I was not happy as i had paid extra to have a spa We arrived at this resort for the final 5 days of our thailand trip.We arrived after a 40 minute journey from the airport to find the resort.Very pretty hotel in lush surroundings.A great welcome drink and friendly staff although slow to check you in.We had been informed by our travel agent trailfinders that there was building work going on in the hotel however we would not be affected bu this as it was in a secluded location away from the villas.However when we were taken to our villa we found that the villa infront was being upgraded and building work was going on.Whilst sitting at the reception we could also hear the work.It appeared to be all over the resort.I was not happy as i had paid extra to have a spa villa.I had luckly taken the letter from trailfinders.I compained about the fact i had been placed in this villa and showed the hotel staff the letter from trailfinders.I was told that there were no other spa villas or pool villas left.However it was not all bad as i was then transfered to the 5 star resort in cheweng the grand centara resort.A boost and given a pool villa.It just goes to show that if you smile and keep your cool they thai people will help you in anyway they can.I was delighted with the way my complaint was handled and can only commend the staff at centara villas.However i would say that this resort is in the middle of no where and if you want a quiet holiday with no action what so ever then this is the place.However if you would like a little excitment then this is not the place.It is a 30 minute drive from cheweng and about 15 from lami.The woman at trailfinders told me i could walk into lami from the hotel.Yes i could but it would take me about a day!I also would like to say taxi fares from airport to centara villas are 900 bhat. We stayed in a pool villa and were very pleased with the villa and the private garden with pool.The room was immaculate and the domestic staff were fantastic.Our room was cleaned thoroughly each day and toiletries and water replaced, with a pool villa you also get a turn down service and two free cocktails each night.In brief:1.With the expection of breakfast(Whihc was good)We chose not to eat in the hotel as it was very pricey compared to eating in restaurants.The hotel does a scheme where you can buy money and they will give you some free even doing this it is more expensive than eating out.2.Visit the two local restaurants and the bar down the road.Fishermans, baracuda and cocobola bar.The food at both restaurant is great and the cocktails at the bar are not to be missed.We didn't make it to cool bar.3.There ray ban sale online are no grocer shops locally, the hotel runs a taxi service into lamai and chaweng, so unless you have hired a bike or car stock up on supplies.4.There is an aquarium and zoo nearby, if you are going to pay them a visit check the times of the live shows as we paid to see the tiger show and the sea lions but in fact we had missed the last showing of the sea lion sow the person on the till didn't tell us this when we bought our tickets!5.Have a spa treatment, the price is similar to the uk but it is definitely worth it.6.We did a day trip to the marine part it was fantastic and well worth the money7.I'd also advise seeing the thai boxing in chaweng, a very entertaining evening. Centara villas is an excellent place to stay in samui.It is situated in a quiet area surrounded by lush vegetation and the odd gecko.Yes there are lots of steps but hey after eating all that thai food the exercise is much appreciated.Room was better than i expected and cleaned daily.Only problem was the hotel food and drink prices.We knew before we went that it might be pricey but one day we were gagging for a cold drink so i asked at the reef bar for 2 iced teas and received 2 cans of liptons ice tea for 200baht 4.Considering that these can be bought in a shop for 15baht each i was a little taken aback.We didn't buy from the hotel again.On the last day we wanted some coconut jam to take home which the hotel sold, we asked the price before buying and including taxes it came to around 7 so we did without.I don't like being ripped off.Out of the hotel and turn right, at the bottom of the small hill you will find the fishermans outlet.The food here is excellent and good value.2 starters, 2 mains, 2 desserts, 2 large beers, 2 coconut juices(Fresh coconut with the top lopped off)15 bargain and we were stuffed.The tiger prawns are awesome as is the penang curry.A little walk further down, there is a small shop, the last one on the left up a little step.You can buy drinks and snacks etc at good prices and the family who run it are really friendly but don't speak much english.Lamai, well not too good really.Chaweng, a pain in the backside with all the tailors hassling you.In the end all the shops are selling the same stuff so look around, you will always find it cheaper down the road.Worth a look to get the prezzys to take home but not worth a second visit.And do offer stupid prices, they sometimes go for it but watch out for the indian shopkeepers, they won't budge.Get a jeep from the hotel for 24 hours it has full insurance so nothing to worry about and you can see the whole island in a day.Now lets get on to this much talked about cool bar, walk over the rocks to the left of the beach(Might need to paddle a bit depending on tides)And about 50 yards away is a little scruffy hut selling cocktails and beer.Yes the young couple are nice who run it, but to the people who say they are going back just because of the cool bar, i say why?Its a scruffy little hut.It was nice to stroll over for a cold beer in the afternoon but would i go back just because of it?Nope.The prices are more expensive that the local restaurants, while i was there the price of beer went up a whopping 25% and to be honest the cocktails were far from spectacular.The fishermans outlet put a lot of effort into their