Koh Samui

What Koh Samui actually is

Samui is a round island roughly 25 kilometres across in the Gulf of Thailand, circled by one ring road and covered in coconut palms and low granite hills. It is the most developed of the Gulf islands and the most comfortable: proper hospitals, international restaurants, boutique hotels, spas, and a hotel stock that runs from twenty-euro guesthouses to hillside villas with private pools looking down at the water.

It suits couples, honeymooners and families who want a beach holiday with real infrastructure but without the size and noise of Phuket. It suits people who want to do very little. It suits divers and snorkellers using it as a base for Koh Tao. It does not suit anyone who wants a wide range of cultural sights, nor anyone who assumes that all of Thailand shares one weather pattern, which is where most disappointment on this island comes from.

The island is small enough that you can drive right round it in about an hour and a half, but big enough that where you stay decides your holiday. The east coast is where the action and the deep water are. The north is calm and cheap. The west and south are quiet, remote and beautiful at sunset, and shallow.

The rain here is upside down

This is the most important paragraph on the page. Samui sits on the Gulf side, so it is largely sheltered from the south-west monsoon that soaks Phuket and Krabi from May to October. In exchange, it gets the north-east monsoon, and its wet season runs roughly from October into December, with November usually the wettest month of the year by a wide margin.

The practical result is that Samui is at its worst precisely when the Andaman coast is at its best. A November trip that would be idyllic in Krabi can mean days of grey sky, churned-up brown water, closed boat trips and cancelled ferries on Samui. December improves through the month but the first half can still be unsettled, and the Christmas and New Year weeks are simultaneously the most expensive of the year and not reliably dry.

January is usually decent and improving. February, March and April are the driest and hottest months and the ones with the calmest, clearest sea. May brings some rain but rarely spoils a week. June, July and August are generally very good on Samui, with short showers rather than sustained rain, which is why they sit in the catalogue alongside the spring months. September is variable, and by October the season has turned.

If someone tells you Thailand's rainy season is May to October, they are describing the other coast.

The beaches, one by one

Chaweng on the east coast is the main event: about six kilometres of white sand, the deepest water on the island, the widest choice of hotels at every price, and a strip of bars, restaurants, tailors and massage shops behind it. It is busy, it is not remotely quiet, and it is the right answer for a first visit and for anyone who wants somewhere to walk in the evening. Chaweng Noi, the smaller cove at the southern end, has the same sand with a fraction of the crowd.

Lamai is the second town, about 20 minutes south. Slightly cheaper, slightly scruffier, still with good sand and good swimming, a smaller nightlife strip and a more relaxed feel. A sensible middle choice.

Choeng Mon, on the north-east corner near the airport, is a small curved bay with calm shallow water and a handful of resorts. Excellent for young children, dull for anyone else.

Bophut and Fisherman's Village are the boutique heart of the island: restored wooden shophouses, good restaurants, a Friday evening walking street, and a calm, adult atmosphere. The sand is browner and coarser than Chaweng and the water goes out a long way at low tide, so this is a place you choose for the village, not the swimming.

Maenam, along the north coast, is the quiet and best-value area: a long tree-lined beach, simple restaurants, budget and mid-range hotels, and a genuinely slow pace. Same caveat as Bophut, and stronger: at low tide you will walk out a very long way.

Bang Po continues west and is quieter again, with famously shallow water. Nathon is the ferry port and administrative town, not a beach.

The west and south coasts, around Lipa Noi, Taling Ngam and Thong Krut, are where you go for sunsets, isolation and a handful of very good hotels. The water is shallow, the roads are winding, and you will need transport for everything.

The tide, which surprises people

Nobody in the brochures mentions this, and it produces more complaints than the weather. On the north and west coasts of Samui, the tidal range combined with a very gently shelving seabed means that at low tide the sea retreats hundreds of metres. At Maenam, Bang Po, Bophut, Lipa Noi and parts of Choeng Mon there are hours of the day when you simply cannot swim, only paddle across warm sand and seagrass.

It is not dangerous and it is not every hour; the water comes back. But if the picture in your head is walking out of your room and into deep water at any time of day, you want Chaweng, Chaweng Noi or Lamai, where the beach shelves properly. If you are quote-shopping for a honeymoon and the hotel is on the north coast, ask us and we will tell you what the tide does in front of it.

