Just today, Tripadvisor announced its 2014 Traveler’s Choice Awards (tinyurl.com/d3aox9s) and guess what, Koh Tao, Surat Thani, snuck into the number 10 position in their ‘best islands in the world’ category.

The results, which were calculated from millions of users’ opinions and reviews saw the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize make it into top spot, followed by Providenciales, part of the Caribbean archipelago Turks and Caicos, and the Polynesian idyll of Bora Bora.

While we're gutted that only one of our many islands made it into the list we understood why readers went for the laidback charms of Koh Tao.

A world-class diving destination, the island in the Gulf of Thailand doubles as a haven for party animals. In recent years, it's emerged as a more laid back party option challenging the chaos of Koh Phangan and the closeness of Koh Samed. We believe the island manages to offer just the right balance of nature and shenanigans.

Find out more by reading our guide on what else you can do on the island: tinyurl.com/kawkqlb.