Planning the holiday of your dreams on Koh Samui
Koh Samui is a diverse island where everyone can find the perfect base for their exploration. Simply booking a resort and spending the week or two on its beach might not show you all Samui has to offer. Different regions of Samui have their own characteristics and they can be a verry different experience for you. We gathered insights on these different areas to make it easier for you to plan your dream holiday on this paradise island.
What to take into consideration when selecting your homebase on Samui
When choosing your home base on Samui, you should consider a few factors
– Price level: Are you looking for luxury, mid range or budget travelling
– What do you want to get out of your holiday : Tranquility, crazy parties and action.
– How important is it for you to find all the services you need nenar-by or even outside your door.
– How important nature is to you. Do you value beautiful landscapes and snorkeling opportunities or are you more of a town-person.
Exploring the island
It’s good to notice, that on Samui almost every town, attraction and beach is easily reachable by driving along the island’s 60 km long ring road. It’s in very good condition. So you’re not tied down to one specific location.
If you’re a person who’d rather stay put on the resort beach, I challenge you to step out of that comfort zone and explore. As this is how you will get the most of Samui.
Cocovolt offers you means and reason to explore
Cocovolt offers you a risk free and easy access to travelling the island. Simply pick-up your Cocovolt e-scooter near your home-base and travel to the other areas to explore. You can pickup the scooter at one Hoppoint and drop it off at another. When using Cocovolt you can even rent the scooter for micro-length, 1 hour trips, which is enough time to reach pretty much any location on the island.
First steps to island exploration - get our app and get a Cocovolt e-scooter
First steps to smooth and succesfull exploration
First thing you should do is navigate with your phone to Apple appstore or Google play, download and install the free Cocovolt app.
There you will create an account and if you simply want to enjoy the vast information about the island, it’s free. If you end up renting a Cocovolt scooter, you can pay it right there on the app and our customer service will send you the allocated scooter information from the pickup point you selected. Use the links below to download and install the app.
DOWNLOAD THE APP
How to pickup, recharge and return your Cocovolt E-Scooter
You can find Cocovolt scooters all around Koh Samui. Please use the linkbutton to access the locations of the Hop- and Chargepoints.
At Cocovolt HopPoints you can pick-up a scooter, switch it to a fresh one and once you’re done with the scooter, return it to any HopPoint (not only the one you picked it up from) on the island.
HopPoints are local businesses; Hotels, Co-Working spaces, Restaurants and Sports Centers.
Cocovolt ChargePoints are local businesses that welcome you to recharge the scooter in return for a small fee paid to the venue for recharging. If you want, you can enjoy the services of the ChargePoint while your scooter recharges. By using these services you contribute to and encourage local businesses to support the iniative to bring electric transportation easily available and usable on this Island and support the reduction of pollution on this island.
Cocovolt initative’s business network consists today of about 30 partner businesses who either host the scooters or offer recharging services.
Navigating Koh Samui
The island of Samui is very easy to navigate. There is a good condition paved ring road travelling around the island. You can reach every major town and area from the ring road and you have an easy access from the ring road to all the major attractions.
The ring road is 60 km in lenght and has higher climbs to hilltops on the way at North-West and South-East of the island.
Inside the ring road, in the center of the island, you will find the hill areas with variety of differtent sized hills. Be aware, some of them are very high and the climb is very steep. not all hilltops are reachable with normal scooters. The hillroads are not generally lit and it is not advicable to drive on them during nighttime as it can be very dangerous.
If entering the hill areas in the middle of the island, make sure your scooter packs enough power to climb up and that the brakes of the scooter are in good condition.
Like with a normal 125 cc scooter, also Cocovolt scooters there are hilltops which you cannot simply climb due to their enourmous height.
As Koh Samui has a huge number of beaches, a basic rule of thumb is , if you see the hilltops on your right, you’ll have likely a nice beach to your left and the opposite.
Snorkeling on Koh Samui
There are a few snorkeling spots on the island, but Koh Samui is not really your destination for great snorkeling. The sites found on the island are mostly suitable for beginners and not the more experienced snorkelers. This is simply due to the lack of colorful coral reefs and sealife.
The most known spots to snorkel on the island can be found on the west coast: Coral Cove and Crystal Bay. Even in these spots you will not find abundance of sealife nor large colorful coral reefs.
In Choeng Mon you have a lesser known quite decent snorkeling spot on the Saii resort’s beach. This beach is not easy to get to and you will likely need to pass through the hotel reception to get to the beach through the hotel. This beach has actually a bit more to see than the mentioned popular sites and that is why it makes this quite an interesting place to visit. The beach is very calm and protected from street noise, it is fairly large in size and there are some corals and sealife for you to see. Having written this, we have to note that many of the corals are bleached and sealife is not abundant even here.
