Hi,

This forum is so helpful and I was wondering if anyone could recommend two different Samui hotels.

1. A hotel for my husband and myself to spend 5 nights in early August. Do not want a large resort. Looking for a smaller, boutique style place with nice bungalows - not budget style - on a quieter beach, ie. not Chaweng, but still in walking distance of some restaurants. Possible? Any ideas?

2. A health retreat place for me only for around 4-5 nights which has yoga, walks etc and some activities, but I do not want to fast.

Would love some suggestions.

Thanks
Rachel

peace resort at bophut beach....middle of road place with nice pool and decent bungalows....ask for a beach front unit...decent restaurant on location and walk to town is 5-10 minutes--bophut

Hi Rachel,

I just spent 12 nights at Choengmon beach in Samui and I feel it may be just what you are looking for. Beautiful beach with enough local restaraunts and bars but certainly not "lively", not a Go-Go or "hostess bar" in sight. The Boathouse may suit you better than the place we stayed as it had a better pool (we very much prefer swimming in the sea), but apart from that, the Whitehouse Resort and Spa was perfect for our needs. (mind you, the pool was adequate and not crowded but smaller than others that we have had).

The Whitehouse had the best service and staff out of any place I have stayed in Thailand in my 13 trips there. It has a very personal feel to it and I cant speak highly enough about it. We had one of the Junior suites (room 2) which was great and only 5 steps to the pool. Overall, if you are not expecting 5 star and dont need a huge "free-form" pool, it may be worth a look.

Choengmon, is close to Bo-Phut and Big Buddah beaches and only about 5km from Chaweng that we only went to for shopping.

Rachael, there was a Health retreat that I went past often on the road between Chaweng and Choeng mon called Absolute Sanctury. It looks nice but I dont have any first hand knowledge of it... http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/samui/absolute/

Smile House Resort is very pleasant. It's on Bophut beach, close to bars, shops & restaurants but quiet & private. When I lived on Samui, in 2007 & 2008, my friends came to visit & stayed at Smile. They're going back in a week and they say it's very good mid range accommodation. One advantage of Bophut over my favourite beach, Choeng Mon, is transport options. Taxis, and the very cheap sawngthaews are more common than in the quite remote (off the ringroad) Choeng Mon. Good luck.

There were 2 or 3 taxi's parked almost constantly out the front of the Whitehouse in Choengmon for the duration of our stay. They charged 200 baht to Chaweng or you had the option of using the meter plus a 90 baht surcharge, for trips to other destinations.

We hired a jeep for most of our stay at the bargain rate of 600 baht per day. We enjoyed the flexibility and found it to be great fun and no hassle.

If you are a "beach" person, you will not be happy with Bophut. Apart from that it is a really lovely place with an excellent choice of restaraunts to suit all tastes. Lots of "boutique" shops that seemed to be owned by Europeans, prices seemed to be a little higher than in other areas.

I booked the White House for our stay in Sept. based on reviews here. I booked it through sawadee.com and they have a special - stay for 5 nights pay for 3 including taxes and breakfast plus 2 hours free massage. It priced out to about US$55.00 per night for a deluxe room.

I hope you feel at home at the Whitehouse as we did. Do try a few of the beacfront restaraunts on Choeng Mon, there are plenty to choose from but we liked the smaller local places like Crystal's and the Island View.

great, thanks so much!! this is the best site for information when the rest of the internet seems a bit overwhelming. will go now and check out the whitehouse and the other recommended places.