If you are setting off on holiday to Thailand you may be quick to pick the regular destinations like Bangkok and Phuket, but nestled in the gulf of Thailand is the island gem of Koh Samui.

A holiday in Koh Samui has the best Thai offerings wrapped in a small island feel and topped with untouched natural beauty and tranquillity that may be lacking in other Thai destinations.

Sunset in Koh Samui

By scheduling Koh Samui in your holiday itinerary you will not be disappointed by the culture, cuisine, holiday activities and laid back atmosphere that makes this island so popular amongst the more enthusiastic traveller. A holiday in Koh Samui has much to offer; from five star hotels, luxurious villas and world renowned restaurants to trips to quaint fishing villages, hikes in the mountainous centre of the island or long relaxing walks on the white sandy beaches.

While a holiday in Koh Samui is often marketed for its natural beauty, the island has undergone significant development in recent years to ensure that you have access to all the facilities and services necessary for an enjoyable hotel. Samui International Airport provides flights to and from major Southeast Asian destinations, like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, allowing you to bypass Bangkok and avoiding costly charters or cramped sea ferries. If you want to avoid the monotony of another hotel, holiday villas in Koh Samui range from the more expensive beach villas with a private gourmet chef on call to the budget friendly self-catering apartments with picturesque ocean views.

A holiday would not be complete without shopping and local entertainment and Koh Samui has a great choice on offer, especially if you opt for the more popular towns like Chaweng or Lamai. From the 12 metre high golden Big Buddha to the Ang Thong National Marine Park, Koh Samui has sufficient sights and sounds to captivate every traveller’s interest. A holiday in Koh Samui will ensure that you taste some of Thailand’s abundant seafood, with fishing villages dotting the entire Koh Samui coastline.

Try to avoid booking a last minute getaway to this stunning island. A pre-booked holiday in Koh Samui will ensure that you experience the white sandy beaches, clear blue waters and coconut studded coastline that has made Koh Samui the idyllic island getaway.

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With our range of Samui family villas available, you can select a villa that caters for your family’s needs and preferences while still maintaining the holiday budget.

Samui family villas are available throughout the island, with a range of facilities and services to ensure that your holiday experience is as hassle free and enjoyable as you would expect. Travelling with your family is not always the most relaxing experience, with irritable kids and demanding teens wanting immediate attention. At a Samui family villa, you can rest assured that all the necessary amenities are on your doorstep should you not want to venture beyond the villa. From baby-sitting services to in-villa spa treatments, our Samui family villas ensure that every guest is catered for in the villa.

Our range of Samui family villas means that you can select a villa on the white sandy beaches of Koh Samui or venture further inland for a more peaceful setting surrounded by a private pool and picturesque tropical gardens, overlooking the central mountain. Satellite television, air conditioning and the additional living area, will ensure that your family feels the flexibility and freedom that they enjoy at home with the additional scenery and activities of a tropical island. If you want to spend a little more, luxury Samui family villas can provide you with additional services like a gourmet chef to prepare your meals and concierge service to assist with holiday activities.

Our Samui family villas are the perfect holiday accommodation to enjoy a peaceful family vacation while catering for every family member’s individual needs. Whether you spend a monsoon rainy day indoors with the family or venture out to explore the beautiful island, staying at a Samui family villa allows you to choose your holiday experience.

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SilkAir will offer three flights a week from Singapore to Koh Samui under a code share with Bangkok Airways. The regional wing of Singapore Airlines will begin offering three flights a week from the city-state to Koh Samui on Sept 27, using Airbus A319s that feature both business and economy class cabins.

Already serving Phuket and Chiang Mai from its Changi airport hub, SilkAir is moving to tap new traffic opportunities on Thailand’s second-largest island, which is especially popular among Westerners. SilkAir will cooperate with Bangkok Airways, the privately owned airline that dominates traffic Koh Samui’s air traffic, by establishing a code-share partnership on SilkAir-operated flights. The arrangement will include Bangkok Airways’ existing daily flights between Koh Samui and Singapore.

Bangkok Airways also code shares on SilkAir’s Singapore-Chiang Mai and Singapore-Phuket routes. As well, SilkAir will code share on Bangkok Airways’ Bangkok-Koh Samui, Koh Samui-Phuket and Chiang Mai-Koh Samui corridors.