The ocean in general is quite safe to swim and snorkel. There are dangerous life in the ocean in Thailand, but there’s very little things like seaurchins and jellyfish in the ocean. Nevertheless always keep your eye out though when snorkeling for e.g. jellyfish or snakes. It’s good to remember the world has no life that wants to eat or hurt you.
A good rule of thumb is , you can watch , but never touch or harass the sealife. It’s their home you are visiting. Important thing is act very calmly. The calmer you stay, the more likely it is for them to come visit you from a closer distance and the more sealife you will see on tour swim.
For some high quality snorkeling and especially for more experienced snorkelers looking to get more out of their experience we recommend you reserve some budget for trips to Ang Thon marine park and nearby islands like Koh Tao.
Choosing the best area suitable for your preference :
Chaweng, Bangrak, Chaweng Noi
Chaweng is the beating heart of Samui. It’s the most popular destination for visitors and it’s not hard to see why. Large amount of restaurants, shops , a modern shopping center with a movie theatre and a great beach. As the area is popular, it can also feel the most “touristy” and can get quite crowded.
Choeng Mon
Choeng Mon is located just north from Chaweng. It’s amazing how the atmosphere changes when moving from Chaweng’s crowds and hectic traffic and general buzz to a more relaxed, but still a town-like surrounding of Choeng Mon. Choeng Mon has a fair amount of restaurants and other services available, but for shopping you need to visit a place like Chaweng and Lama.
Bo Phut
BOPHUT is located at the north of the island. The area is town/citylike and hosts on the shoreline the famous Fisherman’s village area. Here is where you find the famous and an elegant walking street, which at the same is elegant and carries with it interesting character. The restaurants in Fisherman’s village are high class and here you can find also small boutique shops selling jewelry and clothing among a lot of other things.
Mae Nam
MAE NAM is located at the north-west part of the island. The area resembles Bang Por a lot as it shares a lot of the same characteristics : about 15 min drive to Chaweng’s services , super beautiful beach and a very relaxed atmosphere. Mae Nam hosts the Pra Larm pier where you can hop on a speed boat or a ferry and travel to/from the nearby smaller islands.
Bang Po
BANG PO is located at the north-west part of the island west from Mae Nam. It’s a very relaxed area with palm tree forest-setting, but still quite close, about 15-20 min drive, from Chaweng’s services. The Bang Po beach is simply astonishingly beautiful. It has a variety of different sized villas and bungalows right on the beach accompanied by a wide selection of restaurants, but there are no large hotels on the beach. This makes this place quite unique and pittoresque.
Nathon
NATHON is located at the west of the island. It’s not your normal tourist destination and it is mostly popular with the local residents. Natho , with it’s a bit rugged exterior and townlike presence, the authentic aspects of it , make it a great destination to experience true and authentic Koh Samui town setting.
Nathon has the island’s main pier which welcomes regularly large cruiseships visiting the island. A new pier is being built still in 2025 which will allow even better surroundings for the visiting cruiselines. the piers of Nathon also allow you to travel to/from Surat Thani, mainland and to the other nearby islands.
Lipa Noi
LIPA NOI is located on the west coast of the island south from Nathon. The area is very peaceful and rich in nature: Lipa noi area your can find a combination of palm tree forest rich with birds and butterflies. You have stray dogs sleeping on the curb of the road and chicken running around. It’s where you can find authentic Samui and a huge contrast to the most popular areas like Chaweng.
Taling Ngam
TALING NGAM is an area located in the south of the island. Like Lipa noi and all of the south of the island is very relaxed and authentic. The surroundings you will experience are mostly jungle-like forest rich with wildlife . Roads are paved and easy to navigate. Beaches are stunning and the atmosphere is simply a bundle of peace and joy.
Hat Ton Takien (Crystal bay, Silver beach)
Hat Ton Takieng (aka CRYSTAL BAY, aka SILVER BEACH) Is known as one of the best and most beautiful beaches on the island. Crystal Bay is a relatively small area north-east from Lamai and south from Chaweng. The beach is located at a small bay and it is stunning. This beach is also know for being one of the snorkeling spots on Samui although it does not compare to snorkeling at Koh Tao. The name Crystal Bay and Silver beach most likely originate from the two hotels located on the beach.
The area has quite a few restaurants and small shops along the ring road travelling past the beach. A 5-10 minute drive to south-west brings you to wide range of services available at Lamai.
Lamai
Lamai is along Chaweng the second largest tourism center on the island. Lamai is located on the east coast of the island about 20-30 km fron Chaweng. The area has a lot of services , restaurants and shopping possibilities avialable, but is much less crowded and less busy comparing to Chaweng.
The area is very suitable for families , people appreciating having a lot of services nearby and people who necessarily don’t want to go out and party, but might appreciate having a selection of bars and restaurants available anyway.
On the beach road there is the Lamai nightmarket which is an interesting place to visit.