Nora Buri Resort & Spa, Koh Samui — Hotel in Ko Samui

Upon arriving from the airport - the very first impression that you will get is that the place is beautiful. They store your luggage in the holding area and you are shown upstairs to a lobby. They wanted to separate me from my passport and credit card but I went to reception so that they could take copies of my information and put a 2000 bhat hold on my credit card while I syood there and then returned to the seating area for my refreshing welcome drink.

I had a rough start at the beginning that made me question my hotel choice. But the manager on duty very kindly listen to my concerns about my comfort level and my safety. If you are a solo traveling female rest assured that there's someone here who will listen and address them appropriately.

However, once I was finally shown to my room my  pervious issues all melted away. The room accommodations are beautiful and beyond description. I knew what to expect and was still blown away. The view is gorgeous. I recommend upgrading to the front pool rooms. Although the beachfront Seaview villas have direct access viewing to the water, you are still able to hear the ocean from the beachside villas. My room mey and also exceeded every expectation of being able to sit and listen to the waves all day and night.

The pool water is very clean and well maintained as well as the chairs and beach loungers provided in your pool area. Facing the sunrise is a spectacular thing to see and you should wake up early at least once to view during your stay and don't miss out on an evening swim staring up at the stars. Having the ocean breeze makes staying in your room and skipping outside activities so easy.

The bed is comfortable with two pillows on each side facing out to the ocean. There is a slider right in front of your bed and windows surrounding the entirety of your side and front area that are as tall as the slider giving you a floor to ceiling feeling. The TV is decently size but you're not here for that you're here for the pool.  I don't know if the water is purposely heated or due to being in direct sunlight it's it's cool never cold water.

There's a room safe, two pairs of slippers, two pair of pool flip flops, two waffle robes, and a couple of umbrellas. The stocked mini bar has a couple of  sodas, beers and tonic waters - including miniature items of Johnnie Walker, Gordon's gin, and Smirnoff vodka.

There is a large soaking tub a separate indoor shower and a separate outdoor shower.  The water is hot to a very comfortable level. You're provided all the basic amenities that you would expect at a five-star resort in the bathroom except for a seat bidet although there is a separate hose (disappointing) There are also two large beach towels including a provided beach basket.

I had 6 different spa treatments and Although I have mixed feelings about each one I would still recommend the experience. But I would skip any wraps as wrapping you in a sheet just gives you a wet sticky sheet soaking up all the treatment off your body. Spa treatments are done in a separate area that has a separate shower steam room changing area from the tables.

I also had the breakfast one morning and had room service several times and can say that the foods are tasty.

I anticipate that I will be making a reservation for a longer stay next time, 4 nights is not enough. They are also working with a local hospital so definitely contact them if you would like to mix a health checkup and spa wellness with your stay.

Negatives: The Wi-Fi is spotty and I had to log in several times. It's not strong enough to do any streaming of your shows from home. The hotel is not within walking distance to any local shopping or convenience stores. It does provide a single 2:00 p.m. drop off and a single 2:15 pm pickup. Also the do not disturb red light button and calling is not respected and housekeeping will still come into your room. Pricing of the soda/beer are high. Worth cost of roundtrip Bolt - bonus you can get liquids of your own choosing. Indoor shower are in need of a...

Nora Buri is a fantastic resort hotel, with fabulous and courteous staff and great amenities. The views, the serenity, the space, the service… and nothing disappointed us. However, this review focuses on the wedding service, with our experiences dated to March 2019 (we have no idea how the pandemic has since left the hotel’s service). In fact, this review focuses mostly on the qualities of the wedding planner, Michelle, as she was what made all our hopes and visions come true.

We were recommended Michelle as a wedding planner by a colleague, having had their wedding at Nora Beach. We had reached-out to numerous wedding planners in various destinations, however, Michelle’s response was the only one with speed and enthusiasm. Within minutes of meeting her on a video call, we knew she was capable of achieving everything we wished for and we trusted her.

In the months leading-up to the wedding, we turned into the clients-from-hell, making all sorts of bespoke requests and rarely agreeing to the standard offerings. Despite this, Michelle took it in her stride and never became overtly frustrated with us. She listened to and respected all of the minute details we asked her to deal with, taking on board the significance that they held for us in making our day, OUR day. In the end, we had an almost fully-bespoke wedding, in which we had at least tweaked everything, but in the most part had fully customised the features, from the decoration to the musicians to the food, and Michelle even helped us to source very specific props for the ceremony and reception. We can’t imagine that many venues or planners would allow so much flexibility or accommodate so many changes into their own slick setup.

