Impiana Resort Ko Samui

My partner and i were looking for a luxury hotel without the huge price tag and that's what we got at The Impiana Resort! We intended to stay here for one week and then move to another island, however we loved it so much we didn't want to leave and whilst there booked to stay on here for the second week. For the first 7 nights we booked to stay in a Deluxe Room, which was gorgeous, a massive bed, lounge area, good size bathroom and a nice balcony. For our second week we downgraded to a standard and although it was still a lovely stay it was a lot smaller. I would recommend for anyone wanting to stay here to pay the little bit extra for a Deluxe! On arrival we were greeted with a cool drink and given a complimentary foot massage - it was heaven and the ladies working in their spa were so sweet, polite and very interesting to speak with. Every time we needed anything a member of staff was there for us. We didn't use the pool that much as you have the beach on your doorstep but it was beautiful and at perfect temperature. The beach is gorgeous, be aware you will get pestered every 5mins by sellers but you will get that everywhere on Ko Samui. You have a massage hut right there where my partner and i had a wonderful massage on the beach by the lovely ladies working there and i also treated myself to a manicure (which wasn't very good but what do you want for a couple of quid!). The only downside, which is no fault to the hotel, was the restaurant, the food & service was excellent but it seemed not many people ate there so we tended to eat out too. The 2 nights we did eat there though they had wonderful shows on and after dinner you could head to the beach to light a lantern and make a wish, the hotel staff come down with you and explain what it is all about - very romantic for you and your partner (i thought it was anyway!). We did a few tours which we booked through the hotel - Elephant Treking and A trip to another island it was all very easy to book and the staff helped in recommending where to go and what to see! Overall i thought this was a superb hotel and def worth a stay. I would def stay there again.

The hotel, the staff , the beach, the spa, the food, etc, etc, was excellent!

Having only been home from this beautiful place for a few days, we really can appreciate what a wonderful

vacation we had there.

Everyone at the Impiana always has a smile on their face and are so helpful and considerate.

We loved our room, a deluxe room on the second floor with a beauiful view at a really good price. And from a woman's standpoint, the spa and the sweet ladies there were fantastic and what a deal!

The hotel is a about a mile away from Chaweng Beach which sort of remind us Californians of Tijuana and that is not a complement.. Spent 2 hours at Chaweng and were happy to go back to "our" nice little hotel.

Went here for my honeymoon, Got upgraded to one of thier cotages. The welcome was great as they had our bed filled with rose petals, and a basket of fruit. I mean we where on the beach!!

Another reason why I loved it, was that it was out of the city, cost about 100 Baht to with a taxi to get to city, so no loud noise and no vans riding past with speakers blaring "Tonight, tonight, get your kick boxing tickets for the champion of the champion kick-boxing fight, tonight tonight!!!" Those vans drove me crazy when I went to the city.

Okay, one qualification -- if you're looking for nightlife, don't stay here. I mean, if you want to stumble back from the bars at night, stay in town. Otherwise, you'll love this place. During the day, nothing but beautiful beach and sun. At night, the restaurants next door (Beach Love) as well as the hotel restaurant are more than adequate.

Only real complaint from our 4 days was that the septic system in the buglalows could use some work -- at times the smell of raw sewage was overpowering. But I must say, even with this occasional problem, I'm glad I stayed here and not in the busy, dirty town of chaweng.

to sum up, stay here as long as it remains cheaper than the imperial samui or other resort/hotels on chaweng noi -- beautiful beach, good food, and relatively cheap.

I have just returned from one of the best holidays I have ever enjoyed consisting of five nights at The Grand China Princess Hotel in Bangkok and ten nights at the Impiana in Koh Samui. We chose Thailand as my elder son now lives in Tasmania with my daughter-in-law and 18 month old granddaughter. The location was about half way to travel for all of us. I had my wife and three others of my children with me and the arrangements were perfect.

Bangkok of course is manic but I wouldnt have missed a minute of it and can certainly give my thoughts to anyone interested there but here I wish to comment on Ko Samui. A more beautiful location would be hard to find and more beautiful friendly, hospitable and obliging people would be even harder to find. As for the prices. A whole grilled sea bass for £4.20 which you would pay £15.00 for here.

