La Vida Samui

I want to highly recommend the hotel and the amazing hotel staff!!! We really enjoyed our stay at the hotel, everything was amazing. From the excellent breakfast, the clean pool, the beautiful and clean rooms to the excellent service of the entire hotel staff. The staff took care of everything for us, helped us with everything and was always happy and with a desire for us to be well. Thank you very much, we will definitely be back!

For reference, I am basing this review off of costing around 75$ USD.

For that price in a lot of places this is a great value. However, in Thailand, I would say there are some improvements that could've been made for this price.

In terms of value this is what's great:

1. Service & Housekeeping was amazing
2. Pool (no hot tub)
3. Beachfront location, including varied seating in and around the beach/pool area.
4. Free breakfast
5. Proximity to airport
6. Proximity to Chaweng in general (walkable)
7. Nespresso (bonus cause I'm American)
8. Free to rent kayak's/paddleboards.
9. AC worked, but based on my prior experience someone who doesn't know to install mini-splits installed it lol

Here is what I didn't love, we're pretty flexible so it didn't "ruin" anything per-se but if you go into this expecting perfection or a true "4 star hotel", you will probably be dissapointed. Overall, the points I'm going to make are minor and wouldn't stop me from going back, just if a bit was changed was put into the hotel it could be amazing instead of just good:

1. You're on a tropical island, it is probably going to rain, I am a bit disappointed in locations on the resort that you can go to watch the rain or hang out, there really is only the restaurant, and the balconies -- HOWEVER under heavy rain the eaves get soaked through AND they are not long enough to cover the entire balcony so you will get a bit wet during rain, so only super light rain can be sat on the balcony.

Additionally the restaurant will get splashback as well from heavy rain, and you can't really look at the ocean during heavy rain due to lack of seating options.

2. Breakfast quality was a bit lackluster, there was a lot of variety, a full English was possible every day we were there, and there were pastries that were pretty good, but everything in terms of food didn't feel like it was the highest quality in the world. The warmers didn't actually seem to keep things at a high enough temperature, so things were slightly warm when eating, and on top of that the warmers are too big to fit the countertop so you'd need 2 people to effectively serve yourself.

However, for the convenience and having it included in room cost means this is a very minor point.

3. Resturant & Bar prices; I understand you're on a resort, and I understand you have a fairly captive audience, however, cocktails, drinks, and menu prices for the restaurant goods felt very overpriced, especially when you can walk outside of the resort and get something better at 7-11 or a local stand for like 1/8 of the price.

We never got anything from the restaurant, but I believe they had similar items during breakfast, which if that quality was any indication would leave you disappointed.

4. Bathrooms in the room - this might be a minor for other people but I hate sliding bathroom doors that don't completely shut. You can basically hear everything of someone in the bathroom, and there is no lock at all. On top of that, maybe it was just my room, but the shower design left a lot to be desired. The shower was great BUT the design of the mechanism to keep water in was basically a glass panel that was not nearly long enough to keep ANY water in, leaving the bathroom floor soaked.

Some final minor comments:

1. They give a pretty extensive rulebook (~25 rules), I understand every rule they have, but at least treat us like adults lol.
2. For a "four star hotel" on Google Maps, the towels they gave us were pre-stained, and they mentioned that permanently staining towels will result in a fine/cost of replacement, I don't mind stained towels, but the combination of the fine threat and stained towels is a bit annoying. We were never charged for them as of yet.
3. Koh Samui in general appears to be unbelievably unwalkable. There are some sidewalks, but they're about half a meter wide, and mostly blocked by random stuff, if you stay here, it is walkable to the Chaweng market and 7-11s, but past that I wouldn't risk it.

I absolutely loved my stay at LaVida.
I travelled with my son, and everything about this place - rooms, staff, location - was great.
The staff were so attentive and knew and met our needs before we even asked.
The competition for amenities in Koh Samui is very high, and I can honestly say La Vida did not let us down.
A lovely relaxing holiday.
Would recommend for family or for a couple.

Stayed here for 8 nights back in 2022 and the stay was nothing short of exceptional. Staff were lovely, buffet breakfast was delicious and lots of variety of everything.

Rooms were clean, beds were comfortable.

The resort is right on the beach with a lot of sunbeds available. Location was a bonus, just 2 min walk from the 7-11, shopping and restaurants. Thanks for a wonderful stay, cannot wait to come back one day.

Excellent hotel. Location near main part of chaweng but away from noice. Absolutely gorgeous pool overlooking the sea. Food very good, especially breakfast. Selection better than anything I’ve seen elsewhere in Thailand.

Glad we stayed here. They offered free seafood platter which was very good especially all sauces. Full breakfast and yummy pizza. Only if they could provide
Real fresh juice, it would be perfect. They should promote more on food :)

Room and place were all clean and nice. Beach was very peaceful (thailand alert time for covid).

The staffs were all helpful and friendly especially the guy at the bar who helped everything, incl the car pickup.

One negative point is we couldnt swim as there re a lot of seaweed in the sea which looks like a lake.

Lovely place

I really love this place. It is nice and calm. Friendly Staffs . The room is really comfortable.

La Vida is the place where you can go to get away from it all.. so beautifully and tastefully decorated! This place is so strategically located that all the conveniences are just a few footsteps away, yet inside it feels so relaxing and calm. So busy outside, so secluded inside. Right from the room what you'll see is truly a world-class, million-dollar view of the beautiful Chaweng beach. For the price, it just can't get any better!

Listed as only 3 star, we found it much better. Excellent location, right on the beach. Multiple pools and an outdoor restaurant. The staff were attentive and professional , always willing to assist.