The Ritz-Carlton, Koh Samui

Heading home today after 8 nights at the beautiful Ritz Carlton Koh Samui, which really surpassed our expectations in so many ways. We travelled as a group of 9 with older adults, young adults and teens and everyone had a truly wonderful time. The resort itself is huge, but a network of highly efficient golf buggies bring you around everywhere you need to go. It’s in a peaceful location between Fisherman’s Village and just outside Choengmon, with the bustling Chaweng strip is about a 20 min grab ride away. So all in all, location is brilliant if you are happy to jump in an inexpensive taxi to get to the action or stay at the hotel for some quiet luxury. What we loved: 1. Rooms are really huge, incredibly well appointed and spotless. We had 2 rooms for our family and were given 2 beautiful rooms beside each other. Block 6 is quite handy as you can easily walk to the breakfast room and even the pool/beach from there via the stairs. But equally, no issue to get a buggy if you can’t hack the walk in the heat. 2. The evening food is really excellent. We ate at the beach restaurant (complete with fantastic fire show!) and also the street food night, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It’s a little pricy, but ok for a few nights when you are balancing with cheaper options nearby. Lunch food is also good and reasonable value for money (for a 5 star) but we got a little bored of it after a few days and opted to go out a couple of times. 3. While the pool and beach area are not big for the size of the hotel, we never had any problem getting beds no matter what time or day. The beach area sand is quite corse, which seemed to put people off, but we didn’t mind it and loved the vibes at the beach. Fabulous views. 4. The staff are really what make this place. So incredibly kind and accommodating. Too many people to mention, but a special shout out to the lovely Jam from Sea Breeze and also Jeb from the bar beside Shook. Tee, the front of house manager was also so lovely. They all went out of their way to make you feel special. Khop khun ka!! The small niggles are ones that other people have highlighted before: 1. The lack of air con at breakfast is a bit problematic. At peak times, it’s really hot and sweaty… so good to hear that this will be resolved in the future. Another idea is to have more self serve coffee machines. It’s all served by staff, who really do their best, but when it’s busy, you are sometimes waiting for your coffee.. so a mix of self serve and barista coffee would be great. (There is a take away machine outside the breakfast rooms, but some inside also would be helpful) 2. Not a complaint- but a suggestion is that a more proactive service at the pool area would be good. I’m probably being picky (since everything else was truly 5 star), but I’ve stayed at 5 star hotels before where staff come around and offer drinks, maybe bringing cold towels or complimentary fruit/ice cream etc. this felt a little bit lacking here. You could call staff over, but especially at the beach area, they don’t really come down to check if you wanted anything. There is unlimited self serve complimentary water by the pool/beach (and in the rooms and at lunch btw, which was amazing), which is a really nice touch. But for me improving the service at the pool/beach would be a small fix to really elevate the experience. Overall, we had a really genuinely fabulous stay and I would not hesitate to recommend the Ritz Carlton Koh Samui to anyone. Thank you again to all the staff and to the new hotel GM, who I feel has a great vision to bring the place to the next level!

Just realised I forgot to leave a review from last winter. Oops. This hotel is great. Although spread out over a large area, it made for nice little (~7 mins or so) walks from our room to the restaurants or beach. You can always get a shuttle. Loved the design (it’s modern 4S, not a stuffy old one), the beach staff were impeccable, good and drinks great. Loved the little private beach. And on checkout having eaten and drunk tons all week I genuinely thought they got my bill wrong by a (USD or GBP) decimal point but they hadn’t. So it’s also great value. We’ll definitely go back, and we really prefer Koh Samui to say Phuket vibes.

We had the perfect honeymoon at the Ritz-Carlton Koh Samui. It has beautiful rooms, great food and excellent facilities, but it is the quality of service, above all, that makes it such an exceptional place to stay; the place we had the best holiday we’ve ever had. We stayed in one of the ultimate pool villas with an unrestricted ocean view. If you can afford it, is most definitely worth it, as you can see nothing but ocean from wherever you are: living area, bedroom, bathroom, etc. The room had everything we could need, together with a whole host of small touches from blackout doors for the bedroom to complimentary mosquito sprays (their approach to mosquitos is particularly robust, with resort-wide mistings taking place every few days to keep them away). They knew it was our honeymoon and so both in the room on arrival and throughout our stay there were a series of things in our room and in restaurants we ate at to congratulate us, including cards, chocolates and fruit. The food is excellent. There is a very wide choice of foods for breakfast and nothing you could want that is not on offer. There are also a series of great restaurants including a thai restaurant, Indian restaurant and meat/fish grill restaurant, that all provided excellent food. A particular favourite for us was the One Rai restaurant, where Chef Armaan’s food was some of the best Indian food we have eaten in any country, particularly the murgh malai tikka, dum chicken biryani and naan breads. We ended up eating there 3 times. The Thai street food market they put on is also very much worth going to for a wide range of food and good entertainment. There are lots of activities you can take part in every day. Particularly good are the Muai Thai classes, where Mick and Sean are very good, fun teachers. The main pool is large and does not get too crowded whatever time of day it is, and the gym is nicely designed and similarly not busy. There is an excellent buggy service that is available at a moment’s notice and transports you from location to location if you are feeling it is hot or somewhere is too far to walk. We stayed for 10 nights and during that time there was also several events the resort put on to give guests free cocktails and canapes. It is however the service that makes the Ritz Carlton Koh Samui so exceptional. At every position across the resort the staff go above and beyond to ensure you have everything you need. Beginning with Tee, one of the managers, who gave us her number, made lots of good local recommendations, was contactable at all times if we needed anything and ensured we were always taken care of. Chef Nan, the resort’s pastry chef, has a lovely, bubby personality and made a huge range of delicious pastries (orange chocolate madeleines being a particular favourite), circulating round tables in the mornings to ensure you were having a good stay. Ping was also great at breakfast and around the resort ensuring you had everything you need. In some ways it is unfair to single out particular people as the standard of service is so high across the board, but special shout-outs also have to go to Yok and Raj at One Rai who were very attentive and provided great conversation, as well as Wannisa, Megan, Mai and Immie. But throughout our stay, everyone was excellent and we could not have asked for more, hence it being the perfect honeymoon. Choose the Ritz Carlton for your Koh Samui stay – you won’t regret it.

Pros: • the rooms are very comfortable and spacious, with good size balconies. • there’s a wide variety of food available and, if you choose to use it, room service is prompt. • to be fair, the management are so an excellent job of addressing any issues you might have. • the staff are very friendly and, perhaps with the exception of some at breakfast, attentive. • the tennis court is in decent nick, with rackets, balls, towels and cold drinks readily available gratis (you’ll need the later two!) • our lad says the hymn way in good condition. Cons: • we didn’t accept the first room they offered us as it hadn’t been cleaned properly and the ceiling was clearly letting in water. Our second for the kids room wasn’t available forty five minutes after it should have been. • on a couple of occasions our food order or the subsequent bill were incorrect. • don’t go into the sea without shoes on of some description. There are razor sharp rocks just under the surface until you have swum out a good distance and the warning signs aren’t obvious. Best to stay by the pool unless you're using the kayaks • the level of service at breakfast was hit and miss, especially if you wanted a coffee or an omelette - they take ages ! Conclusion: This is a more than decent place and I would have given a higher rating if the breakfast situation was more organised, but it’s clearly nearer to ‘good’ rather than ‘very good’.

Absolutely fantastic. The property is beautiful, the standard rooms are extremely spacious and the staff is the friendliest we have come across in Thailand. Food in the resort is expensive, and the beach is not really for swimming due to large rocks (but makes for nice scenery). Would definitely come again.