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 Traveller's Tales: Advise for travellers in Samui, Thailand
Heed our handy tips on safe travel in Samui, Thailand. You may read about travel warnings, health, what to wear, travel with kids, travel with pets, local weather, local government, medical information and traffic information in the area.Also, you might want to read our
Bangkok city guide,
Chiang Mai city guide,
Hua Hin city guide,
Koh Samet city guide,
Koh Samui city guide,
Krabi city guide,
Pattaya city guide,
and Phuket city guide.
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| N Smith |
18 August 2002 |
Stayed at Baan Samui Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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If you take a boat to Koh Toy please keep this experience in mind - our travel guide (whom we met through the book at the hotel) told us that we would have no problem getting back in time to catch the last flight back to Bangkok as the boat will return from four to six p.m. However, the seas were rough and the boat was late arriving and hence late leaving. The tour was good in bringing our bags from the hotel to the pier, but also informed us that it is common for the boats to be late.
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| U Schmidt |
09 August 2002 |
Stayed at Koh Tao Coral Grand Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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The island is very beautiful, but there is a waste problem. Transport is well organised and it is no problem to move around. Snorkeling at Tanote Bay is fantastic.
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| F Ding |
13 July 2002 |
Stayed at Le Royal Meridien Baan Taling Ngam - Samui, Thailand.
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Grossly overcharging for trips to the marine park and Ko Tao - about three times the market rate. Also very limited in airport transportation choices.
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| K Gunnar |
22 June 2002 |
Stayed at Pavilion Samui Boutique Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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Koh Samui is a very beautiful island with very nice white-sand beaches and really clean water, which is remarkably seldome for Asian beaches. Though in the water there are also cliffs covering about half of Lamai beach making it not the perfect experience to swim there. But in contrast to Phuket there are no jellyfishes in the water.
But everything what comes behind the nice beaches and the fitted resort- and hotel-front is not so nice in Caweng and Lamai beach, which I saw. Both beach-towns gave me more the impression of a meeting-point for tattooed bike-driving yuppies than a relaxing holiday-destination for families. The beach-roads of Chaweng and Lamai have a dirty, neglected and noisy athmosphere. The average picture of Chaweng and especially Lamai beach road is a alternation of beer-bars, girly-bars, restaurants, small supermarkets and copy-product shops. There is no continuous pedestrian area, so you have to step up and down all the time and walk on the busy street, which is quite dangerous - especialy for children. The motorbikes drive some times by far too fast.
Restaurants serving good food and are quite cheap, but you are heavily exposed to the noise of the street. Every evening they used to drive for 3 hours up and down the beachroad with a pickup packed with big boxes advertising noisily for the next 'ritual' techno-rave party taking place every week.
This athmosphere yuppies may find 'funky' but its definitely not suitable for families with young children. Especially because the general price-level of the hotels and resort is much higher compare to Phuket, I have expected 'quality-holiday' with clean streets and restaurants. The administration of Koh Samui will have to invest heavily in an upgrade to lift the apperance of Chaweng and Lamai. And stop noisy advertising of beach-parties. Who wonders that no international Hotel-chain wants to construct hotels on those beaches. Le Meridien has constructed their 5-star resort on a remote west-beach.
I have been told that other beaches in the north and west are much better, so most probably the above said doesn't apply to them.
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| A Shaw |
18 January 2002 |
Stayed at Chaweng Buri Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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Koh Samui is becoming far too commercial. I do not travel to "exotic" locations to eat Burger King, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut, to drink StarBucks coffeee, or to Shop at Nautica and Addidas stores.
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| E Allen |
07 June 2001 |
Stayed at Amari Palm Reef Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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I loved Koh Samui. For me it was the perfect tradeoff between idyllic tropical beaches and after beach entertainment. It has a more upscale feel than Patong with cleaner, nicer beaches, better restaurants and accomodations, younger, better looking people, yet still a laid back and casual atmosphere and not packed with tourists, at least not while I was there.
The full moon party is not to be missed for the younger or younger at heart crowd. Contrary to what I read, I would strongly recommend staying on Koh Phangan for the night rather than relying on the f****ed up boat shuttles from Koh Samui. Trust me; it's survival of the fittest, tallest, and most willing to get wet when trying to get off that island from 5am onward...there are at least 50 people trying to get on each 10 passenger boat, and there isn't a dock or organized method of boarding. Whoever gets to it first, gets on. You must take the same boat back as the one that brought you there, so if you miss it (all boats look the same at 5am) or can't get to it first, you have to wait for it to make the 80min round trip. As far as getting there, although it's only a 40 minute boat ride, you will spend at least 40 minutes riding to every hotel crammed into the back of a pickup truck, waiting for and picking up passengers. Same drill going back when the sun's coming up. Quite the buzzkill.
Koh Samui has many wild dogs roaming the beaches. Beware, not of the dogs, (although some have been seen foaming at the mouth), but how you lay on the beach. Be sure to lay on a chair or towel, and walk with shoes or sandals on the sand. I came back from Southeast Asia with an unusual condition called 'creeping eruption'. It is a worm that is carried in the intestines of dogs and cats in tropical areas, but passes into the skin of humans. Dogs dump, the worms (too small to see) remain in the sand, and enter humans through hair follicles. It's not a big deal; they can't get past the top layer of our skin and therefore can't regenerate in humans, and the symptoms are only a minor inconvenience, but it's a hassle nonetheless.
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| K Messerli |
25 January 2001 |
Stayed at Central Samui Beach Resort - Samui, Thailand.
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Restaurants outside hotel rather poor.
The environment outside the resort is quite dirty and full of construction sites.
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