Koh Samui Vacations, Koh Samui Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Koh Samui Vacation Guide

As Koh Phangan’s larger and calmer cousin, Koh Samui is the most accessible of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand, and has rapidly established as one of the world’s top tropical paradiso destinations. Koh Samui is palm-strewn and striking, with an international reputation as an offbeat hippie haven, but still able to piece together an enviable and growing luxury side centered around infinity pools and heavenly forests or beach front properties.

It’s not the backpacker draw it once was, then (most prefer the parties on Koh Phangan), but Koh Samui’s tropics culture has everything, from coconuts on the beach to designer boutiques, with plenty of lady boys strutting about the street corners thrown into the mix. If you’re into your films, Ang Thong National Marine Park might remind you of a certain sand-infused Leonardo Di Caprio movie, with a striking postcard vista littered with soaring cliffs and hidden lagoons.

Na Muang Falls, meanwhile, will take you away from the bulk of the crowds, and to a mammoth 30-meter waterfall that leaps over purple rocks and provides the perfect cool-down swimming spot at its base. Then there’s the diving, the elaborate local cuisine, a nightlife that drops only a fraction short of the mayhem on nearby Koh Phangan, plenty of opportunities to indulge in Thai Massage and traditional therapies and even quad bikes and motorbikes to take you buzzing about it all at your own speed.

If you happen to be in town for a festival like Songkran – the incredible Thai New Year celebrations – you’re in for an extremely moist treat, with locals soaking each other to the bone throughout the day with a barrage of buckets and water guns, while the annual Light Festival has a much more mellow outlook, with dazzling colors and picturesque floats blending with traditional dress in a photographer’ paradise.

As the largest island amongst the set, Koh Samui certainly has the most in the way of luxury, and perhaps the best local cultural offerings, too. It’s getting increasingly pricey compared to parts of Thailand, but most agree the striking sights are well worth the budgetary damage.