Koh Samui was voted one of The Top Islands in the World in the 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. To find out all the winning islands, read here.
Falling in love with Koh Samui is not hard. I did when I first visited in 2009 with my mother. Though I’m a Thai native, I’d rarely ventured beyond chaotic Bangkok, so the island was like a salve to my system, the salty sea breeze an antidote to my hometown’s dizzying traffic and persistent smog. Our destination was Chaweng Beach, a place of pale sand and gentle waves that lap at the feet of a few low-key eateries. We stayed at a family friend’s resort in a tiny one-room bungalow with creaky floorboards. We ate poached shrimp porridge in the mornings, roasted squid with chili-lime sauce in the afternoons, and salt-crusted baked fish in the evenings. We spent long days strolling along the sandbars and floating in the clear waters. At night, under the fluttering mosquito nets that hung above our beds, we listened to the dull gnawing of termites feasting on the property’s wood structures. Everything about the visit felt supremely Thai, especially the unapologetic, eager hospitality I found at each food stall and bar, shoreline and street corner. Everyone on Samui smiled, always personifying sabai-sabai, a Thai expression that loosely means “Take it easy.” And so we did.
Thailand has had a few It destinations during my lifetime. In the early ’90s the place to go, especially for travelers looking for beach parties, was Pattaya, a former fishing village just a two-hour drive from the capital. When it became overrun with cabaret clubs and high-rise condos, in-the-know vacationers shifted to the Andaman Sea. The Hollywood film The Beach chose Koh Phi Phi to depict its fictional secret idyll—doing such a good job of capturing its allure that the island has since fallen victim to severe overcrowding. By comparison, Samui, tucked away in the Gulf of Thailand, felt like a local secret. But of course, secrets get out.
As this year’s number one island in Asia, Samui has long been a favorite of Condé Nast Traveler readers; others will become hip to its charms when it takes a starring role in the third season of the HBO dramedy The White Lotus, expected out next year. Given the show’s far-reaching influence—tourism in Sicily boomed after its second season, which was shot in Taormina and Cefalù—it’s only a matter of time before one of Thailand’s most popular beach getaways attains superstar status.
This island is always evolving. When I went in 2009, a tide of global brands had already moved in. One was the Four Seasons, which will provide the setting for The White Lotus (as it did previously in Hawaii and Sicily), offering more rooms, amenities, and ways to see the island. But Chaweng Beach, even as it hosts visitors from all over the world, still buzzes with that sabai-sabai spirit. And Samui’s earlier unvarnished energy—which so many of us Thais fell in love with—lives on too. I see it in the majestic natural landscape, easily experienced from the hiking trails of the lush Nathon Mountain Ridge. It’s in the night markets, where friendly vendors sell fish-cake skewers coated in chili sauce and grilled mussels harvested from the ocean that day. It’s in the colorful songthaews, the pickup trucks turned public shuttles that whisk people to every secret corner of the island. By definition, travelers come and go. But Koh Samui is eternal.
This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.
