Koh Samui is the second largest island in Thailand, Phuket being the largest. We love it and believe it’s a must for those new and regular visitors to Thailand. We are desperately hoping that season 3 of The White Lotus, filmed on Koh Samui – won’t mean that it becomes completely overrun by tourists. Fortunately, as most of it was filmed inside the Four Seasons Hotel complex – few viewers got to see the actual beauty of the island.
When I first went over 30 years ago – Koh Samui had a field for a landing strip and small, propeller planes. Now it calls itself an internation airport, with regular flights from other Thai cities, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its airport terminal building is absolutely beautiful – small, quaint and in keeping with the beautiful countryside it sits in.
Of the 1430 islands available in Thailand, Koh Samui has stunning tropical beaches, is easy to reach by ferry or air, is large enough to have lots to do, but small enough to get around easily – it’s only 88 square miles (228.7 KM). It has lots of accommodation to suit all budgets, countless restaurants and bars and great shopping in markets and shops – so it is easy to be a tourist and have all your needs met.
If you look at a map of Koh Samui – you will see that it is very like those treasure maps we used to make as children – with yellow sandy beaches all the way around – so where you choose to stay will depend on what you like to do and your budget. There are lots of places to choose from and the beauty of Koh Samui is that exploring is easy.
This year, we stayed in Chaweng, in the North-East corner.
Chaweng beach is approximately 7km long, with powdery white sand and palm trees – a proper ‘Bounty’ island – for those of you who remember the advert. There is accommodation to suit all budgets lining the beach and in the ‘centre’. There is a long, reasonably quiet road that runs the length of the beach and so the whole place is easy to navigate. In the evenings it is easy to walk along this road into the centre or indeed, get a taxi. Even better, flag down one of the communal taxis or ‘shared taxi truck’ called ‘Songthaews’. These red pickup trucks have benches in the back and follow specific routes. You can flag them down – tell the driver where you are going, agree a price and jump in the back. They are great fun – especially at the end of a long night – used by locals and tourists alike and cheap. Short rides, under 10 minutes might cost 50-60 THB per person – longer trips of 15-20 minutes could be 100-150 THB per person. Be assertive – we usually had the right money in our hand and would literally say 200 baht to # hotel. If the driver says no – another one will be along in minutes. Mostly, they are pleased to pick up the ride. The fun is if others jump on too!
By day, enjoy relaxing by the pool, on the beach, swimming, spa treatments or indeed as we did, diving and snorkelling. There are lots of Thai massage places on the beach. We found them far nicer than those inside massage shops and slightly more reasonable. Think lying on a soft bed, listening to the lapping waves against pure white sand while being massaged – what’s not to like.
Diving. If you are interested in learning to dive – there are many PADI registered dive centres that you can book prior to arriving or when you get there. We used Silent Divers who were great for 4 sign-off dives over two days. They were exceptionally professional, took safety very seriously and provided a great couple of days. I am not a diver – but paid to join the boat on day 2 to do some excellent snorkelling and take lots of photos of Nigel.
Chaweng comes to life at night with many pubs, clubs, shops and restaurants to suit all needs. Our hotel was at the furthest end of this road – so very quiet at night and some of the restaurants there were slightly cheaper – but nothing is expensive in Thailand. It has a small ‘strip’ of ‘girlie bars’ as all Thai centres, though it is off the main road – so can be avoided and is not as sleazy as some you might find in the larger cities. Lots of bars with live bands singing all the European rock hits – The Killers, ACDC, Abba etc. and this year’s favourite everywhere we went – The Cranberries, Zombie. These bars are all open onto the street – walk in and order a beer – no entry fees – all good fun and great for a singalong. The Arkbar Beach Club is great fun. It’s open every night until 12 and is free. You go down a small side road in the centre – follow the crowds – to a hotel, pool and large dance area/DJ on the beach. It has outdoor seating and most impressively, an enormous fire show every night. You can go take a look – you don’t have to buy a drink like in some places – though the beer is the same price as everywhere else. It’s a great place to watch the fire show – have a dance and lap up the party atmosphere. They claim to have ‘international DJs’ but think more wedding disco than Ministry of Sound – though the first couple of Abba and Beyonce tracks are always fun because of the fabulous location.
Muay Thai Boxing – there are various place on Koh Samui where you can watch Muay Thai boxing and others where you can learn, practise. This is great fun for an evening. In Chaweng, we went to one of the stadiums – they advertise around the town. We bought the cheapest seats – wooden benches – which actually we preferred as the view was great and the higher priced seats didn’t look that much more comfy. You pay at the door, and they show you to the area. There was an English speaking compare and both Thai and international fighters. It’s very relaxed – you can get a beer, snacks, move around. Having never been to a live boxing match before, we weren’t sure what to expect – but it was a brilliant evening – lots of fun and we learnt so much about this popular part of Thai culture. If you get bored – you can leave at any point – but we were captivated and stayed until the end. Keep an eye out for the locals running books on individual fighters – watching the crowd is as interesting as the ring at times.
Accommodation – the choice on Koh Samui is endless ranging from the top end to the cheapest hostels. We found it slightly more expensive to find good accommodation here compared to other parts of Thailand – due to its popularity and us travelling in February – a peak time. But remember this is relative to the country – see our blog on booking accommodation. It’s still far less than you would expect to pay for the same quality in the UK. We stayed for five nights and as it was the start of our trip and we knew we needed some downtime to recover from work and the flight – we treated ourselves to a beach front resort – paying just over £100 per night. It was in a perfect location – included breakfast – beautiful views and a great pool/beach area. It gave us an easy start to our trip.
Transfers in and out
We organised our transfer from the airport to the hotel via the hotel before we arrived. This was super simple and cheap – under £15 and felt worth it following a long flight and changeover at Bangkok airport – so lovely to see the taxi driver holding a handwritten sign with our names on it.
Transfers in Thailand are straightforward and cheap. There are many tour operators and travel agents in Thailand and of course – there’s the internet. (Unless plans change – economically you are better booking internal flights before you arrive.) You can also book directly with the hotel you are staying in – which is what we did in Koh Samui. Be aware that these are often tour operators working out of the hotel – rather than the hotel chain themselves – usually a simple desk near reception. We checked that the price they offered for our onward travel, was a pretty standard rate compared to booking online – which it was. Booking with them gave us the peace of mind that if the transport didn’t turn up – we had a person to speak to – rather than the time required to deal with an issue online. (Ironically, later in this trip, an expensive hotel on another island wanted to charge us 4x the going rate for a simple transfer – we booked it ourselves using a local taxi service.) The other thing to be aware of is they will want cash not a card, although they sometimes offer a card facility with a 3-5% addition. We were transferring to Khao Sok National Park on the mainland. We were given a range of tickets for each stage of the journey and wore a simple, lapel sticker with ‘Khao Sok’ emboldened on it. A small mini bus picked us and a few other passengers up and took us directly to the ferry port. You get a great views as you sail across the Gulf of Thailand – including of the Four Seasons resort for any White Lotus fans. Wherever you are going – the sticker system works a treat – so make sure you wear what you are given. It is almost seamless how the drivers and ferry staff calmly herd you onto the right boat, bus and coach depending on the sticker you are wearing. The journey takes a while, depending on ferry times and your choice of transport – anywhere between 5-8 hours – so enjoy the journey – it’s varied, you get to see a lot and you can relax. Keep the sticker on and we promise that you will end up in the right place eventually.
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. 