The Island seems awash with resort style accommodation. Are there more natural places to stay? I'm thinking thatched huts such as Jungle Beach in Vietnam and Bohol Beach Club in the Phillipines. Maybe the island is so developed these days the only choice is a resort?
Grateful for any advice. We are not looking for the cheapest lodging - just the most natural.
Thanks
Pajos
You are 10 years too late for Samui. Try Phangan.
Lots of simple places there still, especially on the east cost ( not Had Rin ). Than Sadet, Bottle, Haad Khom are great.
Not too late for these. Boom Bay Bungalows at Banthai Beach. No booking, walk in only. But not so busy you wouldnt get a bungalow.
You may be right Westwood, but the beaches I mention are probably better than Banthai. If it was great, it'd have been overdeveloped long ago.
That's the only reason Mae Nam still has low key development.
Have you ever been to Banthai Beach? If you have you will know its far from overdeveloped. Maenam is the place thats getting developed very quickly. Because we've been every year for a while, we notice the difference. Along Banthai Beach itself there is one vacant section available for building on. There is another one but it belongs to a member of the royal family.
Any development is further back towards the road with most of it along roads that run off the road to the beach. There are still only a handful of restaurants (no bars) and a couple of convenience stores and a 7/11 on the main road. Its only been in the last 12 months that was built along with an ATM. Does that sound overdeveloped to you?
Hi Westwood. You appear to have misunderstood my last post. I was saying that it is probably undeveloped, but possibly because it's not as great as other beaches which have been overdeveloped. So we are in agreement that it's undeveloped. Never having been to it I can't say whether or not that it IS not a great beach, but that's been my experience- only beaches that are not so great or very difficult to get to are not destroyed by the developers.
As for Mae Nam- on my last visit it was still relatively undeveloped, though that may change as developers run out of better beaches to ruin.
Your experience is dead wrong in this case. Maybe you need to go see for yourself what the score is. As for Maenam, we were last there in Feb and it had gone ahead even in the 12 months leading up to it.