If The Thai GM lady cannot take good care of her own people, how can she provide good service to customers. We have bad experience over all the whole time stay there.
They should change to the new GM who love to do the service job, not just to get by day by day and get pay big bucks.
Getting to Coral Bay was simple enough with a free drop-off courtesy of Lomprayah (Highly recommended).
I’ll start off with the pros:
Decent breakfast.
Nice bungalow (though design issue with no door to toilet and in full view from in front of cupboards? Also beds are very hard)
Nice restaurant, very good food as per complimentary dinner.
Free 30 minute massage was enjoyable.
Cons:
The reception dude, wasn’t the friendliest chap I’ve ever encountered and only seemed to crack a smile when we left, though the other staff were pretty good.
Resort generally a bit dated and run down, not that similar to internet pics! (maybe 10 years ago).
Most importantly, I was expecting a better beach, being one of the main reasons for going to Samui.
The beach is not very good at all, in terms of width, sand quality. Sun loungers look like they’ve seen better days.Also if you find coral at “Coral bay” let me know, as I only saw rocks.
If you’re looking for nice beaches, the only nice beach we found on the island after scouting the entire thing via scooter was Thongthakian beach, stay there and hire a scooter.
Rather skip Samui and go to Koh Tao, or Koh Phangan.
Chaweng is really not worth staying nearby, very very busy with lots of stalls selling the same crap with the beach also not great.
Samui on the whole is not that great of an island and is extremely touristy, glad we saw it though we won’t be back.
We chose Coral Bay Resort after a lot of research including reviews on Trip Adviser. Our choice certainly did not disappoint. My family and I stayed in a family deluxe bungalow in a beautiful and private tropical garden setting at the back of the resort. We loved living for 10 nights admist the tropical scents and the sound of bird life, even seeing the occasional squirrel scurrying up a tree during our walks. The rooms were very spacious and clean. We found the staff extremely helpful and accommodating. Peter, the front desk manager went to great lengths to ensure our stay went smoothly and went out of his way to fulfil all of our requests. There is a wonderful health spa at the resort which provides massages and beauty treatments and we attended several times. This spa is better than any that I have been to in Australia because of the extra touches such as the herbal teas. We all received a free 1/2 hour 'jet lag' massage on arrival. The pool was extremely clean and we certainly did not find the size of the pool to be a problem.
We did not walk into Chaweng shopping area because it was too far in the heat with the children but could get a taxi for 200 bht each way or a open vehicle with bench seating for 50 bht per person. There is a fabulous restaurant called Dusk which is just walking distance from the resort with Thai meals starting at just 100 bht. The meals at Coral Bay are also very reasonable and of very good quality.
We enjoyed this resort so much because we were looking for a quiet resort in a natural setting within a budget. This resort is good value for money.
Coral bay resort is a situated in a very nice garden and you really get the hut experience here which go to the pro list, but unfortunately it has been worn down a bit. Especially the pool was kind of disappointing - the water didn't seem clean - full of small particles. Also the depth of 125-160 was kind of...why? No diving and no playing for kids...but off course you could swim. The location on the beach was very nice and the view from the resort and restaurant also.
But all in all the impression is still that this hotel could use a gentle hand.
One super experience though was when sitting on our balcony the gartners were trimming trees and collecting coconuts just in front of our hut. When they saw us the prepared to freshly picked cocuntus with their machetes and gave them to us - very nice gesture and fun also.
And a good advise: Make sure you don't get the back family villas like DF9, DF 10 etc. It close to the road so if your aircon is of or if you sit at the balcony it's like being in the city and the illusion of paradise is gone.
Advise 2: If you want to try some low cost local food - dont go to the 'city' but just use the restaurant by the resort entrance - nice people and good Thai food.
Stayed here for a week in June and absolutely loved it. The resort is not far from Chaweng (10-15 min walk), but far enough to be peaceful and quiet- feels like paradise. It's right on the beach and whereever you look, it's beautiful.
Whoever did their landscape design deserves an award, as it really feels like Eden. You can barely see the huts as the plants and flowers are so lush!
The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly and pointed us in the right direction for good local restaurants and beaches.
The rooms/huts are very spacious and clean (sorry, didn't take any pics). You may see a roach every now and again...they are everywhere in Thailand so don't take it as a reflection on the place..our room got sprayed the minute we mentioned having seen one, so the hotel did deal with the issue.
Breakfast is not amazing (average), but to be honest the beds were so comfy I actually missed it most days. Plus the view from teh breakfast deck is priceless.
Another small glitch was the pool, which is a bit on the small side and a tad too warm...other than that it's hard to complain!
We were quite lucky as June is low season, so we practically had the place to ourselves!
All in all I would say Coral Bay is a lovely place with a warm and personal touch. It might not be 100% perfect, but 90% will do me just fine!
P.S the beach at the resort is really shallow (it's a coral reef), so I would get scooters and ride down to Lamai which is truly wonderful and not too far.
We stayed at Coral Bay for 10 nights in a Beachfront Deluxe Villa, and couldn't recommend it highly enough. The villas were large, clean and thankfully, airconditioned! The bed was huge, and the waterfall shower was wonderful. We made good use of all the amenities provided, the pool, restaurant, spa and all were fantastic, but what made it truely wonderful were the staff - they were very friendly and helpful and went above and beyond to ensure we had a great time. The food at the restaurant was some of the best we ate on the island. The location was great, being at the northern end of Chaweng Beach it was close enough to be in the midst of it, yet far enough away to be able to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the island. I would love to return to Koh Samui one day, and I would certainly return to Coral Bay.
