Chaweng — Attraction in Ko Samui

Chaweng is noisy, dirty and hassly. Expect to be constantly harassed by hawkers on the beach (if you're asleep they will stand between you and the sunshine to wake you up); the beach and the sea is full of litter, especially at weekends with vast amounts of plastic bottles, flip flops etc left over from the beach parties, but also wood with nails sticking out and for some reason many light bulbs.

Prices are high, you will be completely ripped off by aggressive taxi drivers who charge a minimum of 300thb to drive any distance, and to top it off you will have to endure parades of vans trawling around the streets with phenomenally loud blaring speakers advertising boxing matches (we got mightily tired of the Rocky theme tune...) and beach parties.

If that's your thing, fine, but we were there as a family and absolutely hated it!

On a positive, the food at the night market is great, as long as you can cope with the out of tune, very loud band that plays...

If you are considering staying here, I would seriously reconsider. Me and my partner stayed here on the recommendation of everyone on tiktok, only to arrive and be severely disappointed. It has as much Thai vibe as Scarborough (UK). It’s very westernised, full of people in every store trying to sell tack or fake designer items. You will be lucky to find an ATM that works among the dirty streets.

It does come alive at night, with a great nightlife, but that’s about it. Even the much-raved-about beach leaves much to be desired. The sand is littered with plastic, and full of people, with not a moments peace at all.

This evening we visited Coco Tams in Fisherman’s Village, about 20 minutes away from Chaweng, and had an immediately much...

The beach is kept quite clean, and is quite gently-shelving. It's a great place for an early-morning walk. Post-COVID, the town is pretty run-down, with a higher proportion of businesses closed than you'll find in other beach places in Samui. In its heyday, a busy nightlife place, but a bit too...