Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort — Hotel in Ko Samui

Summary: Beautiful, rustic, reasonably priced 5-star hotel that tries to cater to all demographics, with wonderful service.

Who went? 2 adults, 2 children (11 and 7), with one of the party vegetarian.

Bedrooms: We stayed in a family room, and this was probably my biggest disappointment. The 2nd bedroom seemed to be located where the balcony should have been, meaning there was no natural air available. For a family of 4, there was only one cupboard for us to put our clothes in, while the room also felt quite dark and small for our family. The bathroom was huge, with a single room for a very large Jacuzzi-style bath, separate shower, and toilet. Each of the 3 rooms (2 bedrooms and bathrooms) had a separate air conditioning unit.Sleep quality: Luxurious bed and comfortable pillows; however, I don’t think we got a single good night's sleep. This is due to the hotel being set in a beautiful tropical setting - meaning lots of insects, crickets, and other strange sounds I have never heard. Listen to the video I have uploaded - this sound was constant from about 3 am onwards.

Location: Under 10 minutes away from Samui airport by car. The hotel offered a complimentary transfer to the airport which was a nice touch. Also, 5 minutes away from Chaweng Beach Road - a very lively area full of bars, restaurants, and shopping. It did remind me of an 18-30s destination! A taxi would cost around 300 THB, or the baht bus would be around 200 THB. This is also walkable - but not during the April heat! Fisherman’s village was about 10 minutes away by Taxi and cost 400 THB.

Restaurants: Food at the hotel was very good and not extortionate. More expensive than local restaurants, but given it’s a 5-star hotel with a captive audience, they haven’t massively overcharged. For example, a can of fizz was 100 THB, and cocktails were around 400 THB. The only thing I found pricey was the BBQ night, which seemed pricey at over 2500 THB pp. We ate at the beach restaurant most days for lunch but ventured out for dinner to one of the nearby villages. There was a kids menu available also, and no issues with ordering vegetarian or vegan food.

Breakfast: Excellent buffet choice covering Western and Asian cuisine. You could also choose to order at your table, and you could get a cooked-to-order meal. We particularly enjoyed the fresh Dosa!No escape from the heat: One thing to note is the hotel is totally open, and no closed air-conditioned rooms to escape to other than your bedroom. This can make breakfast a little uncomfortable if you go late!

Kids club: We visited once; kids thought it was too babyish and never returned.

Pool: Large unheated rectangular infinity pool overlooking a stunning beach. The water was a constant 1.3-4m with a separate 0.6M area for little children (unshaded). As the pool was not too deep, it got very warm pretty quickly and felt like a bath in the afternoon.

Beach: Very clean, calm, golden sands. The hotel provided a paddleboard and canoe to use at no additional cost - just needed to sign a waiver.

Staff: Excellent. Couldn’t do enough for you. Shout out to Pat who really provided excellent service. It is worth pointing out that in the later part of our stay, service did notably go downhill - they seemed short-staffed. We discovered this was because many people were on leave due to the forthcoming water festival. This meant we experienced the following first-world issues - our rooms were not until nearly 6 pm, we waited nearly 45 minutes for drinks at the pool, and the turn-down service didn’t happen on 2 days.

Would I recommend to others? I think this is a stunning hotel that was designed for couples and honeymooners but is trying to cater for families. I would recommend this to couples and elderly folks outside of term time. The place was busy with families, but the hotel needs to do a bit more to keep the younger children engaged. To be fair, we did a lot of excursions but if you were planning on not leaving the hotel with your family for a few days, I think they...

I stayed at Anantara as part of a brief but wholly enjoyable trip to Thailand.

I was travelling with some friends from Bangkok and they were getting an earlier flight from Bangkok, I managed to change mine to a similar time but not the same flight as them, around 3pm. Originally I wasn’t due to the hotel until 9 pm but a quick email exchange before the sudden change in plan at Bangkok airport as I departed, was reassuringly acknowledged as I landed an hour later, some 5 hours early with a friendly face from Anantara to greet me at Samui airport.

The warmth and hospitality extended throughout my stay and the check in was smooth and calming. Anantara is set in an enchanting authentic space, with trees around and lots of wood and greenery overlooking the sea. A really quiet and restful place, a welcome calm and retreat amongst some of the more colourful sights, welcome rest for a weary traveller looking to recharge.

