SALA Samui Choengmon Beach Resort

Pool villas are the whole point here. Most of the whitewashed, courtyard-style rooms hide a private pool behind their own walls, which is the kind of thing that usually costs a great deal more on Samui. If you've been pricing up the island's marquee resorts and wincing, this is the one I'd look at first.

The look is crisp white-on-white, softened with lotus ponds and frangipani. Choeng Mon's water is gentle and shallow, so the beachfront pool and restaurant sit in front of a cove that's genuinely fine for small children, which isn't true of much of Chaweng. That's the odd trick of the place. Honeymooners book it for the walled privacy, families book it for the beach, and the property is big enough that neither group notices the other much. If you want nightlife on your doorstep, this isn't it. Choeng Mon is quiet after dark by design.