea freight, air freight, export-grade tropical packing and full Thai customs clearance, including the mainland-to-island ferry leg. BAR member, fully insured.
Removals to Koh Samui from the UK take a Sussex household out to the Gulf islands — Samui itself, plus Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao — for movers chasing beach life, a slower pace and a tight-knit expat community. An island move is the most logistically involved of our Thai routes: the shipment clears on the mainland, then crosses to the island by ferry, so we manage the crossing and build the extra days into the plan. It is sea freight with export-grade tropical packing and visa-matched customs, cleared through our Bangkok partner depot. We are a BAR Overseas Group member, fully insured for the voyage. The full method and customs detail is in our removals to Thailand from the UK guide.
Your move is priced mainly on volume, where you are in the UK and where in Koh Samui you are going. We publish our full rate card for the Bangkok route, and it is the honest starting point for a Koh Samui quote too: from £290 for a small groupage shipment of two tea cartons, up to £3,790 for a sole-use 20ft container delivered to a Bangkok residence, standard customs clearance included. You can see the full price table on our Thailand page.
There is no UK VAT to add. International removals are zero-rated for UK VAT, so unlike a domestic house move there is no 20% on top — the figure we quote is the figure you pay. Thai import duty and 7% Thai VAT are separate, assessed by Thai customs on arrival if you do not qualify for residence-transfer relief.
For Koh Samui itself the price is quoted on application, and we would rather say that than publish a number we would have to walk back. Everything clears customs on the mainland first, then travels south by road and crosses by ferry — and ferry space for a full load has to be booked, so we build slack into the island leg. That leg is real work with a real cost, and it varies with your exact address and access — so we price it properly rather than guessing. Ask us and you will get the figure the same way our Bangkok customers do: itemised, with the freight, the packing, the customs work and the Koh Samui delivery each shown separately.
You do not have to live in Sussex, and you do not have to get your goods to us. Our published rates run from our Lower Dicker depot (BN27 4EL), and we quote collection from anywhere in the UK as a separate line so you can see exactly what the UK leg costs against the shipping. We have vans around the country most weeks, which usually makes that leg cheaper than people expect — and on a sole-use container we can collect from your home well ahead of the booking date and hold everything at the depot, with the first month of storage free.
Services are quoted the same way, so you take as much or as little as you want: export packing and crating, a custom ISPM-15 crate for anything wooden, antique or high-value, fragile-only packing if you will do the rest yourself, or a full packing service covering the whole house. Packing it yourself? We deliver export-grade packing materials to any UK address for a nominal charge.
Koh Samui offers a postcard version of Thailand — Chaweng and Lamai’s beaches, Bophut’s Fisherman’s Village, quiet Maenam, and the wilder Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao a short hop away. It has an airport, decent hospitals and an established foreign community, but it is unmistakably an island, which is the whole appeal and the whole logistical challenge. Our Samui customers are typically setting up a villa or condo for a long stay, bringing full households because shipping a known, loved home beats furnishing from scratch on an island where everything arrives by boat.
On an island, the calculation shifts: everything for sale on Samui has itself arrived by boat, so local prices for furniture and household goods can be higher than on the mainland, which often tips the balance toward shipping a known, loved home rather than buying new. We focus the container on quality furniture, kitchenware, books, linens and the personal pieces that make an island house feel settled. British appliances run on the local supply with the right plug. At the survey we go room by room and advise honestly on what is worth the sea voyage and ferry, crating anything fragile or valuable, declaring wine, and flagging restricted items before they are packed rather than at the crossing.
The ferry is what makes an island move different. Once our Bangkok depot clears the shipment on the mainland, we arrange the vehicle ferry crossing to Samui and time it into the schedule rather than leaving you to chase a boat. On the island, villa lanes can be narrow and sandy, so we use an appropriately sized vehicle for the final approach. Our crew places furniture, removes the pad-wrap, reassembles the big pieces and clears the cardboard. Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao add a further crossing, which we handle the same way — the goal is a single managed chain from your Sussex door to your island room.
The map below shows Koh Samui, Thailand — one of the destinations we deliver UK household shipments to from our Lower Dicker depot in East Sussex.
