Review: Conrad Koh Samui – Check-in and Room

I was coming to the Conrad after a two night stay at the InterContinental so I arranged transportation for the ride over. The two hotels are only about a 15 minute drive apart so it’s a good way to combine nights with two hotel programs if you’re looking for a long getaway.

1. Singapore Airlines Business Class LAX-NRT-SIN
2. Review: SilverKris Lounge at SIN
3. Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-BKK
4. Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Bangkok
5. Conrad Bangkok
6. InterContinental Koh Samui
7. Conrad Koh Samui Review Part 1 (Check-in and Room)
8. Conrad Koh Samui Part 2 (Breakfast and Resort)

How I Booked the Room

Early last year, Hilton announced a massive devaluation of their points program. Thankfully they at least gave a bit of a warning, so I used the 100K Hilton points I had in my account at the time to book two nights (50K each at the time) at this hotel. I booked it about 10 months in advance to get good availability and made sure it was the Winter to get good weather.

This hotel now goes for between 80K and 95K points per night, but getting Hilton points isn’t all that hard. There are multiple credit cards they offer, many with no fee and with bonuses between 40K and 75K. You can also get the Hilton Honors reserve card for two free weekend nights, and an additional free night after $10K spending. The Reserve Card is the way to go in my opinion since it gives you Gold status (and thus free breakfast) along with the two nights. The $95 fee is worth it, but there’s now an offer for a statement credit that will make the fee disappear.

Review

Just as with the InterContinental, the lobby of the Conrad Koh Samui was open air with a spectacular view of the ocean. There was a huge fountain outside and only a few seats inside, but that wasn’t really a big deal considering how few hotel guests there actually are.

We were asked to take a seat facing the ocean while our documents were prepared. We were given a cold tea drink and cold towel to enjoy while we waited, and the drink was actually so good that I asked for another. After a short time we were brought to the main desk to receive our room keys and an overview of the resort, but check-in was actually completed in the room.

This resort is a bit unique because of how it’s built. The resort is built on a huge cliff, and each room is its own villa with no common walls and stands on huge stilts to allow each villa a proper view of the ocean. Because of this design, the main path around the resort has extremely steep inclines that zig zag from left to right. This means that it’s too far to walk comfortably, so instead the hotel employs an army of free, on-demand golf carts for guests to get around the property. That’s how we were taken to our villa, which was villa 117 (the lowest row of villas).

The room was very spacious and very well appointed. It’s certainly the nicest beach resort room that I’ve ever had, and you can easily see why the hotel gets such rave reviews. There was a King size bed that faced the “backyard” and overlooked the ocean, and was perfectly positioned to view the sunset. In front of the bed was a sitting area with a small couch, coffee table, and a 42” TV. To the side of the bed was a work desk with the massively over-priced spa menu.

The bed itself was very comfortable, and in the middle of the room was a ceiling fan. It does get warm, but there’s really no need to turn on the fan if you know how to use a thermostat. There were wood floors throughout the bedroom and the whole room just felt comfy.

The bathroom was even more impressive than the bedroom, and just about as spacious. The double sinks were situated between the tub and the shower, and the massive tub had an equally amazing view of the ocean as the bedroom did. Hanging next to the tub were two bathrobes and a small TV in case the ocean view gets a little boring. The shower featured a rain shower head along with the standard shower head and was very large and covered entirely in marble. Even the shower had a glimpse of the ocean between the two mirrors above the sinks.

Adjacent to the shower was the toilet which was behind a glass door. On the other side of the shower was a walk-in closet with space for luggage and a safe. The closet was bigger than any other hotel closet I can recall.

The star of the villa was the backyard, which featured not just amazing views of the ocean and nearby islands, but also a huge, private, 30-foot-long infinity pool. This backyard comes complete with two lounge chairs with towels and an umbrella shade and, in case you don’t like to lounge, there are regular chairs and seats on the other side.

The pool, and the whole villa, is designed with privacy in mind. You can’t really see into any of the villas next door (unless you really tried hard) and the only way someone could catch a glimpse of you is if they were on the villa level above and chose to look down from the edge of their pool, and even that’s a long ways away. Basically, you have as private of a room and personal pool as you can hope for aside from an overwater bungalow.

The room was amazing, and in a place like this you’re likely ordering room service for most of your meals. Given that, there’s really only a few reasons to leave your room: the “private” island, which I’ll mention in part 2, the fitness center, and hotel restaurant/spa. Otherwise, you have your own pool overlooking the ocean so don’t really need to make use of the community pool. There isn’t much of a beach at this resort either, so there’s no point in going out there besides to check it out.

Oh, and when the sun finally sets and darkness falls, you’ll want to be back in your room. Don’t forget that you’re on a tropical island with all kinds of bugs out there, and your “backyard” pool area is most definitely not immune to them. Once it was dark, the creepy crawlies were out and about just outside our door. You definitely will get mosquito bites if you’re hanging outside for too long at night!

Note that I explained the significant differences between the InterContinental Samui and Conrad Koh Samui in a previous post in case you’re trying to decide which is more appropriate for your stay. I plan on doing a full review of the InterContinental Samui Ban resort soon as well.

I’ll discuss the rest of the resort including the “private” island, beach, community pool, fitness center, and breakfast in Part 2.