cocktails and the service was superb, add this to the fair price made it a no brainer really.So we visited the scruffy little hut 3 times but couldn't see the attraction.We would definitely go back to centara villas but not because of the cool bar.All in all a fantastic holiday.Shame bmi screwed up the internal flights both ways.But thats another loooong story.Go you will like it. Centara villas are situataed on a hill side amongst lush vegetation the villas are comfortable and adequate as mentioned with the complex set on a hillside people with walking difficulties may find the steps too much.The staff at hotel very friendly and helpful at all times the bars and dining area were clean and tidy nice place to relax having said that the hotel could think about dropping the price of drinks.From our own experience we had a fantastic time at the hotel and would return.If you choose to eat out from the hotel down the hill there are two equally good returants the fishermen and the baracuda service and food at both are fantastic.Next door to the fisherman is the relax time massage which we highly recommend for all massages the staff are both capable and friendly.Across the road is the cocobola internet cafe bar large drinks and great pool tables and as usaul for thailand happy friendly owners.A short stroll left of the pool you will come to the pool bar run by a fantastic young couple who will show you great hospitality and make you feel welcome.All in all fantastic chill out holiday.Also there are various trips to other islands, elephant treks and so on.So you can make the holiday as adventurous as you like. We booked this hotel and then read some of the comments on here.Mostly excellent but there is the odd scary one.This did put us on alert a bit before we got there but having stayed and loved every minute i can't see how anyone could not like the place.Yes there are quite a lot of steps but that comes with staying at a resort that is placed on a hillside and this is well advertised so shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.In fact its part of what makes it such a lovely spot.We found it good exercise for burning off the calories from all the excellent food and as long as you are generally fit you would not have any problem.Wouldn't advise it to anyone with walking difficulties though as they could struggle.It is a little away from the main parts of the island but perfect for a peaceful break.If you do want to get out, even to shops you will need a car or use the hotel shuttle bus but you must book for this and you are tied in with their times of service etc.Our scooter did the entire main round the island road in an afternoon wit a few stop offs so you're never that far from anywherethe comments about the drinks prices are all genuine they were ridiculous and prices were the only thing that really annoyed the guests.We've paid less in london for them and just don't see where the hotels management are coming from on this. (Wake up guys if you read this and get some sense into your pricing regime)If you do have the guts to open the minibar for heavens sake, do not drink anything do what we did and empty it all out, place it by the side and take a trip to the seveneleven and restock it with your own beers for a fraction of the price.This goes for the bars too as you could get two or three drinks anywhere else for the price of one of theirs.They really have priced their customers off site for drinks and that brings me to the cool bar, which i will mention in a bit.You do get a couple of bottles of mineral water each day complimentary but they are really for brushing your teeth, so that you do not use the taps.Showering etc ok but don't use the taps for washing your tooth brush.When we booked the option was there for half board, which basically meant we could eat anything we wanted from any menu for breakfast and dinner.Considering we ate lobster most nights i think we got our monies worth on this and the food really is fantastic.They have a theme night buffet each night which is more like a carvery and alongside this there is an a la carte menu.This was great.We worked our way through most of it and only had the odd problem but that was due to us not noticing the chilli symbol next to the item that blew our heads off with spices.Breakfast was a buffet with a chef on hand to cook your eggs how you want them.Usual breakfast buffet that you would get anywhere but very good.Some odd looking sausages but they tasted good whatever they were made of.The island is full of backpacking dogs and cats who may well pitch up next to your table but the staff do usher them away.Being predominantly buddhist religion and their beliefs in reincarnation they may well come back as a cat so are still very gentle when they move them on and this is something that happens all over the island, so not just this hotel(Alternatively you could just let them stay for dinner and have the odd tit bit! )The hotel bars do have a happy hour between 5 7 each night but they even manage to get a trick or two into this with drink prices.The drinks are half price but you have to order two of the same to qualify.More binge drinking than happy hour as we knew it and you won't get a free poured measure.Villa was cleaned each day, turn down service appeared each night to get your bed ready but we declined this most night unless they'd been in while we were out.To be honest there wasn't much between the standard rooms and ours worth worrying about and after seeing a couple of spa/pool villas we didn't feel we were missing much there either.The hotel does offer wi fi but at 100bt for 110mins this was something we believed they could have offered as a free service.Plus even if you do take you own lap top you have to go to a lounge to log onto the system. (Would suggest checking the colour of your bike before you sign up as two fellas on a pink scooter did get a few laughs).Just wait until you see where and how