Fisherman's Village, Koh Samui

Bophut was a fishing village and trading port long before the resorts, and the wooden Chinese-Thai shophouses along the beach road are what's left of it, most of them now restaurants, boutique hotels and shops. It's the best-preserved old street on the island, and the reason the village feels different from Chaweng.

It had a turn on screen in 2025. The White Lotus filmed its third season on Samui, and its Songkran street scenes were shot in the village, while the security station and jewelry shop scenes were filmed at the Anantara Bophut resort at the west end.

Friday, if you can. The Walking Street fills the whole beach road with food stalls, seafood grilled to order, clothes, jewelry and souvenirs, with live music and the restaurants spilling onto the street. Entry is free. It gets very tight in the narrow sections by 19:00, so arrive before 18:00, walk it end to end while there's room, then go to dinner.

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday the stalls are at the Wharf Walking Street instead, a smaller market at the west end of the village. The food is at the back, toward the main road, and the shopping at the front. Prices aren't posted, so haggle. If you're taking a taxi, ask for Taco Bell or Pizza Hut and you'll be dropped at the right end.

Street food is cheap by village standards. Expect about ฿60–80 for pad thai, ฿50–80 for mango sticky rice, ฿80–120 for grilled coconut prawns and ฿10 a stick for satay, so ฿300–500 a person covers a good grazing dinner. Pop-up bars sell cocktails for about ฿99.

For shopping beyond the stalls, the boutiques along the street sell island clothes and jewelry, Saona Collection for handmade resort wear among them. The market stalls are the place for gifts, and haggling politely is expected there but not in the shops.

On Thursday and Saturday neither market runs, and the village is restaurants and bars. That's my pick for a quiet dinner by the water. Of the market nights, Friday is the busiest and Monday and Wednesday the calmest.

Coco Tam's is the village's beach bar, bean bags and platform beds on the sand, pizza that's better than it needs to be, and a fire show at 19:15 and 21:00. Get there around 17:30 for a spot and the sunset, and sit a row or two back from the front, where you get the whole show without the smell of kerosene. Upstairs, Easy on Tam's is a speakeasy-style bar for a drink after the show.

After dinner, the bars along the street are quieter than anything in Chaweng. Garnish, upstairs in the village, is the cocktail bar, rated 4.9 on Google. Karma Sutra has live music and cocktails, The Frog & Gecko runs a quiz on Wednesday nights, and Happy Elephant Square has live music most evenings.

For a massage before bed, Cyan Spa on the beach is open until 23:00 and takes cash only, and the small massage shops along the street charge about ฿300–600.

Shops open from about 11:00 and the village comes alive after 17:00, so an early afternoon visit is calm and the evening is the main event.

If you're driving, park at the Wharf at the west end, about ฿20 for a scooter and from ฿40 for a car. Scooters aren't allowed on the walking street during the Friday market, roughly 18:00 to 22:00, and badly parked bikes get towed, with a release fee of ฿500 or more.

Bring cash. The stalls, pop-up bars and the beach side of Coco Tam's take baht only, and the ATMs charge foreign cards about ฿250 a withdrawal, so draw a larger amount once. The popular restaurants fill up in high season, so book three to five days ahead through their Facebook or Instagram pages.

Bophut is the all-round base on Samui, with mid-range rooms at about ฿2,500–5,000 a night. Staying here puts the best dinner street on the island on your doorstep, the airport 10 to 15 minutes away and the Bangrak ferry piers about 10. What you give up is a swimming beach, and on Friday nights the street outside your door is the market. If you'd rather sleep away from the crowd, stay at the quieter ends of Bophut Beach and walk in.