Our Samui villas vary in services and location on the island of Koh Samui, from the more expensive beach villas offering a private gourmet chef, to the less expensive villas set in picturesque gardens or with ocean views. Koh Samui is an extension of Thailand, offering the uniquely Thai culture, cuisine and atmosphere without the commercial hustle and bustle. A Samui villa encompasses this untouched Thai experience, evident in the surroundings, architecture and ambience whether your villa is on the beach or further inland in the flowing tropical gardens.

Our Samui villas need not break your holiday budget with less expensive villas ensuring all the facilities and amenities needed for an enjoyable holiday abroad. You can opt for a small villa with just one or two bedrooms or larger villas with multiple bedrooms to cater for a travel group. Private pool, air conditioning, satellite television and fully equipped kitchen facilities are available in all our Samui Villas, ensuring that your self-catering villa leaves you wanting for nothing extra. Apart from the in-house facilities, the wide selection of our Samui Villas lets you choose the location of your villa, whether you opt for beach villas, estate villas, villas overlooking the mountain or valleys of Koh Samui, garden villas or villas with an ocean view.

Growing in popularity as a honeymoon destination, our Samui villas offers newlyweds the privacy and comfort to make it an enjoyable experience on their romantic island getaway. Whether you want the freedom to cater for your own personal tastes, or the comfort and space to languish in your own villa rather than a hotel bedroom, our Samui villas are the ideal choice for travellers to Koh Samui.

The post What types of villas are available in Koh Samui? appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

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.

The post Family Holidays to Koh Samui appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

Many villas come with the option of an in-house chef who will take away the stress of cooking during your stay. The villas come with a menu from which you can choose your meals throughout your holiday. Villas do also offer self-catering options if you would prefer to cook your own meals. Prior to your arrival it is also possible to have the villa pre-stocked with all your favourite bites.

However, if part of the lure of visiting Samui is to explore the island and taste the local cuisine then there are many places on the island to do so. There are a whole range of different restaurants and eateries to suit any mood. The food is not exclusively Thai and most restaurants will offer alternatives to traditional Thai cuisine. There are also a whole host of different restaurants including, French, Mexican, Italian, English, Brazilian and Indian.

One of the reasons that food on Samui is so special is because of the great range of fresh ingredients that are available. The fishing village of Hua Thanon is known for providing the island with some of the best and most reasonable fresh fish and seafood on the island. Add to this a delicious selection of meats and poultry, a mouth-watering selection of tropical fruits and vegetables and distinctive herbs and spices and you have yourself a recipe for a lifelong love affair with Thai cuisine.

There are many comprehensive guides available as to where the very best restaurants are and what you can expect from them, and there are places to eat that the whole family will enjoy.

Many people recommend exploring the local cuisine by finding places to eat off the beaten track or by sampling the delights of the local food markets. A great way to find a great place to eat is to look for the places where the locals are eating rather than the place that looks the fanciest. The locals know the area and where to get great food at great places so use this to your advantage and trust them, especially when you are looking for traditional Thai food.

The biggest selection of restaurants and places to eat are based in Chaweng and Lamai which are the more central beachside locations, but no matter where you are on the island a great meal is never far away and often you won’t even need to leave the villa.

The post Luxury Dining in a Koh Samui Villa appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

http://thailandculturecustomguide.org/thailand-etiquette/everyday_etiquette.html

This is a great article: do read it.

And after you have, do not despair! Foreign visitors (farangs) to Koh Samui will not be expected to know all the intricacies of Thai etiquette, or the proper and right way of doing quite ordinary everyday things. Thai culture offers guidance on how to conduct yourself in a wide range of situations, how to dress and how to converse. Of course these ‘ways to live’ have been handed down from generation to generation, and for the young Thais who are brought up with parents and extended families, especially away from the big cities, these customs are second nature, and probably need no formal teaching.

For example it is not expected that during a conversation there will be loud voices or much gesticulation – which many European visitors may find rather restrictive and alien! Younger people should not hold a conversation over the head of an older person. Your body language and the questions you may wish to ask while speaking to a Thai are very important – no folded arms, no personal questions, no rude language.