Hotel stock and what a budget buys

Samui is the most expensive of the Thai destinations we quote, and the indicative from EUR 65 per person per night reflects real mid-market stock: a good four star with a pool and breakfast at Chaweng, Lamai or Maenam, or a smart boutique in Bophut. Around EUR 35 to 50 per person there are clean three star hotels and guesthouses, more of them in Maenam and Lamai than in Chaweng. From roughly EUR 100 to 200 per person you are into the beachfront five stars and the hillside pool villas that Samui is genuinely known for.

The private pool villa is the island's signature product and the reason it attracts honeymooners. Many of the best sit on the hillside above Chaweng Noi, Choeng Mon or the west coast, with a view that justifies the price and a driveway that requires a car. Ask about the gradient and the transport arrangement before booking; some are very steep.

Board is usually room only or bed and breakfast. All-inclusive exists at a handful of large resorts and works reasonably in the remoter west and south, where eating out means a drive. In Chaweng, Lamai or Bophut it is a poor purchase: a good restaurant main is EUR 7 to 15, a beach dinner with fish EUR 15 to 25, and the eating is one of the pleasures of the island.

Getting there, and the cheaper way in

Samui has its own airport, USM, and it is unusual: privately owned, open-sided, laid out like a garden, and genuinely pleasant. It is also expensive, because the number of carriers serving it is small. Most routings connect through Bangkok, with the domestic hop taking about an hour and often costing more than a European short-haul flight.

The alternative that saves a serious amount of money is to fly to Surat Thani (URT) on the mainland, or to Nakhon Si Thammarat, and take the combined bus and ferry across. Allow four to six hours door to door, and use one of the established ferry operators. For a two-week trip the saving is worth the day; for four nights it is not.

Once you land at USM, transfer times are short: 10 to 15 minutes to Chaweng and Bophut, around 15 to Choeng Mon, 20 to 25 to Maenam, about 30 to Lamai and 45 to 60 to the west and south coasts.

To be exact about what we do: our own vehicles and drivers operate in Turkey only, and have done since 2016. On Samui we quote accommodation through our partner agencies. The airport transfer is arranged locally, usually by the hotel, and hotel cars are the sane choice here because metered taxis are rare and fares are negotiated.

Excursions and practical detail

Ang Thong Marine Park, a scatter of forty-odd limestone islands, is the classic day trip: about an hour and a half by boat, with kayaking and a hard climb to the viewpoint over the emerald lake. Trips are often suspended during the November and December weather, so do not plan a trip around it in those months.

Koh Phangan is 30 to 40 minutes by boat from Big Buddha pier, and is a different island: quieter and more rugged, except when the Full Moon Party fills Haad Rin with tens of thousands of people. Check the lunar calendar before you book if you want either to attend or to avoid it. Koh Tao, about two hours further, is the region's diving and Open Water certification centre.

On the island itself: the Big Buddha at Bang Rak, the Na Muang waterfalls, the Friday walking street at Fisherman's Village, and Hin Ta and Hin Yai, the two famous rock formations near Lamai. Motorbike hire is cheap, and Samui's ring road has a poor accident record involving tourists on scooters; take that seriously.

Sandflies are present on some quieter northern beaches and their bites itch for days. Box jellyfish are rare but not unknown in the Gulf; some beaches have vinegar stations, and local warnings should be followed.

Who should skip Koh Samui

Skip it if your only free weeks are October, November or early December, because that is the island's genuine wet season and you would be far better off in Krabi or Phuket. Skip it if you want a lively city, if you want the dramatic limestone scenery of the Andaman coast, or if you need deep water directly in front of your hotel and cannot be moved off a north-coast picture you have already fallen for.

How we quote

Send us your dates, who is travelling and whether the priority is nightlife, quiet, a pool villa or swimming at any hour. A consultant prices it with our partner agencies and comes back, normally within one working day, with options that suit the month you are travelling and an honest note on the tide and the sea in front of each hotel. The quote is free, no payment is taken on this website, and nothing is reserved until you confirm.