Koh Samui

Koh Samui

This beautiful island welcomes you to the sights of coconuts, forested hills, and beaches that provide a postcard-perfect vision of paradise, with glittering white sand fringed by verdant greenery and the blue sea.

This 247-square-kilometer island is located 258 nautical miles south of Bangkok, Koh Samui measures some 21 kilometers at its widest point, and 25 kilometers at it’s longest. A 51-kilometre ring and largely coastal road encircles the island, which has numerous lovely beaches and bays.

The best beaches line the northern and eastern coasts, the most popular being Hat Chaweng and Hat Lamai. Other beaches include Hat Choeng Mon, Hat Mae Nam in the north and Hat Na Thon, the island's major seafront settlement where shops, restaurants and tour agencies are concentrated.

At the southern end of Lamai Bay are phallic rock formations called Hin Ta Hin Yai. A path connects three waterfalls, called Namtok Hin Lat, Namtok Lat Wanon, and Namtok Na Muang, from west to south. The waterfalls are best visited during rainy season. Elephant riding is favorite activity at the Na Muang waterfall.

There are also some Buddhist monuments and temples on the island: Phra Yai is a massive seated Buddha image at Fan isle; Phrathat Hin Ngu is a stupa containing the Buddha’s relics and Chedi Laem So, a golden stupa on the western coast; and Wat Khunaram houses the dead body of Luang Pho Daeng which does not decay.

Yoga, Free Diving, Massages and Good Food: Ah, What A Life!

A typical day on Koh Samui might start with a yoga class at dawn overlooking the Gulf of Thailand and end with an all-night rave on nearby Koh Phangan. In between, Koh Samui's sunny days are ideal for active adventures. You can go free diving—without scuba gear—offshore near Koh Tao, or kayak around the bays and caves at Ang Thong National Marine Park.

Back on land, knead away the jet lag with $10 Thai massages on Bophut Beach (head to the beach in front of the Cactus Bungalow hotel) or submit to full-day recuperative rituals coordinated to the phases of the moon at the spa at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. Indeed, a vacation in Koh Samui is all about therapy, whether spiritual, physical—or retail.

You'll find steals on handmade shoes, homemade coconut sweets, chic housewares, and Asian ethnic fashions. When night falls, slip into chic new purchases to drink and dance above the city lights at Q Bar, among many other nightlife adventures that await you in Thailand.

While the beach and bar parties draw crowds onto Chaweng and Lamai beaches on Koh Samui's east coast, other stretches of white sand remain calm, quiet, and often deserted—at least for now. Pass traditional Thai wooden houses on stilts to access quiet Lipa Beach, just south of Nathon, where soaring palm trees, longtail boats, and local fishermen far outnumber sunbathers along a pristine bay.

Head further south to similarly chill scenes at Taling Ngam beach and the white sands of Thong Krut along the southern coast. 

Yin And Yang

For those sticking to the northern shores, Choeng Mon beach offers a convenient, surprisingly unpopulated escape from the overdevelopment along nearby Mae Nam and Bophut beaches.

Like yin to the island's raging nightlife yang, Koh Samui's spa and wellness offerings are impressive and diverse.

Absolute Sanctuary, a retreat in the hills above Choeng Mon Beach, boasts some of the island's best yoga, Pilates, and meditation classes along with the Love Kitchen, a vegetarian café. Offering house calls by appointment, healer Jennifer Thompson educates clients on raw food and performs iridology, an ancient science of reading the iris of the eyes to identify physical and emotional concerns. The American transplant is developing a loyal following that extends far beyond these restorative shores.

Down south on Laem Set Beach, Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary deserves its reputation as the island's most comprehensive spa. The treatment menu lists more than 70 healing therapies, including colonic hydrotherapy, a far infrared sauna that burns up to 600 calories in a 30-minute sweat session, outdoor pedicures overlooking azure waters, and lotus-seed body wraps.

For pure pampering, step inside the Spa at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. Its five double treatment pavilions nestled among the palm fronds are Samui's most romantic spa spots, with intimate steam showers built for two and an outdoor relaxation area with day beds for Thai massage plus a roomy terrazzo bathtub.