The Impiana was about our fourth choice but we got very poor responses to our enquiries from the others we approached. There was a mix up admittedly with one of our rooms on arrival but that was more our fault than theirs and they put it right immediately.

The hotel is out of town at the end of Chaweng Noi beach and is all the better for it. The beach is lovely and the Hotel backs right on to it and is also close on to the road in front. You do need transport but car hire is cheap and plentiful and taxi's no more than 100baht to most places.

We were there the last two weeks in August and most of the time it was sunny and baking hot. We had a broad based party with two over 60's, two 30 somethings married, three in their twenties and a toddler and it was right for us all. If you dont want the night life of Chaweng then its not compulsory but the beach restaurants down from the hotel are just something else.

Rooms range from standard doubles to suites and bungalows, most with sea views. There were a number with views over the road at the front of the hotel which I would avoid as they must also be noisy as the road is quite busy. Without a doubt I would go back.

Just came back from a week's holiday staying at this hotel. So glad we went with this particular hotel as it just made our stay in Koh Samui all that much better. I would highly recommend this particular hotel for several reasons. Firstly is that is situated on Chaweng Noi which meant the hotel pretty much had a beach to itself - & a beautiful one at that! It also meant that we were staying away from the busy town centre (which may I add was only a short 3-5 min taxi ride away). So it was peaceful & quiet. The beach is beautiful, sea very lovely. You can spend all day on the beach loungers, getting a massage on the beach. Or town is very close to keep you busy with all the other great things to do in Koh Samui, like shop! We stayed in probably the cheapest room, but it was nice & adequate, afterall you only sleep in your room! Next to the resort/hotel are several restaurants along the beach, so we ate there most nights taking turns amongst them. Great food & so cheap (much better than town). The staff are extra friendly, as all Thai people tend to be. Only ate at the hotel for breakfasts which were good. Pool is small but very lovely. The hotel staff will organise day trips for you or a jeep to hire for a day or so. One last thing to mention is the beach bar - happy hour from 4 till 7p,. "Buy one free one" as they say. This was a great spot to meet other couples if you want to & chat to alot of the guests. So all in all - it was excellent !

Just returned from thsi hotel and thought that it was great. Stayed in room 509 ( a deluxe room) and it was lovely, very big and has a great view of the beach.

Staff all very helpful and polite. Lovely food served at the hotel although didn't seem like a lot of people ate there, only saw lots of people at breakfast time and sunbathing on the loungers during the day.

All in all i would go back to this hotel and recommend it to others.

i have to recommend(highly) room 510, the beachfront suite at impiana-we spent six nights in heaven because of this paticular room. the swimming pool is disappointing- photos on net are deceptive but the sea is two steps from the room-this makes up for anything else the hotel lacks. beach lovers will thank me for this gem- it is awesome! note: only this room- the rest are not worth a mention.

Booked at the last minute, didn't really get the chance to do much research, but I can agree with the other, very in depth review.

We loved this place, and although we were a little unlucky with a tropical storm for a couple of days, the staff sailed through it.

The pool is small but really nice, the beach is indeed excellent and the staff were exemplary in their willingness to help out with anything.

We had a nice balcony room which was very quiet, and a limited view of the sea. The bathroom wasn't spectacular (no tub), but then, we didn't go away looking to spend time in the bathroom.

The bedroom itself was great, a little patchy in places, but nicely done, and very restful.

The ladies in the massage area on the beach were great, very proficient and helpful and didn't flinch at completing a pedicure on my neglected man-feet.

They have a really international clientele we spoke to Aussies, Germans, Italians, Russian, Japanese and Thai - and the staff did a great job of keeping us all in line for a traditional festival which included each guest launching a banana leaf boat with candles and incense onto the pool.

It is a little bit out of town, and the taxi fare seems to vary from 100 baht upto 300 baht on a whim, but everyone is so nice on Samui, you don't mind the occasional chancer going for an extra pound.

We'd stay there again, Chaweng-Noi is incredibly peaceful, no banging beats or trippy euro stoners here to detract from the rest.

I have just come back from my honeymoon on Koh Samui staying at the Impiana resort Samui. To save you the time of reading the entire review the hotel is definatly worth it, food good, beach good, room average or below and staff very nice.

