Koh Samui

Every villa gets its own infinity pool, and every trip anywhere gets a buggy ride down a steep headland.

Every villa pool faces west over the Five Islands, and the whole place is built around that sunset.

Private-pool villas on a calm northeast cove, at prices the big island names charge for a garden room.

Beachfront calm on the north coast, with Fisherman's Village dinner options ten minutes along the sand.

Hanging nets over the jungle canopy, sunset timed right, and a live band once it gets dark.

Fast, cheap, generous Thai cooking on Beach Road, and the kitchen's still going at 1am.

A jungle-styled restaurant and cocktail lounge on Chaweng that people book for anniversaries, not just a night out.

Open from late morning to midnight every day, which on Samui matters more than you'd think.

A 12-metre gilded Buddha, free entry and 360-degree views over the bays: half an hour well spent.

Free to enter, quick to walk, and the 18-armed Guanyin rising out of the lake is the reason to come.

The mummified monk in the glass case is the reason to come, and it's a stranger, quieter stop than you'd expect.

Terracotta-red carvings crawling over every surface, and a working temple rather than a photo stop.

Small, boulder-framed and almost absurdly photogenic, this is the cove everyone means when they talk about Samui's prettiest quick swim.

Chaweng's calmer sibling: long, clean sand, easy swimming, and coconut shacks instead of five-star polish.

Come for sunset drinks and seafood with a view, not for a swim, and you'll get the best of it.

The island's longest, loudest stretch of sand, and it makes no apology for it.

Big, developed and easy, with Chaweng's beach bars at one end and forested interior at the other.

Air-con when you need it, open-air wings when you don't, and a food court worth the trip on its own.

A beachfront walking street of food, drinks and trinkets that people come back to twice in one trip.

A working wet market where locals shop, not a tourist show, and the coconuts are worth the trip alone.

Big hypermarket with a cheap food court, a cinema and the island's most sensible bulk water prices.

Two rude-shaped rocks, free to visit, worth twenty minutes and a coconut ice cream on the way out.

Clifftop Thai food and a huge coastline view, but book ahead and leave the scooter at the bottom.

A jungle hillside of moss-covered statues, 100 baht in, and about half an hour well spent if the road doesn't put you off.

Chaweng's loudest beachfront party, with nightly fire shows and a pool that fills up long before dark.

Bean bags on the sand, a nightly fire show, and pizza that's genuinely worth ordering.

More resort than club, really: bungalows, a pool and a beachfront bar that runs from breakfast to 1am.

A day-into-evening beach club with real DJ bookings, and it shuts at 11pm, so plan around that.

Absolute Sanctuary is Koh Samui's dedicated wellness resort — a Moroccan-inspired hillside retreat above Choeng Mon built around one of Asia's best-equipped yoga programs, with 20-plus weekly classes across two studios, a Pilates reformer studio, and structured detox, fitness, and weight-m.

Traditional Thai bodywork in Bo Put, open till midnight, and worth booking rather than chancing it.

Late-night massage in Bo Put with therapists who actually listen, though I'd skip the nail bar.

Classical Thai massage in Bo Put that runs till midnight, so a late session after dinner is easy.

An open-air terminal with thatched roofs and trams to the gates, more resort than airport.

A working fishing pier where you book your own boat to Pig Island for a fraction of the hotel price.

A working ferry terminal on Samui's west coast, and the fastest way across to Don Sak on the mainland.

A working pier on Koh Samui's northwestern coast, serving as a departure point for boat tours and island excursions.