Ko Samui beaches etc.
 

hey guys... we will be spending 6 or seven nights in Koh Samui as part of our honeymoon trip tp Thailand.

we were hoping to stay at the Muang Samui for the full stay, but they only have some of teh nights available, which we hope to grab. however, need advice as follows:

We would REALLY love a room with private pool - and have found one in a hotel called Ban Laem Sai (www.banlaemsai.com) it is however located on Maenem beach...
How inconvenient is Maenem beach from civilization?? how long to reach Chaweng? we would only stay there for like 2-3 nights, rest in Chaweng... and we want the privacy, but not utter isolation! is it a feasable place and be able to hop into town etc...?

- yes, i know there are some other hotels with private pools, such as Sala Samui and Sila Evasion, but the pool rooms there are too high for our budget. The Ban Laem is less than 250 USD / night for pool room - the best room they have.

ADVICE?? PLEASE?
or maybe there actually ARE other hotels in Chaweng that have private pool rooms??

NEXT question... we will be coming to Samui from Chiang Mai... however, bangkok airways has very few diret flights from CM to KS. and the days are inconvenient with our planned itinerary. is flying from CM to KC via BKK very inconvenient? will it waste most our day? (thats our concern).

what website is best to book domestic thailand flights???

i hope you guys respond... i really appreciate it.

Peace!
- FireDragonII

as i cant find any hotels with private pool in chaweng.. are we better off looking in Lamai (rather than the hotel in Maenem??

What time of year ? rates vary a great deal depending on season.

Unless you want to be in the tick of 'action' and busy area I think your choice of Ban Laem Sai locationwise is good, remember many of these 'pools' are very small indeedso do check actualy how big they are, are they swimable or just a big jacuzzi size splash pool, makes a huge difference!
It is easy to get to and from Chaweng when you want a lively night out, Chaweng is busy, land more of a premium, I think you will enjoy realxation more being somewhere not so busy and will appreciate the more relaxed quieter area during the day as opposed to being in a busy area. I would go for the quieter location and then you have restaurants etc in the areas and head into Chaweng when you want ot shop and party.

Flights, Bangkok Airways do a non stop ( but it might bea seasonal ) from CM, you are right they don't have many flights between CM and BKK, you need to check the schedules to tie in a reaosnable connection, Thai has the most flights BKK-CM followed by One-2-Go, Thai Air Asia and Nok Air.

You can find all those airline websites on

http://www.beachsiam.com/thailand.html

When you are traveling is important to know regarding both flights and accommodation. What could be USD 200 one season could be 500 another time and so on.

I you really want to be in Chaweng try Buri Rasa, this, but again, do note the size of these 'pools', although very nice appreciate many are really just splash or 'dip' pools. I have not stayed but it has a good reputation localy. Busier location but nice Thai style design.

http://www.r24.org/beachsiam.com/sam...irasa/details/

The dip pool rooms atart from about 179 depending on season.

One of our regulars here, bella_bluebell, is in Samui at the moment so she may well come in with some updates. Staying at Rocky resort which does not have pools but will no doubt be interesting, they are having their wedding there!

re flights, makes no difference price wise, though you should check the bangkok Airways Discovery pass as it may help, tell us where you are coming from and we can advise if bangkok Airwats has local offcie, in the US there is a system to get tickets which others can tell you about, looking at the time of day ( at the moment ) I guess you are not USA side(?)

There are budget airlines BKK-CM but if you have a connection not wise, as bangkok Airways only ailine flying BKK-Samui (USM) check their schedules and see how the connections work or if they have the non stop at the time of year you are planning on visting.

I wouldn't hesitate to look at other parts of the island. Koh Samui is not big, and really nowhere is all that far from Chaweng if that's where you want to spend a night out. We found Chaweng to be pretty unattractive. Sure, it has shops and restaurants and a white sandy beach, but the town is really pretty ugly, and it's pretty tacky. Lamai is a smaller version of the same scene to me.

