Tropical Holiday - Koh Samui in October with Toddler - Thailand Diaries - Part 3 (10Mins Read)

Most memorable highlight of our stay in Samui

Imagine waking up to vast ocean views as far as eyes could see and seeing perfect sun rise right from outside your villa whilst sipping coffee by the pool is highlight of our 7 days trip to Koh Samui in Oct 2022. 

Koh Samui or often called as Samui is an small island off the east coast of Thailand. It is second largest island after Phuket. Though its small in size, given its popularity in recent years it has excellent connectivity by land, air and sea. It is paradise for nature lovers, backpackers, party animals and adventure seekers equally. Though its small, it has lot to offer. It is an hilly island which gives best of both mountain and water delights equally!   

In Thailand, Where is Samui? In Samui, Major beaches!

Travel to Koh Samui: Koh Samui is well connected by Air, Sea, and road. Air being expensive then other options is also quickest way to reach. Its a small 1 hour ride from either Bangkok or Phuket. As an Indian passport holder, please note that on arrival at Bangkok airport you will have to go for taking your Visa on Arrival  and then only one can proceed to connecting flight to Samui. Visa on Arrival is explained in my earlier blog : Thailand - Land of Smiles - Part 1. 

p.s. Visa on Arrival takes at least 1 hour so have safe time in between flights.

Once you land Samui, be ready to be surprised to arrive at island full of happy and hospitable people, pristine beaches, luxurious resorts (at affordable price) and most importantly divine surroundings. 

Travel with Toddler: Just go for it, they love exploring much more than you can imagine. Sleep, food, entertainment all take its due course. But just hit those roads and give them best memories to built. They are super adoptive. Trust them! Just one advise from a wise friend helped us travel length and breadth with our infant and now toddler is : ensure you don't mess around their nap and bed times and you are sorted throughout journey.

As, Pamela Chandler says, and we strongly believe -  When you travel with your children you are giving them something that can never be taken away – experience, exposure, and a way of life.

Climate: Its very important to note, that Samui's weather is bit different then rest of Thailand. Here, the rainy season is October and November. Rest of the months are pretty dry. Its a tropical island so little bit rainfall is expected but it would not be too severe and humidity will be lesser. Best season to visit Koh Samui is between December and April. April to June is mix of good weather and best prices. In Oct-Nov it wont rain daily literally so if you want to be put up in good resort at best price and okayish weather then these are the best months.  

How many Days are enough to holiday in Samui? This really depends on type of vacation one prefers. If you want laid back holidays wherein you want to chill by the beach and lay around infinity pool with pizza and drinks then 8 days is must spend time. If you feel like checking bucket list and have a quick run through island then 3 days are also good and if you have ample of time and work from home opportunity then even a month is less! Its love at first sight island with lot of treat to your eyes and soul. 

p.s. we travelled with 14 month old Toddler and preferred 8 days stay at same resort near Indian restaurant where Jain Food was easy to grab. This was our fourth visit to Thailand and every time we fall in love with it bit more. 

Where to stay?: This is the question which takes maximum time for any holiday planners. Samui is hilly island so first decide what you want from your holiday? Just ocean view is good enough or you want to be next to the beach? 

Also, its just 10-15 kms wide island so at any point of time, you cant be too far away from the beach! But we travelled with toddler so we preferred villa on the beach wherein we don't have to travel even a mile for reaching beach. 

So first I suggest to see in general the five star resorts and see if any good deal available. If not, then move to the boutique resorts in which you can find their best room category in prices which are most basic ones in five stars. p.s. this is our hack of staying in luxury within budget in a decent property.

So in case of Samui, there are bunch of ultra luxurious five star properties which have made their mark across the island. Best ones being like Four seasons, W Koh Samui, Centara, Melia, and many more which can cost approx. 3-4k HKD per night in peak season. Then there are trdational beautiful thai culture rich boutique resorts in mid budget.

Understand the map of Samui to see the beach you wish to be on!

Checkout the beach you like, one can select Bophut beach which was not too crowded , not much party scene there but yet not too much secluded either. Then there are places like Chwaeng Beach area which is for party people, there is fisherman's village around which has lots of pubs and clubs and party scenes going on. Then there are other beaches like Lamai, Cheong Mon Beach, Bang Po beach, Hua Thanon, etc which has lot of properties to offer from highest range to mid to low budget ones. But it depends on your budget and criteria of holiday where you would like to be.

Our search had ended at the Prana Resort on Bophut beach which offered beautiful beach villa. At one end, they have hotel rooms with pool access and then across the street on the beach they have these beautiful villas. They are huge, well maintained, with very good service, smiling faces and helpful staff close to Tropikkana Beach club. 

With toddler we were carrying mini kitchen to address his diet needs and they helped in best possible way to accommodate all our needs and demands. The room size was excellent and the view was breathtaking. The Infinity pool was just step outside the villa was book readers paradise. 

The breakfast buffet was mouth watering even for vegetarians but they accommodated our special meal request (Jain breakfast) with 2 to 3 options available daily.  

The only shortcoming if at all its important to anyone is, we asked for  breakfast basket on the pool for which they had agreed upon our arrival but denied when we actually asked for it in name of covid. It was weird. But anyway apart from my disappointment for breakfast on pool, we loved every bit of being there.