Location: The hotel is on the Chaweng-Noi beach south of the main Chaweng beach which means its much quieter. Hardly anything can be heard and your only knowledge of the busy town are the lights at night accross the bay. The hotel is right on the beach and the majority of rooms are within 3 minutes of the sand. Next door are a couple of really good places to eat. Basically located next to places to eat and right on the sand. Its about 5-10 taxi ride into Chaweng. Don't pay more than 100B for 2. Because its located out away from the main town it is far quieter and you don't feel left out cause it still pretty close to everything. Its about 25 minutes from the airport.

Food: We only ate at the Tamarind (hotel restaurant) once but they say it has won awards. The food was very nice there and the restaurant staff were very nice too. The restaurant looks over the sea and you can have da candlelght dinner with the waves breaking in the distance - v romantic. Prices were a little higher than average but compared to the western world its still cheap. Breakfast is a buffet and the food was good. There is always a problem with flies but fans do an ok job. You can have Pancakes, spaghetti, fruit, eggs, fruit juices, french toast, regular toast, cereal etc.. etc.. Its a good breakfast but the food can be a little odd to eat first thing in the morning such as the spaghetti bolognase! There are stacks of other places in town to eat and next door to the hotel are a coulple of good places too. The Beach Love bar is priceless and serves good clean food all day and until 11 pm at night. They do great coconut cocktails. We ate lunch there most days. There is also the Charming Restaurant which wasn't that charming at all.

Rooms: Our room was number 118 and was about 20 metres from the beach at ground level. It was comfy enough but they could do with updating it somewhat. We had a little wooden patio area whihc is a balcony on upper floors with chairs and a table. Walk in through the glass french doors into the bedroom with an enormous bed and in front of it a sideboard with TV and mini bar in and a very good and secure safe. The bathroom was connected at the back. The main problem was there wasn't much storage space. No where to store clothes while you are there. Lots of hanger and wardrobe is fine. There is no seating area other than outside either. On the wall at the back of the room there was some damp on the wall which was bad and was the worst bit. The bathroom was grey tiled and needed a complete re-haul. the grouting was dirty and the tiling in general was poor. It just needed re-doing. Although it was a wet room it would have been nice to have a bath. Free drinking water everyday in the bathroom is nice. Water was hot and generally the bowls and toilet were kept clean but the shower tiling needed some work. The other odd thing was the room was painted a kind of off grey. It was a shocking colour and didn't do anything for the room. Made it look drab and poor. It needed a new coat of paint and some more cupboards or something. There was a nice picture hanging on the wall though. The floor is tiled and the TV is good quality. There were about 3 or 4 english speaking channels 1 or 2 of french and german and the rest Thai - about 3

Beach: The beach is maybe the best bit. The sand is pretty clean unless the seas are rough. A man cleans and rakes it every morning and sets out the loungers. You can have free beach towels. There seems to be some people that leave their towels on loungers and leave but staff seem to move them after a few hours. We never found we had a problem finding a shaded or sunny area with lounger. All loungers have a table and umbrella and they are cushioned. The sea was very warm as you would expect and the sea clean unless of a storm as I said. Perfectly good. There are staff that willl bring you food and drinks to your lounger which is very nice. There is also a beach bar which I never saw anyone at during the day as the waiters are most helpful but it filled up at night. They play music but stop at 10pm so you don't get kept awake at night. Beach massages available too. Good price and done well. The most annoying thing about the beach are the sales people. They are everywhere and persistent. Just tell them you don't want one of what ever they are selling. Its mostly crap anyway.

Staff: All were very very helpful. Never had a bad thing to say about them. they were good at breakfast topping up coffee all the time. Good at dinner and reception staff were very kind. There is a small language barrier but they try hard. Cleaners do the room during the day and do a good job too.

Final verdict: The hotel was excellent. Although there was no spa the reception recommended one in town and they were building one very discreetly and we were not really aware of it or the people working on it. the food was excellent and genberally everything great apart from the room. We did see several gay copuples in case you're wondering. If you are thinking of going I would book it asap. Free fruit for honeymooners! If you weant to see some photos then email me on dudley_rob@hotmail.com and put KOH SAMUI IMPIANA as the subject line.