There are three things held in the greatest respect by Thais: 1. their Nation 2. their religion and 3. the Thai Monarchy. All must be given the greatest respect and should not be spoken about in a critical or patronising way.

There are of course exceptions to all rules, and you may well see someone clanging his spoon and fork together at the dining table, or speaking over the head of a more senior person. In Bangkok people may have chosen to ignore some of their ingrained codes of conduct but if you venture into the countryside, this will not be the case.

So the main things to remember while you are on Koh Samui are:

• Politeness to everyone is essential
• Do not lose your temper
• Do not shout
• Older people are to be respected
• The head of a person is sacred: not to be touched!
• The foot is not: do not point your foot at anyone, or touch anyone with your foot: it is an insult
• Do not be overly amorous in public
• Keep the bikini and the Speedos for the beach – cover up and dress appropriately elsewhere.

The Thais are amongst the most hospitable and friendly people on the planet, and if you are lucky enough to be invited into a Thai’s home on Koh Samui –

• Arrive on time – too early or too late is a no-no
• Take your hosts a small gift – it will be very appreciated (some cakes or biscuits, perhaps a small bottle of wine)
• Remember to remove your shoes at the door
• Try not to sit with one leg over the other, or both legs totally stretched out. Victorian prim and proper does it.
• Don’t stay too long!

Above all, enjoy your stay in one of our stunning Koh Samui Villas, and should you ever feel you have stepped over the line of Thai good etiquette, just say sorry and move on. As well as being friendly and happy, the Thais are very forgiving of these little farang mistakes.

The post Thai Culture and Etiquette appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

Oh boy, is there! Here are a few to add to your list of What To Do With The Kids …

At Chaweng Beach there’s the Aquapark for anyone over 5 years of age, where there are giant inflatables to leap onto, and off. This is a designated area cordoned off from the main ocean and all visitors are provided with life vests. Cost is 500 baht per person for a day, and 350 for a half day. By all accounts an exhausting activity!

Coco Splash Waterpark is at Lamai Beach. This waterpark has 7 slides, 4 pools, a Jacuzzi, waterpolo and pool-side activities too such as table tennis. Children under 90cms tall get free entry, children 90-130cms are 350 baht and over 130cms 450 baht. A 4-person family pass costs 1500 baht. There is a restaurant, and the adults can also enjoy a massage.

Samui Frisbee Golf at Maenam is a new venture for all ages that is proving very popular. The course has 9 holes, is very shady, and has separate tee areas for beginners and advanced players. The owner, Nigel, explains all the rules and techniques – and he also runs a pizza restaurant on the side! Costs are 50 baht for children, 100 baht for adults.

Treasure Island Mini Golf is near the Big Buddha at Bophut. This course has 18 holes and is a great way to spend an afternoon. Price: 400 baht for adults, 200 for children under 12.

An elephant trek through some of the backwater jungle areas of the island can be a good family outing, and can be organised through one of the many nature tour groups on the island. Cost will be approximately 700 baht for an adult, 500 for child between 4 and 10 years old for a 30-minute trip is. Or 1200 and 800 for an hour.

Older kids might enjoy the adventure of the Treetop Tour Cable Ride, inland from Maenan close to Magic Garden on one of Samui’s highest mountains. Zip through the treetops, 780 metres of cable, safe, fun and exciting….

Some of the most popular for children are -

Samui Aquarium and Tiger Zoo, close to the Samui Orchid Resort in the south of the island, where there are plenty of live shows and you can have your photograph taken with a big cat.

Koh Samui Butterfly Garden, close to Buddha’s Footprint in the south of the island, where there are also moths, and insects, and beehives.

The Crocodile Farm, near the airport, is also very popular, especially with boys for some reason! Entrance costs 100 baht for an adult, and 75 for children. There are also snakes, monkeys, caimans, alligators and lizards.

Many Koh Samui villas have been specifically designed for families with younger children in mind. Some villas have connecting doors between the master and adjacent bedroom, others have colourful adventure bedrooms designed and equipped with children in mind. Some have a shallow area in the pool for the younger ones and there are usually plenty of televisions and child-friendly DVDs once they are exhausted by all the outdoor activities!