Beach Clubs  There is very interesting concept of beach clubs in Samui. You just pack your swim wear, grab a book and be ready to enjoy best infinity pool and eat while you are reading getting sun soaked! You just have to order some food and beverage by the pool to enjoy all this!  Mind it, Samui is very cheap compared to Phuket!

some of the best beach clubs in Samui are Nikki Beach bar Ark club, Chi Samui, zenzibar to name few. One can click on the link to find : 10 Best Beach Clubs Koh Samui. We stayed at Prana resort which had its own Beach club named Tropikana and I would vote it  9/10 for its ambience, food, service and smiling servers. And next to Prana resort is very happening, well known but crowded Chi Beach Club. For us they denied serving anything Jain in food. In Prana they accommodated all our food demands very very satisfyingly including arranging a romantic evening around the beach.   

What to do in Samui: Since we were with Kiaan, our to do list was limited. Also we wanted laid back holiday where in we spent maximum time in the pool and beach. Majorly we didnt plan too much in advance, we just headed reception - picked up few touristy things -- picked up bike and just hit the road. So few things which we enjoyed are:

Innovatively made local Map by Prana Resort. It highlights all touristy places with pin marks.

    1. Exploring varied beaches: we went to 2 to 3 different beaches like Chaweng, lamai and bophut. Lamai is the pristine white sand beach where you can hire umbrellas and sit around from dawn to dusk. Chaweng is happening beach where all party scenes happen and bophut is quitest of all

    2. Fisherman's night market: it has some amazing stuff to take back home as souvenirs and food lovers paradise. Its lively place where a lot is happening. p.s. you can also convert your $$$ here for very good rates

    3. Visiting some famous beach clubs: Kiaan is fan of water and his momma loves to explore different places so we went few beach clubs and for breakfast we went once ot W Koh Samui. It has lovely indian spread and amazing photo worthy spots. W Samui had many Indian guests which later we came to know due to fact that its owned by an Indian. 

    4. Exploring Thai temples and culture: There are some magnificent Thai temples in Koh Samui which includes Big Buddha temple , Wat Ratchathammaram temple, Wat plai laem temple, Wat Khunaram, Khao Hua cook chedi temple to name few of many other small temples. 

Glimpse from our visit to Thai Temples

    5. Day trip to South of Samui Island: Visit places like Lam Sor Pagoda, it was unique and amazing silent retreat out there, then headed to Rescued Elephant sanctuary (where you don't get to do elephant riding or anything you can just buy bananas for 150THB and feed elephants). This was most sane place for sake of elephants where they were not tortured.  Later you can visit one of the waterfalls and then head to Hin Tai Hin Yai rocks and final stop over at coconut farms and lastly just hit the white sand Lamai beach and relax over sunset. In all it was 5 hours trip. 

 We were disappointed by extreme rain then, but it disappeared in 1 hour and we were treated with beautiful blue clear skies. Thanks to tropical region, don't expect rains to last very long. 

P.S. Some of the elephants we saw near the falls were so so much in poorly health and still they were being forced to ride 4 people at a time. KIND REQUEST : please don't encourage such practices.

There are lot of Elephant Kingdoms and Elephant bathing and feeding sessions, etc. which takes place in many sanctuary. So if you are Someone like us who do not wish to torture animals please visit the places where animals are in their natural surroundings and not forced to do anything.

    6. One can plan a diving and view point trip to Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan but offcourse not advisable with small toddlers. 

    7. We also didn't go to Koh Phangan because it was off peak season and also it wasn't safe to take speed boat ride with toddler of 14 months! Koh phangan is well known for its Full moon parties and Ang thong national park which provides best views of Koh samui. 

A day trip to Koh Samui!

    8. Thai shopping: Well we found the area around Chaweng beach to be best for shopping also there are many many places to shop white cottons from big buddha to fisherman's village to lamai beach and everywhere. But personally i loved the white cotton shops around Big Buddha. They are too good!

    9. Thai Massage: Visit to Thailand is totally incomplete without enjoying the massages! There are ample of massage parlors across the Samui and also within resorts so just pick any one and be rest assured you will be taken for relax ride of an hour here! Most of them are very hygienic, professional and above all divine to satisfy your soul :p   

How to commute in Samui: So for short visits here and there within 5 kms area we hired bike which costs approx. 150-200 THB + petrol of 40 THB to be toped up and is very easy to drive on safe road of Samui. For bit far off journey we preferred to hire Car. You can either hire car with driver which costs 2000 THB for 4 hours or rent a car for self drive for around 800 THB you get cars like Honda CRV.

Jain Food in Samui: We are always in luck to find good Jain food anywhere in the World! So in Samui, our Go to place was Haveli Restaurant which was just 300 metres away from Prana Resort. Then we also got lot of options within Prana Resort for Jain Pizza, Jain friend rice, tofu noodles, soups and also many toddler friendly Jain food. 

We headed to W Koh samui for breakfast and even they accommodated all the jain food requirements. Their staff is well trained to understand the importance of special diets. 

At the end, Samui is wonderful wonderful island to definitely plan a visit. You will love to even come back again and again. But most of all when you plan holidays to relax, its the resort which plays important role and in our case Prana Resort was just way too perfect with its location being just 15 minutes away from airport, to enchanting beach villas with infinity pools to customized Jain food provision to smiling faces and ever helpful staffs. Special thanks to F&B manager whose name I forgot and Aalok from Sales team who helped us in best way possible to have happy and healthy stay in Samui. 

Wrapping up with lot of fond memories! 

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