Traveling In & Around Koh Samui, Thailand

If you’re new to our Thailand travels, start here. After our time in Phuket, Thailand, we took a really tiny prop plane over to Koh Samui, another Thai island. Though rainy, Samui was not really as wet as Phuket and we enjoyed 4 glorious days of living the beach town life, shopping at the beautiful street markets and checking out as many local bars as possible. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we thoroughly enjoyed our time traveling in and around Koh Samui and today I’m sharing more about Koh Samui weather, hotels, restaurants and more!

First things first, we stayed in Chaweng Beach and it was party. time. all. the. time, which was a nice change of pace from our relaxing time in Phuket. We had initially booked the Le Meridien Koh Samui Resort + Spa which appeared great on the internet, but checking in, we were a little bit disappointed, so we switched to the Sheraton Samui Resort. I don’t think the Le Meridien property is bad, per se, but for the money we were paying I wasn’t apt to sleep with bugs or use a toilet outside 🙁 Just being totally real! (**UPDATE: We found out later they were going through renovations, but that would have been really good to know ahead of time**) That considered, we really loved our stay at the Sheraton Samui Resort and thought it was a great value.

Despite an initial hotel snafu, we thoroughly enjoy Koh Samui — ate, shopped, drank…all the essentials…and would highly recommend it for anything planning a Thailand trip, honeymoon, backpacking trip, etc. There’s just a never-ending list of stuff to see and do!

A couple highlights:

Stacked — this is an amazing restaurant that serves the best burgers I’ve ever tasted. It’s operated by an ex-pat from San Francisco and it’s an absolute must (in my opinion). The vibe is classy casual and the food, drinks and service are all outstanding!

Keng’s Bamboo Room — An amazingly talented Thai tattoo artist that uses traditional methods – I could have stayed in there all night observing and chatting with him and his wife!

The beautiful red pool you see below is at The Library. It’s a fun boutique hotel with a beach bar that overlooks the ocean. The bar itself is set into the ground so you’re eye level with the ocean, which is pretty neat!

And speaking of crêpes and the streets of Koh Samui, Thailand, here are two fun videos I took while we were there. The street crêpes are out of this world. I’ve never tasted anything better in my life!

Have you ever visited Koh Samui? If you liked this post, you might also enjoy our day at Thai Farm Cooking School in Chiang Mai or a review of Patara Elephant Farm.