The post Visiting Koh Samui with younger children? appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

And while enjoying all that, how about helping to support local Koh Samui communities with their green projects?

Then you mustn’t miss The Samui Latin and Jazz Week from 29 September – 06 October 2013!!

All profits from this week of great sounds will go to the Green Island Foundation to help support sustainable community-run projects around the island.

Presented by the Koh Samui Municipality, and organised under the auspices of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, this is a serious coming together of great vocalists and musicians from around the world.

40 great Thai and international artistes will be performing at various locations for eight great nights, from 29 September until 06 October. So if you love jazz, Latino music, scintillating songs and great percussion sounds – just drop in!

Here are some of the musicians who will be performing – Deborah Brown (vocalist) from the States, Saskia Laroo (“Lady Miles Davies”) on trumpet and Peter Beets (pianist) from the Netherlands. Plus Judith Nijland (the Netherlands), saxophonist Rolf Delfos (Netherlands), Nadia Basurto vocalist, and Miquel Rodriques on guitar from Spain, Fabio Deldongo, singer and pianist, from France.

The programme starts on Sunday 29 September at Fair House Villas & Spa, Maenam

8pm preview concert with Deborah Brown;
9pm, Dina Medina & Cabo Cuba Jazz.

Then Monday 30 September at Rocky’s Boutique Resort, Lamai –
8pm Trio Peter Beets ‘Tribute to Peterson’;
9pm Judith Nijland & The Beets Brothers.

Tuesday 01 October – The Drink Gallery, Chaweng –
8-10pm Saskia Laroo with her quartet ‘Jazzkia’.

Wednesday 02 October – The Passage Samui, Laem Yai –
8-10pm Miguel Rodriguez and Nadia Basurto.

Thursday 03 October – Centara Grand Beach Resort, Chaweng –
8-10pm Salsa Night with Nando Vanin.

You can book online at www.samuilatinandjazzweek.com;
by emailing info@samuilatinandjazzweek.com
or in person at each venue.
All concerts have an entrance fee of 500 THB per ticket.

There will be great food available at the venues for these evenings.

Then on Friday 04 October and Saturday 05 October there are two evenings of free concerts at the beachfront main stage of the Amari Palm Reef at Chaweng. These evenings start at 6.00pm and go on until midnight.

Artistes will be numerous, and will include – Nils Fischer, percussion; Rolf Delfos, saxophone; Koran Daniels, saxophone; Kho Mr Saxman, saxophone; Cabo Cuba Jazz quartet; Amik Guerra, trumpet; Fabio Deldongo, vocalist and keyboard and Buntita Prachamorn, vocalist.

The last evening is Sunday 06 October, which starts at 6pm at the Secret Garden, Bang Rak. This Sunday ‘After Party’ session is with Fabio Deldongo, vocalist and keyboard.

Book that Ko Samui villa, your flights – and those jazz week tickets now!

The post The Samui Latin and Jazz Week, 29 September – 06 October 2013 appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

The only good is knowledge; and the only evil is ignorance.

The post Did you know that…? appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

What I may think is an absolutely glorious beach, may not of course appeal to everyone. And when you’re talking about beaches, what is and isn’t acceptable will differ widely. Some may like the fact that there’s no Costa Coffee for miles, that there are no ‘facilities’ other than the ocean, and they are the only people on that particular beach.

Others may find the lack of crowds worrying, the getting there too rough, the climb down to that idyllic cove not worth the attempt, especially as everything needed for a simple ‘day on the beach’ had to be toted down by everyone – and will all have to be carried back up again.  And the car! Parked some hundreds of metres back and up is now left to stew in the heat … What if someone hurts their toe in the sea? What if we run out of water? What if it rains? What if the car won’t start once we find it again?

What if … what if … But we’re talking KOH SAMUI here, and I’d be happy to bet that most people long to be sitting, snorkelling, sleeping or sunbathing on that tropical paradise beach of white sand, safe aqua sea, beautiful sun and a modicum of solitude. Throw in some shady palm trees, little islands in the distance to break up the shimmering horizon, and a not too distant café or resort – and you’ve probably got most people’s idea of heaven.