I was driven on the buggy to my room with sea views and it suited everything I could need. A huge large double bath and shower room forming part of the bathroom, with a very large double bed, four poster bed complete with the standard exquisite soft white bed linen that you expect in a resort of this quality. All amenities in room met as expected and after a shower and quick change of clothes proceeded to join my friends at the main bar and restaurant over looking the pool and the sea.

You can call the buggy service anytime in the resort, but walking is also very easy, no more than 5 minutes from one side to the other.

For dinner there were four of us and we tried much of the menu, a Thai focussed menu with some clear western alternative to accommodate for all tastes.

A lovely meal and cocktails were enjoyed near the pool watching a fire rope display on the beach as the nearly full moon captivated us, the sea and calming noises just metres away.

After this great evening, the moon guided us back to our rooms and saw us retire early.

Breakfast is very generous with plenty of global options to cater for all. The early part of the day was spent enjoying the extensive spa and pool to relax.

For lunch we went into town which is walking distance but a very easy cab ride too. The porters at the entrance were really friendly and a cab was always available in minutes to ferry us wherever needed.

It is the same in the town, with plenty of cabs around to pick you up and take you home. There are other resorts around which give you plenty of reassurances of the safety of the area. All the prices and fares are standardised, with opting to tip the equivalent of 5 usd received extremely warmly by the grateful locals.

Our next two days were spent enjoying the facilities and exploring the local area, with a trip to the island of pangang planned. We checked out for one night, staying on pangang, returning the night after to anatara.

Returning back to anatara was great, they held my main luggage there so I only had to take a small bag island hopping, and when I returned, again we arrived early and my room was made available quickly after a short trip via the pool.

This was my final night and I was extremely happy to enjoy the delightful bed and warm hospitality of the staff all over the anatara resort. Always a smile and nothing too much trouble, this is a well run and well thought out resort that will leave you in a great place to switch off and enjoy yourself.

I highly recommend a stay here, you will not be disappointed. It is a restful retreat, allowing healing and relaxation. You will truly feel rested after...

We had a short stay at Anantara Lawana as part of a mattress run in Koh Samui to compare & contrast various properties and better steer our future stays on the island. There are two Anantaras in Koh Samui and I picked Lawana because I thought there would be better potential for valuable upgrades as GHA Black guests than at the Bophut property which divides its room types in too many categories. Not only the upgrade turned out to be quite good at Lawana but other features of this hotel such as service and dining were strong points as well so I can recommend this hotel.

When going to Koh Samui, Chaweng is the place to be. Anantara Lawana is not on Chaweng Beach but it could hardly be any closer. It is at the southern end of Nora Beach and Chaweng starts at the tip of the land where Nora Beach ends.

I booked the Deluxe Plunge Pool room type which is one category above entry level and I received an upgrade as GHA Black guest to the Garden Pool Villa. The villa had traditional Thai design (like many Anantara properties) instead of generic look and feel of some other resorts. The room was not new and modern but I found the resort and the room to be well maintained and in good condition. The living room could be separated from the bedroom with doors but it was mostly for privacy because the wall panel did not extend all the way up to the cathedral ceilings. There was lots of outdoor space with a wooden patio around the private pool, some chairs were in the sun but there was also a covered seating area under the large sala. Both the toilet and the shower had a large window overlooking the pool area which provided great natural light inside the bathroom but because the vegetation at the end of the outdoor space was not as dense as it could be, people walking to their villa on the footpath could partially see us therefore it was better to draw the blinds down. There was also another shower outdoor which is a nice feature of tropical resorts; that shower was completely private.

One evening we had the private beach dinner; the food during our dinner was good and service was excellent with various staff members stopping by to ensure we had a good time. Breakfast was also better than I expected at this hotel. They no longer have a buffet due to covid but the a la carte menu was excellent with delicious local options such as Kanom Jeen with crab.

At Anantara Lawana guests can have a private butler, which is normally not found at hotels of this caliber; it contributed to Anantara punching above its weight in terms of service. Our butler visited us during our private dinner, also greeted us at breakfast, and proactively called Vana Belle (our next destination on our tour of Samui) on the day of our departure to find out at what time our room would be ready and she informed us during breakfast. It was clear that they tried to get ahead of guest needs and provided good service.

Overall we enjoyed our stay at Anantara Lawana. The location, food, and quality of the villa were all satisfactory and the price tag was competitive with other (larger) hotel chains. The one drawback of Anantara is that most rooms / villas do not have sea views – for views then it is necessary to book the higher categories of rooms at a higher price. So for people who highly value views then there are probably other hotels which might be a better fit but for everything else Anantara...