Peter Wiesner, Bangkok Airways’ senior vice-president for network management, said the arrangement for the Singapore-Koh Samui route would allow it to drive more traffic. “We plan to capture traffic from Singapore as well as through traffic from long-haul routes connecting from major aviation hubs such as Singapore’s Changi airport.,” he said.

SilkAir is Bangkok Airways’ latest code-share partner after Thai Airways International, EVA Air, Etihad, Air Berlin, Air France and KLM.

(Source Bangkok Post)

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Thai Airways (THAI) celebrated its 50th birthday in 2010, and on 1st April this year it finalised 40 years of a service to Sydney, Australia, its first international destination inaugurated in 1971. The airline now operates 18 flights a week between Bangkok and Sydney, and 14 to Melbourne. There are also daily flights to Brisbane and Perth.

Not bad for an airline that started life in 1960 as a joint venture between Thai Airways Company and the Scandinavian Airlines System, or SAS. By 1977, after 17 years of partnership, the Thai government bought up the remaining SAS holding, and THAI became fully owned by the Thai people. By 1987 expatriate staff based in Thailand numbered less than 1%, and Thai nationals had long assumed full managerial and operational responsibility.

Starting locally within Asia, nine destinations were opened during its first year of operation in the Asia region, followed in 1971 by flights to Australia, then to Europe in 1972, and in 1980 to North America.

From its major airport of Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok, opened in September 2006, THAI now flies passengers to 11 local Thai destinations including Koh Samui, and a total of 71 in 35 other countries around the globe, using a fleet of 90 craft. Split virtually equally, THAI operates both Airbus and Boeing planes: Airbus 300, 330 and 340; Boeing 737, 747 and 777. THAI was the first Asia-Pacific airline to fly into London Heathrow.  Only until recently has THAI had any financial problems, posting a profit for many consecutive years, but recently global events may have put a temporary dint in that happy situation.

THAI has been voted for years as one of the best luxury airlines in the world, offering amazingly friendly service, and restaurant-class cuisine, wines and champagnes. Its mission statement, sabai, meaning healthy mind and body, is one that all THAI staff take very seriously indeed.

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The only thing that make life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.

Not sure I totally agree with that ‘intolerable uncertainty’, but some level of surprise is good!  So now you’ve decided to book a luxury villa through Samui Island Villas for your Koh Samui holiday, why not consider a stopover somewhere?   Many airlines let you plan for that, even online these days, so if you have the time available, why not see one or two other places in this part of the world.  Let’s see what’s (relatively) nearby …

If you’re coming from Europe or the east coast of America and fancy some culture before you hit the Koh Samui beaches and nightlife you might consider –

Istanbul (Turkey) – Under its previous names of Byzantium and Constantinople, it was the capital of the Roman, Byzantium, Latin and Ottoman Empires before becoming the capital of the new Republic of Turkey in 1922.
Cairo (Egypt) -    Originally Al Qahira – and popularly known as the City of a Thousand Minarets, this is the largest city in Africa, spread over 450 square miles.  It is home to the largest film and music industries in the Arab world, and handily close to many of the top tourist sights and for picking up a Nile cruise.
Amman (Jordan) -   Built on seven hills, this is one of the oldest continuously settled cities of the world.  It has known its fair share of residents, from its earliest 10,000BC residents, followed by the Ammonites, Assyrians, Persians and the Greeks, when it was renamed Philadelphia.  Then the Romans moved in.  Many of the places and stories of the Bible were in what is now modern Jordan.
And in The Middle East:
Doha (Qatar) – see how to develop a modern city out of the desert yet still retain the culture and improve on the greenery, and – of course – where the 2022 World Cup will be held!
Dubai (UAE) to see the impressively tall Burj Khalifa, the vast shopping malls – and possibly have a run down the indoor ski slope in the Emirates Mall.

Singapore and Hong Kong are further east than Thailand, but are two of the most important and buzzing cities in the Far East, and should certainly be on everyone’s list of ‘Places I must Visit’.  And from these cities you can get direct flights into Koh Samui.

If you are flying in from the west coast ofAmerica –
Tokyo or Osaka (Japan)
Seoul (South Korea)
Shanghai or Beijing (China)
Hanoi (Vietnam)
Vientiane (Laos)
Phnom Penh (Cambodia)

From Australia –
Jakarta (Indonesia)
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) – direct flights to Koh Samui are also available from KL.

Be sure to check out your country’s governmental websites for any places considered unwise to visit at your time of travelling.

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