Koh Samui

The southern region of Thailand, which stretches for hundreds of miles along the Malay Peninsula, abounds with stunning beaches and scores of tropical islands. During the last 20 years tourism has opened up much of this area with new roads, better ferries and frequent direct airlinks to islands like Phuket or Koh Samui.

For several years now, Koh Samui has been undergoing a rapid transformation from a budget holiday destination to an upmarket resort island. Visitors from Europe and the USA helped to create and drive the island's real estate boom. What began as a few individuals buying small plots to build a holiday home on has now become a fully-fledged industry on the island.

In the last 10 years both international and Thai investors have accelerated the island's development and thus changed what was once a laid-back coconut-strewn fishing island into a mid-market destination and more recently is aiming even higher into the branded world of high-end luxury. A recent key growth component has been the opening of the airport to Thai Airways and a handful of overseas carriers. 

On the northwest corner of Koh Samui, between Nathon and Maenam, lies Bang Po Beach. The beach is very nice and the calm waters in this area make the sea attractive for enjoying the water. The beach itself offers clean sand with palm trees at the edge. This is one of the better locations for snorkeling because of the shallow coral reefs nearby.

There is no village in this area and there are a minimum number of small stores interspersed in the different housing developments. There is also no tourist shopping. Bang Po for the most part has a large number of private homes and small neighborhoods along the beach as well as on the other side of the Ring Road.

Close to the port of Nathon is Maenam Beach. Very much unlike any of the island's popular beaches, it has earned the moniker Samui's "undiscovered beach", although the first ever tourist bungalows on the island were built there.

Maenam Beach is a four kilometer stretch of firm, clean sand and sparkling water and it’s a calm place, the main road runs a long way back off the beach, so there is very little in the way of traffic noise for much of the length of the beach.

Located in the middle of the beach is an old village, a traditionnal Thai village with 70 years old wooden houses and shops. The town is small but most of restaurants, dive shops and travel agents are concentrated in this area. 

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luxury real estates Koh Samui