Amari Koh Samui

This week we stayed at the Amari on Chaweng beach on Koh Samui. On arrival at the airport we were met by a hotel representative who transferred us to the hotel. We were greeted in the familiar Thai style by a number of enthusiastic front desk staff who made us feel welcome with a cold towel and drink. We felt we had really arrived and the rigours of travel melted away. We were then escorted to our spacious room. Looking around it was well attractive, clean and stocked with all the amenities you would expect of a high quality resort. We found the food to be particularly good, the excellent quality, extensive range with reasonable prices. We particularly loved the Saturday night beach barbecue which was right on the beach, our table only feet from the cooling leaping water, cooled by a soft sea breeze it was just magic. We are not seafood eaters so we did not go to the Seafood Night but there were plenty of other options both in and out of the resort with many restaurants within walking distance. There were two reasonable sized pools, one right next to the sheltered beach. We swam in the pool and the ocean, lazed next to both on the comfy day beds while taking in the views and the readily available bar service, it was a paradise. Free wifi was excellent and there were very generous happy hours at the bars so that certainly helped. The whole resort is sprinkled with pristine gardens, everywhere you look there are water features, flowers, palms etc fulfilling a true tropical scene. Everything is well maintained and looks pretty new. Even the air conditioning in the room work really well and we could adjust the settings to our liking and it actually adjusted, not like some places we have stayed where it’s pretty much on or off. The one thing we loved the most was the staff. They were genuinely friendly and very helpful. They were always checking if there was anything we needed or anything they could do for us. They even organised a private tour of the island which was very inexpensive and on short notice. It seemed like nothing was too much trouble. During the week there was an area at one end of one of the pools that was having maintenance which we found out was of an urgent nature. We did hear a couple of guests complain but the noise was very minimal and not for long periods and not during the early morning or night time. It had no impact on our enjoyment of the pool or the beach and we actually found it interesting at times to see how things are done here and how far they got each day. In fact, the trades noise was no where near that coming from the ever excited children and their parents trying to keep up with them. I always find it amusing that the first ones to complain about noise are often those making a good deal of it themselves. We could not fault this last week, fantastic food and service and beautiful facilities made this a fabulous holiday and we would recommend this resort to all our fellow travellers.

We stayed at the Amari Sept/Oct for 2 weeks. Weren't informed about work being done or refurbishment of rooms, would have chosen elsewhere. Two weeks of noise ruined our meant to be relaxing holiday. Breakfast tasteless, staff struggled to keep up with the filling of buffet food. Food too expensive to eat at hotel. Beach compact, not big enough for a wedding which took place. Rooms tired, not good housekeeping not enough storage. Beach barbecue and romantic meal on the beach. too expensive. Sun loungers in need of replacement, as are beach towels. Over priced and over rated. Would not sta here again.