they sell the gasoline for your vehicle.As we had the moped i did find lots of easy to get to deserted beaches, so you're not trapped with this one.You just have to get out and explore.The reef was disappointing and although the guides will tell you koh samuis reefs were killed off by elninio, these were definitely destroyed by dynamite fishing methods that used to go on.You can even see where the blasts happened, so the elninio story is a bit of a farce.Take easy days and see them at leisure.The religious sites are all worth a look and we discovered that the mummified monk has a twin in another village but this one doesn't wear ray ban sunglasses.Big buddha gets all the travel press attention but it's probably the least interesting of all.The food markets were great and if you've got the michael palin gene to try some of the food, we thought it was great.Just look at where you are buying from to judge hygiene for yourself, although we didn't have any tummy problems at all throughout the holiday.If street food isn't your thing tesco lotus(Lamai beach and chewang)Is highly recommended.You'll see some odd things in there!The massage girls will scream out their"Massage massage"Cries like wailing tabbies but they are harmless and shouldn't be seen as part of the sex trade.They are just trying to earn a living sorting out our aches and pains.The lady boys in chaweng had better figures than the women and i have to say were slightly more refined.I have my reservations about using animals in tourist traps and although we avoided the zoo and monkey zoo the elephants that do the trekking are really loved by their owners and well looked after.Watch out though as one threw a palm branch at me!If you want to see monkeys find them in the wild.They give off a hooting sound and when you hear this look for a tree shaking somewhere near you.They shout their abuse and are gone before you have time to get the camera out but a sighting in itself was lovely.The magic garden(80bt entry)Was a very peacefully little valley filled with ornate statues and a cascade stream running though it.Only really a half hour or so visit but a nice place to climb around.The only place we visited that was a total let down was the butterfly garden, opposite the hotel.Butterfly not butterflies is the main point here.Someone has obviously let them all out as the only residents were a few pretty blue ones that weren't really that special.It became a bit of a joke with other tourists in there to see who might actually see something different but none of us did.Its just an overgrown bit of jungle under some netting and definitely not a butterfly garden.The two main towns are lamai and chaweng both have lovely beaches but full of hawkers and a lot of hastle.The towns have the shops when you need them but compared with the rest of the island they really are two big noisy pricey blots on the landscape. "Nightmare in benedorm", at night.The cool bar walk down to the hotel beach, turn left along the sand and look for the line of candles showing you the way.The hotel drinks prices will send you on this journey but you will be glad you did when you sit back with your beer or cocktail on the beach.Nothing glamorous just a coconut and bamboo structure but the atmosphere that oozes out of this little establishment is priceless.Run by two locals, un duan who give you a first hand experience of dealing with the locals.Lovely couple who will do all that they can to make sure you're enjoying yourselves.Don't fall for the toothpick trick they try on any new customers and if un wants to play cards, you will loose!The pack we played with had about 87 cards in it, 4 of them being the 10 or hearts for some reason.Drink prices are what they should be and the huge cocktail list is very popular.You can eat here and the food is sent by moped from a restaurant that is very close called the barracuda. (Didn't eat at the barracuda ourselves but many did and loved the place)Also worth noting that un and duan run the travel agency and are just about the best place to go to hire vehicles, mopeds etc and arrange a trip for half the price of anywhere else locally.This bar is one of the reasons we are going back next year and they really helped make the holiday very special.You'll love them!We met some really lovely people at the cool bar.All ages but all playing together and having fun in the sun!If you're the loud abusive type then this isn't the bar for you!Apart from the hotels prices issues, 99% of it all really was fantastic and koh samui is a real gem of a place.When you land at the airport get your camera out, as you wont find an arrivals lounge like it and even has a tropical fish tank in the gents loos.It felt safe, looked stunning and to see islanders who really have very little to call their own smile the way these people do was inspiring. (Bit of a tip when they hold their hands in prayer to acknowledge you, don't over do it in reply.Either just nod and smile of give a slightly less gestured copy of what hey have done.Over do it and they wont be offended but you will look a bit of an idiot and have missed the point of what they just did)Have fun we did! We stayed in a garden villa which was very nicely decorated although it did leak wen we had heavy rain.We did ask to have it fixed 3 times but to no avail so just went with it in the end.Un and dwong are a fantastic couple and really made sure that everyone was having a good time.Its really inexpensive to drinkl and you can order food which is delivered from baracuda.They really made our holiday with their hospitality and we met some great http://www.lepetitfournil.co.uk/ people there too. On the southern tip of koh samui, near the traditional fishing village of hua tanon, is the centara villas samui.With its own private frontage on natien beach., the resort villas cascade down a hillside to the fine white sand of the Gulf of Thailand.

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