Sun, Sand and Samui Hotel

Lamai Beach

Information: Samui's second most popular beach, Lamai is a little quieter, a little looser, and a little cheaper than Chaweng. There is something distinctly boom-town about the main strip, which is generally referred to as Lamai Gulch, with its bars, diners and shops crammed together along the roadside and down the dusty sidelanes. Ride or walk to the back of the beach road and you're in the heart of banana groves and coconut plantations, and you can take a mountain bike ride up the hilltracks and into the rugged interior... Or follow the road down past the headland where the infamous Grandfather and Grandmother rocks attract picnicking Thais.

Lamai is home to a charming old temple with a tiny museum, and a number of local gyms where you can take Thai boxing lessons. You will also find a choice of dive shops and even a couple of meditation centers. After dark Lamai Gulch loses its sleepy daytime persona and becomes a jumping nightspot. There are some real home-style alfresco places with Thai and western food, pub/saloons featuring live bands, video movies on show and several discos which start swinging 'round about midnight. Central Lamai has a broad selection of bungalow type Samui accommodation, ranging from budget lodgings to the magnificent, the latter with tended landscaped gardens, swimming pools and sweet seclusion.

Mae Nam Beach

Information: It’s hard to believe as you drive along the Ring Road in Maenam that just a few hundred metres away there is one of the prettiest beaches that Koh Samui has to offer. Once you're off the road, it’s an amazingly tranquil spot, fringed the whole way along by majestic palms. It’s also here that you find some of the cheapest accommodation deals on the island, as well as a few up-market resorts.

The sand, though not postcard white powder, is a fine yellow colour, with a turquoise sea stretching away. In the distance you can see Koh Pha Ngan, Samui’s sister island, and on a clear day distant Koh Tao. For those who know it, Maenam represents a largely unspoilt beach and when you sit on the sands here, and look along it in either direction, it’s hard to see the development, most of which consists of small collections of bungalows.

Maenam Beach, unlike Chaweng, is never crowded, and very often you will come across only a handful of people sunbathing.

The Passage Samui Villas &Resort
57/ 6-7, Moo 5
Angthong,
KohSamui, Suratthani
Postal code 84140

Phone: +66 77 421 721
Fax: +66 77 421 726-7
Email: rsvn@thepassagesamui.com or sales@thepassagesamui.com