On the northern side of the island, the beach isn't so nice in Bophut (muddy and murky every time we visited there), but as you move away from Bophut to Maenam it improves a lot. Choeng Mon near the airport isn't bad either.

If I wanted to have some privacy and a kind of picture perfect honeymoon I would avoid Chaweng as a place to stay, but maybe visit Chaweng once or twice. It's easy to get transportation to Chaweng and back to your hotel. In Maenam you are only 15 minutes away by car, if that. You can drive at a leisurely pace around the whole island in a couple of hours including a stop for snacks and shopping.

I would pick the hotel by the facilities that you want first, and not think about the location until you've narrowed it down a bit.

Ban Laem Sai does look quite lovely. You might also have a look at Briza, Sala Samui, Napasai...actually, you could probably just google search or yahoo search for SAMUI PRIVATE POOL HOTEL and find plenty of options. And/or look at the listings on sawadee.com . If you really have your heart set on Chaweng Beach, then maybe Poppies would be nice for the nights you are not at Muang Samui..actually, have you contacted the hotel directly about availability as well as booking sites? They may not be sold out...you might find availability by searching a bit.

Prices shouldn't be too bad since you are going in September...after the 15th the low season rates kick in at most places. However, before the 15th most places charge high season rates.

Before booking, write directly to the hotel and ask them for their best rate for you for your honeymooon. State that you would like to book directly rather than through a wholesaler and that you hope for a competative price to enable you to do this. Then you can compare the rates to booking site rates. You will also be able to choose whether you want to risk prepaying on a booking site and not being able to change because you've already paid, or booking directly without prepaying (in most cases) and paying on check out and being flexible to move if you want to. That decision might be heavily influenced by what the difference in rates actually may be, and what kind of travellers you are.

Hi JamesA! Thanx for the info...

Indeed, although i am a native New Yorker, we currently live in Israel, and my fiance and i are getting married next month - heading to Thailand a few days later..

I loved how the Ban Laem Sai looked, and really their prices were quite unbeatable through AtSiam.com - (215$ for the pool villa) - it overlooks the sea and is beautiful. after your post, i also called the hotel - they have shuttles to Chaweng beach 3 x a day, so i guess that makes things easier, as we had been advised by friends NOT to rent motorbikes (unless we wanna get injured!)
also, they said taxi from Chaweng to hotel is about 300 Baht. i think we can handle that.
in any case, we will go to the Muang Samui for an additional few nights, so i imagine we will check out the fisherman village area for our time in Maenem.

re. flights... thanx for the link - i will start reviewing the info.
i understand that BKK to KS - there are many many flights every day - like every 30 mins or hr. do we must book flights NOW? or better to just go to airport and get onto next available flight?
i am concerned as we will be taking flight from CM to BKK and then switch flights to head to KS... we hope we wont waste a full day at airport (??)
is it very hard to take two consecutive domestic flights? - we heard they are not generally good with keeping schedules and therefore we are nervious to pre-book non refundable tickets.

Sorry I did not see it was September.

Anyhow, Bangkok Airways is showing they will still be doing the non stop CM-Samui, flight PG 609 dep Chiang mai 0950 arr 1220 ( 2 hrs 30 ) on ATR-72 non stop, so that's the flight you want to go for.

The Discovery pass would be good for BKK-CM-Samui-BKK, see if your travel agent can do it for you.

Actually, I thought it was September, but it could be August. Now that I've read the other posts again, I see that it says next month, so maybe August.

Kim - thanx!!
yes, i did google exactly that, and found the Sala, Sila, Reniassance etc... but out of our budget.
also - we indeed will be there for high season... which is first week of september.. oh well... we had to plan the honeymoom on other factors! (mainly work)

I hadnt thought of teh option of booking directly with hotels - i.e. to email them and ask for comparative rates, as we saw their web rates as much higher. we were however concerned about pre-payment with agencies, wondering if tehy are reliable etc.... i will take your advise and contact them!!

Thanks!!