Koh Samui

Which beach suits which trip

The island is ringed by beaches and they are genuinely different. Where you stay decides what your holiday is.

• Chaweng — the busiest and most developed. Long beach, nightlife, restaurants, shopping. Convenient and loud.
• Lamai — the second beach, slightly calmer, still well served, good for a mix of families and couples.
• Bophut and Fisherman's Village — the prettiest and most upmarket. Walking Street on Friday evenings is the best night on the island.
• Maenam and Choeng Mon — quiet, relaxed, family-friendly, with the calmer water.
• The south-east and the interior — waterfalls, and the local version of the island that the beaches do not show you.

The weather is the opposite of Phuket's

This is the single most useful fact about Samui, and the one most people miss. It sits on the Gulf of Thailand, not the Andaman Sea, so it runs on the north-east monsoon instead of the south-west one.

Koh Samui is wettest between October and December — exactly when Phuket, Krabi and Phi Phi are drying out and entering their best months. In the first half of the year the pattern reverses: Samui is generally fine while the Andaman coast takes the rain.

If your dates are fixed and the weather matters more than the destination, this decides whether you go to the Gulf or the Andaman.

Getting there

Samui is unusually easy to reach for a Thai island, but the options have real trade-offs.

• Koh Samui International (USM) has direct flights from Bangkok and a few regional cities. The airport is small, open-air and (deliberately) charming — but fares are higher than to Surat Thani, because one airline group dominates the route.
• The cheaper route is to fly to Surat Thani on the mainland and take a bus to Donsak pier for the car ferry. It is a long half-day and it costs far less.
• From Koh Phangan or Koh Tao, ferries run several times a day and the crossings are short.

Beyond the beach

Samui is small enough to see in a couple of outings between beach days.

• Ang Thong National Marine Park — the day trip worth taking: limestone islands, a hidden lagoon and a viewpoint climb.
• Wat Phra Yai, the Big Buddha, and Wat Plai Laem next to it.
• Na Muang waterfalls, in the interior, best after rain.
• Hin Ta Hin Yai, the grandfather and grandmother rocks on the south coast.