Before i start, i wrote a review but removed it as it was not factually correct and an error on my part writing the review whilst out and about. I have also reduced my rating. Although our driver was keen for me to start it asap.
We booked our trip through our hotel, which might have been my first error, however you live and learn. The 4hr private tour was arranged for 2500bht, that was for a private, air conditioned taxi. Great when you have a 3 year old and want some flexibility. The driver, arnon, arrived at 11am and was very lovely. He spoke some english and the taxi was clean. I had asked to visit the temples, view point and waterfalls(where i knew the elephants were) the grandmother/father rocks didnt appeal to us
We went to the temples, which were beautiful. Big buddha and god of mercy.(remember to cover your bare shoulders, this is about respect within these temples) at the god of mercy you can buy fish food and feed the fish. (10bht) my 3 year old loved it and secretly so did I!! The koi carp were huge! And the catfish! We also stopped at the view point and took some pics and we also went up to Lamai view point.(100bht entrance) there is a cable car if you dont want to walk up lots of steep steps. There is a small restaurant at the top, the views are amazing. We drove through a couple of "towns" but didnt stop and why would you really. We also went to Namuang waterfall, unfortunately for us this is where our disappointment starts. Our driver didn't really explain alot to me about this part only that we could see the elephants. We didnt do an elephant trek, as we personally don't agree with them. Admission was 100bht(so about £2.50). You have to sign in for insurance purposes, im assuming this is due to the hazardous conditions! We saw some elephants, bought some bananas and fed them. Which was amazing! We were then directed to the 4x4 jeeps for the hazardous journey to the waterfalls. Unbeknown to us, we were
taken to waterfall 2! If you are not
fit, in correct footwear or have any young children, PLEASE STAY AWAY!! unless there is a drivable way of getting to this waterfall. We got 3/4 of the way and gave up. It was a very dangerous,rocky, steep trek through the woods/jungle. There was the odd bit of rope to hold on to, but treacherous!! I assumed that when we got the 4x4 it would take us to waterfall 1. Maybe i should have asked, but there wasnt anyone around and i assumed having a small child would show that we were "trekkers" we couldnt see any signs for directions to waterfall 1 either. Please do more research than me! So after all that time, effort and terror we gave up and had to get a 3yr old back down. With no swim or pool in sight. This in turn made us late and added time on to our tour. When we got back to the taxi, i explained what had happened and said that we never made it to the waterfall. Our driver tried to understand but im not sure he did. Throughout the trip he made sure we had lots of cold water. He even put baby shark on his phone for my lad!
Time was ticking on and we had gone over our 4hrs, However instead of bringing us straight back to the hotel asap, our driver still took us via the capital of Samui and finally back to our hotel. There was no real rush. I do think that the waterfalls should have been explained to us more, like the driver did with the view point and lamai view point. This added all the wasted time! I still tipped the driver as he had been friendly etc. We then sit by the pool and the staff at the hotel ask us for another 1000bht due to the overrun of the tour!! I wasnt happy but we paid! Because of this extra cost and time, i had resubmitted this review. It is now factually correct. We have also since found another tour operated by sita tour 2000, which looking at their leaflet does the same locations and more for only 500bht per person. So we paid 2000bht more for far far less! This is very disappointing and for that reason would not recommend Mr Samui. Please shop around. This trip cost us £87 when we could have spent £35 and got far more!