We recently had friends down to see us in Samui who had never been down to the island before so it was our job to give them a tour and the first question was where to stay?
Obviously, the tourist industry has been devastated here by the pandemic and on Samui where there are literally thousands of hotels and guest houses, you'd think we'd have plenty of choices, but no.
They specifically wanted to stay close to us, so that meant Lipa Noi which, in normal times, isn't the first choice for the majority of tourists which I find strange as its a lovely local area, and in my opinion, the most perfect 'desert island', palm-fringed beach on the island. Along the 4km stretch of sand, there are only a handful of hotels and most of them were currently closed, awaiting better times, but one was open and that hotel was quickly booked for a couple of nights. Its name; The Raja Pruek Samui Resort.
Lipa Noi beach is only 5km from the main town of Nathorn which is where the main harbour and pier is for the Seatran ferry and a place where very tourists stay, much preferring to jump straight onto their transport and away to the main tourist haunts of Lamai and Chaweng which is a real shame for them, but not for the locals who often gather as darkness begins to descend to watch the amazing sunset. Nathorn also has a sea-food market with fresh seafood straight from the sea and a lovely little street food plaza just metres from the ocean. Again, barely a tourist in sight, even at the height of the pre-pandemic tourist season.
You can read all about Nathorn in a post a made a couple of years ago by clicking this link!
Just 2km south is the pier belonging to the other main ferry operator, Raja and Lipa Noi beach and its shallow crescent bay lay between with its western location ideal to chill out with a drink and watch the stunning sunsets and a view across the water that finishes at a barely visible mainland.
Lipa Noi beach itself is fairly unspoilt and the white sand gently drifts into the ocean which rarely more than ripples and remains shallow for 50+metres out making it ideal for safe swimming and perfect for the kids to wallow about in. There is plenty of public access to the beach and although not much on the road that runs a couple of hundred metres behind the beach, there is the usual assortment of small local style restaurants and mom and pop stores.
One of the trendiest hotel and beach clubs on the whole island, Nikki Beach is also adjacent to this stretch of sand and does attract party-goers from all over the island for their famous sundown parties but during the day, the beach is almost deserted no matter the time of the week or year. It is here that we intended to book for our friends but they were not going to re-open until November the 1st and so with a sense of great responsibility, I booked them in at the Raja Pruek.
The Raja Pruek has a three-star rating and with the current 'domestic travellers' discount of 40% given by the government to encourage domestic tourism (sadly we didn't qualify for it as we are registered as Samui citizens and the discount can only be taken for places outside your home province!) meant that the best room at the resort was just 2000Baht (£45 GBP, $60 USD) a night with breakfast which wasn't bad, but then you see the rooms location and suddenly, it looks like the bargain of the century but more about the room later...
The hotel itself doesn't look all that much from the roadside. There was parking out front and across the road, and the main hotel block itself was a little utilitarian in appearance and is in an 'L' shape with a large and beautifully kept swimming pool that nestles into the 'L' with the downstairs rooms having direct pool access from their terraces. This large, rectangular pool was perfect for the exercise junkies. The gardens were simple and well kept and although the main building was very simple, concrete rendered design, the rest of the grounds, reception and dining area were more of a Balinese style with the miniature, terracotta pagodas lining the pathways and the team dining chairs and tables.
Continuing through the reception and dining area took you out to another gorgeous, free form swimming pool, ideal for relaxing with a drink and a garden with a dozen chalets and bungalows scattered around, all with a beautiful beach and ocean views with two of the bungalows, which marked the outer edges of the hotel grounds boundary, standing right by the beach in the most perfect location.
It was one of these that I had booked, without difficulty because as it turned out, our friends were the only guests staying in the whole hotel for both of the two nights!
The hotel was a family-run affair and with more staff than guests and we were treated like royalty with nothing being too much trouble without us feeling 'fussed over'. The owner seemed to enjoy chilling out just as much as his guests did and he was a lovely fella as were his staff. He had a real sense of pride about his hotel and this echoed throughout the place and added to the cosy and chilled out atmosphere.
Let's have a look at the room!
Despite the window area, the room was pretty cool due to the tinted windows and shady location under the trees.
There was a lot of highly varnished wood inside which isn't usually to my taste but worked quite well. Notice the view and the fact that it doesn't seem as dark inside as the view of the blacked-out windows from the outside might suggest.
The room had its own router so the internet speeds were fantastic.
The usual hotel room stuff. Tea and coffee making, fridge, TV and a writing desk overlooking the gardens and pool.
A little make up table and mirror next to the bathroom door. Like I said, lot's of wood!
A better view from the bed of the beach and ocean. Why they felt the need for the fake plastic grass is anyone's guess.
The bathroom was rather disappointing. Wall-mounted hot-water heaters are no good for filling a bath, although usually the cold water is quite warm enough in these parts and as for the sink....glass and stainless steel and not a nice design if it were an appropriate context and here, just looks completely dreadful.
Any very minor shortcomings the room and hotel may have had were totally forgotten about because of the view and location. Notice the coconut that had fallen on the grass? Falling coconuts are a real issue and that's why they still send monkeys up the larger trees to pull them down when they are ripe. One of these hits you and you're dead! Jain and Father-in-law sat enjoying a bottle of rum at sunset as the sea merged into the sky...
Whilst Champagne happily swung from a tree from the second she arrived!
A Few Shots of the Pool and Gardens...
So a poor set of garden and pool photos! The problem was your eye just kept getting drawn back to the beach and ocean but like the pool at the front, this pool was also kept spotlessly clean. As for the gardeners, I saw four of them meaning there were more gardeners than guests!
The Food...
Sorry. We didn't eat in the restaurant apart from breakfast and I'm told it was the usual ham and eggs and sausages. There was fruit and cereal and fruit juice and coffee as well as more traditional Thai staple breakfast food but was served a la carte as opposed to buffet style due to the lack of customers. The following picture is from the hotel's website.
The breakfast was ok, nice, but nothing out of the ordinary they said.
I hope these smaller family-run hotels will soon be able to welcome visitors back in numbers and try and rebuild their businesses after a dreadful two years. I have no idea how many of them have not been completely destroyed.
All I can do is highlight a few places that I visit on Koh Samui in the hope that someone reads the review and visits for themselves and in this case, the Raja Pruek Samui Resort was fantastic, combining great quality and great prices into a perfect location. Nice place, nice people because people matter!