Honest transit times matter on this route, because the sea leg alone is several weeks and people time visas, tenancies and flights around them. These are the windows we actually work to — the same ones in our brochure, not a best case:
| Stage of your move | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Export packing and UK collection | 1–2 days on site |
| Ocean voyage to Thailand | 5–6 weeks |
| Collection through to arrival at Laem Chabang or the Port of Bangkok | Allow 8–12 weeks |
| Thai customs clearance through to release | Add a further 2 weeks |
| Road leg south, then the ferry crossing to the island | Add 4–8 days |
| Door to door by sea freight | 11–15 weeks |
| Air freight, door to door | 1–2 weeks |
Everything clears customs on the mainland first, then travels south by road and crosses by ferry — and ferry space for a full load has to be booked, so we build slack into the island leg. A sole-use container sails as soon as it is loaded and booked, so it sits at the shorter end of that window; a shared groupage container waits until it is full before it sails, which is exactly what buys you the lower price.
Once your goods are on the water we email you a tracking link with a live ETA, then update you at each milestone — sailing date, arrival, customs cleared, out for delivery. For the full picture on full versus shared containers, air freight, Thai customs and duty, read our removals to Thailand from the UK guide.
We are a small, owner-managed Sussex firm that has shipped households to Thailand since 2017, not a national franchise selling Thai moves as a sideline. The experienced staff who pad-wrap your furniture in Sussex have done it on dozens of Thai shipments, and our own partner depot clears and delivers in-country — so a question at customs is answered the same day, not across time zones. Every shipment is fully insured for the voyage and held to the same BS 8564 quality standard as a local house removal.
Read what customers say on our reviews page, browse the gallery, or call Mark directly on 01323 848 008 for straight answers about your Koh Samui move — what is worth shipping, what Thai customs allow, and a realistic timeline.
Door to door by sea, allow 11–15 weeks. That breaks down as 5–6 weeks for the ocean voyage itself, 8–12 weeks from collection to arrival at Laem Chabang or the Port of Bangkok once consolidation and sailing schedules are counted, then a further two weeks for Thai customs clearance through to release. Everything clears customs on the mainland first, then travels south by road and crosses by ferry — and ferry space for a full load has to be booked, so we build slack into the island leg. A sole-use container sits at the shorter end because it sails as soon as it is loaded and booked; a shared groupage container waits until it is full, which is what buys you the lower price. Air freight is 1–2 weeks door to door.
After our Bangkok depot clears the shipment on the mainland, we arrange and time the vehicle ferry to the island so you are not chasing a boat. Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao add a further crossing, which we also manage.
Yes. We use an appropriately sized vehicle for the final approach where a full lorry can’t go, then place furniture, reassemble beds and clear the packaging — the same finish as any of our Thai deliveries.
Yes — both are handled on the same Gulf-islands route with an additional ferry crossing beyond Samui, managed as one continuous chain from your UK door.
Not with export-grade packing. Double-wall cartons, moisture-barrier pad-wrap, vacuum-bagging and desiccant inside the container guard against tropical condensation across the whole journey, ferry leg included.
No. International removals are zero-rated for UK VAT, so unlike a domestic house move there is no 20% added to your shipping price — the figure we quote is the figure you pay. That is separate from Thai import duty and the 7% Thai VAT, which Thai customs may assess on arrival if you do not qualify for residence-transfer relief. Those are payable to Thai customs, not to us.
Our published rates run from our Lower Dicker depot in East Sussex (BN27 4EL) through to delivery in Thailand. We quote collection separately — and we collect from anywhere in the UK, not just Sussex. We have vans around the country most weeks, so a collection is often cheaper than people expect. On a sole-use container we can collect from your home ahead of the booking date and hold it at the depot, with the first month of storage free.
Our published rate card runs from £290 for two tea cartons (8 cu ft) up to £3,790 for a sole-use 20ft container delivered to a Bangkok residence, standard customs clearance included and no UK VAT on top. Koh Samui itself is quoted on application, because the leg on from the port varies with your exact address and access. Tell us what you are shipping and where to, and we will come back with an itemised figure.
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Read article →Call us today for a free, no-obligation quote — or use our online form. Whether it’s a shared-container part-load or a full home shipped to Koh Samui, we’ve handled it before and we’ll handle yours with care.