Koh Samui used to be the go-to beach destination in SE Asia for both backpackers and luxury travellers. But now, at least in my opinion, it’s become a bit too popular and doesn’t really have the wow factor it once did years ago. I’ve been to Koh Samui about 5 or 6 times, each time enjoying it less and finding it a bit boring the more I go.
When I first went, there was no McDonalds, a handful of luxury resorts and very little development on the Island – this was Koh Samui at it’s best. The next time, a noticeable increase in development of the town, hotels and condos, but still, relatively untouched and relatively undiscovered, and still worth going. Now, it’s just one big tourist island with way too many people, way too many hotels and condo’s and has lost all of it’s charm it once had. Flights in are expensive from Hong Kong and a monopoly by Bangkok Airways isn’t ever going to change that. There are now better islands with better beaches in Thailand with less people. I’d still go back to Koh Samui, but it’s longer a place I’d go back to every year.
Since we’re focused mostly on family and kids travel, I’ll concentrate most of the info here based on our last visit, which was with Grobbler and my Mum and Dad. We stayed at the Anantara Lawana Resort, which was not great and not up to the usual standards of Anantara properties. You can read more about that here.
It’s a shame that it’s become just another over-crowded beach destination in Thailand, but it makes you appreciate somewhere like Maldives that much more. I guess there’s not a lot of good beach places in Asia that you can get direct flights into without having crowds and you’re having to travel longer and longer to get to those truly untouched places.
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