The islands and beaches that make up Thailand (all 1,430 of them) have an awful lot going for them.  Many have glorious white or golden sands fringed by palm trees, beautiful clear and safe waters in which colourful fish play and nibble, are secluded and private, coffee and lunch are just a little walk away – and most are undisturbed by serried rows of sun beds and hundreds of sunseekers.  Other beaches, particularly those attached to the larger resorts, will offer water sports too should you decide to become more active and relinquish that un-put-down-able book.

Last year Kho Phi Phi, Koh Phangan, Patong beach on Phuket, and the Pranburi beaches on the mainland have all been quoted by Forbes.com and the Travel Channel as some of the best beaches in the world.

But here’s a secret: one of the best beaches in Thailand is on Koh Samui – and you could be staying there! It’s Maenam Beach.

Maenam – still thought of by some as a ‘backpacker beach’ – enjoys privacy, safe waters and golden sands. It is pretty and tranquil, still uncrowded, with restaurants dotted inland that will suit every pocket.

Voted a few years back by Australian journalist John Borthwick as 9th in his list of Asia’s Best Beaches, Maenam is a rarity in these crowded times: a quiet haven of beauty. Check out our villas on Maenam beach – you won’t be disappointed.

The post Asia’s Best Beaches: No 9 Maenam appeared first on Samui Island Villas.

Travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

Now!  Let’s all prove him wrong! Welcome to Samui Island Villas blog.

Travel is enlightening, mind-expanding, astonishing – and one of the very few pleasures of life most of us can now enjoy, whatever our means, in any month of the year.   Because travel can be from your hometown, your home county, your home country; it can be a few miles down the road, or halfway across the globe …  but let’s not sit still for the rest of our lives, in front of that flickering electronic box or the computer, let’s get out there and see it all for ourselves.

Welcome to Samui Island Villas blog!   And we wish you all a very happy, healthy and safe 2011 on your travels.

For Thais, the western New Year’s Day is celebrated and is a public holiday.   The New Year that Thailand has just welcomed is in fact year 2554: there is a 543-year difference between the Gregorian and the Buddhist calendar.

But one of the biggest New Year celebrations in Thailand is the Chinese New Year: approximately six million Thais have a Chinese heritage.  In 2011 it begins on 3rd February and brings in the Year of the Rabbit, the fourth animal in the Chinese zodiac.  The festivities are loud and colourful – a must-see if you are here then.  “Wan Trut Chin” is Thai for the Chinese New Year.  The festivities will last for several days and include food offerings to gods and ancestors, and lots of noisy firecrackers and drumming parades and processions in the streets.

Bangkok’s Chinatown on Yaowarat Road will be the venue for one of the largest of the Thai celebrations, but ask about them wherever you stay in Thailand.   For example, in Nakhon Sawan Province, where the festival has taken place since ancient times, the festivities are renowned, with many hugely colourful and noisy events, such as the dragon, goddess and angel processions, and large colourful bamboo, paper and silk lions and dragons parading through the streets.

The tradition is thought to have begun when a beast called the Nian – sometimes depicted as a rather muscular lion / ox hybrid – used to visit a certain village on New Year’s Day to eat up anything edible and unguarded – especially children!  The villagers put food offerings outside their houses in the hope that it would be satisfied and go away.   Once, it was seen that the beast was afraid of a little child wearing red, so to add to their defences, red lanterns and scrolls were hung at their windows and doors, and as it was also sensitive to loud noises, firecrackers were let off and drums were banged loudly to frighten the Nian away.   It was so scared that it was not seen in the village again … but it is still said to be living somewhere …

There are many other old traditions concerning the Chinese New Year –

The entire house should be cleaned before New Year’s Day, but on New Year’s Eve, put all the brooms and brushes away, as you might be sweeping away your good fortune.   And at midnight, leave all the doors and windows of your house open to allow the old year to leave.   And of course, never, never borrow or lend anything on New Year’s Day!

The post Welcome to Samui Island Villas blog appeared first on Samui Island Villas.