Her regular, on-time, and reassuring communications kept us as close to calm as possible in the lead-up to our arrival at Nora Buri. Once there, her magic really became apparent, and we witnessed in her interactions with other staff just how respected she is, and how she operates with leadership and calm decisiveness. That’s not to say she is all-business; in-person, she is really warm, caring, genuine, and you see the playful glint in her eye. She’s great to be around.

Her familiarity with the Samui community of wedding service providers is clearly second-to-none; all of our providers we chose to deal with directly, yet she knew them all well and was able to pick-up with them seamlessly and intuitively to our preferences. She conducted every component of the wedding day masterfully, and everything went to plan. She also made sure the hotel staff took great care of us prior to and even after the day.

Some notable mentions, to indicate just how committed and caring she is: just days before the wedding, the bride wanted her nails re-done, and Michelle managed to get an immediate appointment at a salon and even arranged transport; even more special was the hours spent away from the hotel and at a clinic with us, while the bride was examined and treated for a kidney infection, with Michelle making all the arrangements for it all to be expedited to not impact the wedding.

Whilst Michelle was the orchestrator extraordinaire, it wouldn’t have been so flawlessly special without the dedication of the hotel staff, at all levels. We knew that the staff had been briefed about who we and our guests were, and that we would be given extra-special attention, however, it was always delivered with an air of sincerity and genuine care to make sure we were happy. The staff who assisted in the wedding day were great in their presentation and attitude (none of them looked bored or spoiled our photos with odd expressions). The care and attention was so impressive.

Nora Buri are a rarity in making sure that there are at least several days between weddings, sometimes a whole week, so that the special attention the wedding couple and guests receive is not diluted, and there is no risk of a ‘conveyor-belt...

Nora Buri markets itself as a 5 star resort. It isn’t. Staying here greatly diminished how much we enjoyed Samui, and we encourage you to stay elsewhere.

For all the negatives we had during our stay at Nora Buri (and there were far too many to list them all in this review), the hotel does deserve some credit. First, the view is incredible. The pleasure of staring into the Gulf of Thailand from your own private pool cannot be understated. Also, the room service was delivered very quickly. Finally, the spa and massage experience was lovely. The masseuses were good at their jobs and the experience ended with them opening the curtain to reveal a gorgeous view of the water.

Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives. The worst part of the Nora Buri was how unclean it was. The bathroom was revolting. Half the tiles were moldy and the entire bathroom reeked of mold. The furniture, including the lamp shades and couch, were ripped and discolored. The ceilings in one of the restaurants, the Rice Barge, was covered in square feet of spider webs. It made it impossible to enjoy our meal.

This leads me to the truly disgusting food at this hotel. Despite the menu being short and uninspired, Nora Buri could not execute on what little they offered. The alcohol menu was quite long, but they were out of everything we ordered until we were left with only bottom shelf liquor and wine. They had a few specialty cocktails on the menu and they may have been the grossest alcoholic beverages I have had in my life.

We understand that on any island one can expect to encounter insects - even at a resort. But Nora Buri did not take its own advice. The door from the bathroom to the outdoors left a several centimeter gap in the frame for bugs to enter the bathroom. Upon arrival, there were many bugs, both dead and alive, in the bathroom. The bathroom had spider webs in the corners and bugs crawling around the bathtub and vanity on a daily basis. The worst part was that one particular type of bug liked to congregate between the toilet bowl and toilet seat. This meant that when we opened the toilet seat, bugs would scurry all over the toilet.

The bathroom was also always hot. Our room had a single air conditioning unit in the bedroom space. Because we had to keep the door between the bedroom and bathroom shut to keep the bugs out, the bathroom got no cool air and was always stuffy. The air conditioner in the bedroom had two modes: 1. Off. And 2. Arctic gust. Because the air conditioner pointed directly at the bed, nights were either far too hot or frigid - there was no in between. Nora Buri requires you insert your room key to use the air conditioner and electricity. Because they only provided us with one key, we would return to the hotel after a long, hot day out on the island to find our room even warmer than it was outside.

Several other aspects of our stay were unpleasant. On the day that it rained the lobby floor was covered in towels to mop up the drippings because the lobby roof was full of holes. Also, the hotel kept all stored luggage right in front of the lobby. Not only was this an eyesore each time we entered the hotel, but when it was our turn to leave our luggage we did not feel like it was secure. Further, we were disappointed to learn that the free shuttle around the island is really one van with a limited number of seats that goes to only one location at one set time per day. Finally, throughout our trip we found that the staff failed to complete basic requests, such as delivering a laundry bag or maids closing the door to keep bugs out of the room.

Overall, Nora Buri is a dump with a great view. We appreciate all the effort the staff put in during our stay as they tried to be attentive and friendly, but we cannot recommend anyone stay at this hotel. Basic cleanliness is a bare minimum expectation for any accommodation, especially one that advertises itself as a 5...