We were lucky to have visited Koh Samet, Thailand twice in four months this year! We stayed in Thailand 3 weeks on our way to New Zealand and had an amazing time in Koh Samet – see our top reasons why this was perfect for a family vacation – and this time on our way back from New Zealand to England, we stopped here again for four days with a very special bunch of people.
One of the few things we did different this time was the rockpooling and snorkelling. Rest of the time it was beach, sand, sun and play 🙂 Easy to get to from Bangkok – 3 hour bus ride followed by short ferry/boat ride straight to our resort – Koh Samet is a great island destination, not as developed as others, but with lovely white sand and turquoise water beaches. Even though it was the rainy season, we were lucky to have sunshine all 4 days we were here. It was perfect for our 4 month old nephew’s first beach holiday and we hope the start of many group travels for this group of nature and outdoors loving, adventerous family travellers!
Rockpooling and snorkelling was one of our favourite activities in the short four days we were here. We saw giant clams, corals, sea cucumbers, anemones, angel fish, crabs and a whole lot more.
Swimming in the warm sea and building sand castles for hours on end in the hot sun..Shahaar got sunburnt for the first time in his life, hopefully learnt his lesson and won’t give me such a hard time putting on sunblock in the future! I had wondered if the beaches of Thailand would feel as pristine after some of the amazing beaches we experienced in Tutukaka coast in New Zealand. I must say even though the beach and the sea seemed much busier with boats and more people, the sand in Koh Samet is as soft, white and pristine as I had remembered it.
The firespinning is always fun to watch, there were shows every night, we ate out at different beachfront restaurants, pricey by Thailand standards but I guess you pay for the view. Each meal with drinks was about US$10 per person. When we got back to the mainland, we had the best meal at a small road side restaurant which cost less than $3 person! LOVE that food is so good and so cheap here.
Hair braiding(250-500 Baht), Thai massages (300 Baht), banana boat rides (250 Baht), short walk to the west side of the island to see the sunset, chilling and good conversations were some of the other highlights. We stayed at the same resort as last time – Vongdeuan resort – cost us $240 for 3 nights for family of four. There are several water based activities you can do here – jetsking, kayaking, parasailing – but the only one we did was the Banana boat ride.
Even though this short and peaceful holiday was less than 3 weeks ago, it seems like another lifetime compared to the intense, hectic (but fun) work/hospital visits/london /socializing/returning ‘home’ to Sheffield vacation we are having at the moment in England! I think I need another Koh samet vacation once we are done with England in 2 weeks time 🙂
Linked to Travel Photo Thursday Wednesday Wanderlust Weekly Photo Challenge:Close Up and Saturday’s Critters
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Ah spending all day and all night at the beach sounds so good right now! I remember (very well) my first (and last) really bad sunburn when I was about 8. Oh I learned my lesson. Looks like you guys had a blast!
Looks like a fun day in the water! Didn’t know this island was so close to Bangkok. Do you know the name of the creature that appears in your opening photo? It looks very cool.
It’s a giant clam. We saw several of them..best part of Koh samet was how convenient it was to get here from Bangkok!
They are great shots of your rock pool finds, I love exploring these. And I think the best food in Thailand can only be found at roadside stalls!
Thanks for joining in #wednesdaywanderlust this week.
I have wanted to go to Koh Samet for years, but haven’t made it yet. Sounds and looks like you had a great time! Thanks for linking up. #TPThursday
Those sea cucumbers are really cool I haven’t seen them before.
I hadn’t seen them before either! was pretty cool 🙂
Hello, what a fun family vacation. I love the beach and exploring the tidal pools is fun too. Wonderful collection of photos, your family is beautiful! Have a happy week ahead!