Journey from samui airport was about an hour which may be a bit far for some people as it is probably about a 45min drive from here to chaweng beach which is the biggest and liveliest place in samui and about 20 minutes from lamai. At first we thought we had made a mistake and this would be a bit far for us too, but hotel runs a circular mini bus to these places for a cheap price, 50 baht(£1) to chaweng and 25 baht(50p) to lamai so it wasn’t too bad. Last bus back set off from chaweng at 10:45 so if you want to be in chaweng later than this on a regular basis it might not be the best location for you, well you will at least need to factor a 800 baht(£16) return taxi for these nights into your costs!
Hotel is really nice though, room is just what we wanted, you get your own wooden building with outdoor balcony and seating area, facing ocean or garden depending on what you booked. Not actually sure why they didn’t just face them all to the ocean but hey ho! There are obviously wooden buildings in various sizes and locations with various sized balconies but this all depends on the specific room you booked! Think ours was a basic deluxe, anything more than this will be bigger with better balcony etc all depends what you want. Another bonus for us was they have espn true sports in the room so we could watch formula 1 there if we wanted too. Ended up watching it in chaweng in the islander but the option was there! Just as a side note The Islander is an excellent place to watch sports though, had it on throughout the whole pub with good sound!
One semi negative / bazar pricing decision centara villas resort charges for wifi in your room or other areas of the resort and it is 250 baht (£5) for 30 mins and 500 baht(£10) for a 24 hour period, this is made all the more ridiculous when almost every bar in samui, including the ones that are just shacks have free wifi and all you need to buy is a 35 baht coke. You can also rent a moped from the hotel for…. how much do you think, baring in mind it’s 500 for 24 hours of Internet… Yep that’s right 300 baht(£6) for 24 hours…..! Which to be fair is a good price, you can get it cheaper in chaweng but by the time you have paid to get there it works out more and is much more conveinient from the hotel! You also don’t have the worry they are going to try and blame you for damage that was already on the bike when u return! Back to the Internet there are 2 PC’s in the reception bar which you can use for free to access Internet etc
Food and drink in centara villas
This is a difficult one, all food I had was absolutely fantastic, served by very friendly staff and is at a reasonable, even a good price compared to places of a similar quality and setting in chaweng. But you can get good quality Thai food for much cheaper, but I’m not going to say its better than here. Basically even in chaweng you can pay between 65 and 400 baht for a curry on the main street, go a street or two back you can get it for 40! I generally paid between 65 and 180 depending on the deals various restaurants had at the time and all were really nice curries. I will try and post something about these individually at some point. All I’m trying to say is that centra prices are somewhere near the top price but think the quality you get made it better value than some places in chaweng. Drinks where another difficult one as they were about double price of some places in chaweng but just a bit more than others. For example a chang beer in centara was about 150, cheap Thai places its about 70 but in other places like Bondi it was 120! Plus centara have a buy 1 get one free on most drinks from 5 until 7:30, so if you get these it is as cheap as anywhere. There is also a shop about 2 mins walk down the road where you can buy large bottles of Chang for about 45baht
Natien village
This brings me onto the very small village of natien, 2 mins down the road. You actually drive through it on your way in but probably will think there was nothing there. There is actually two trip/hire agents a bar and a few restaurants. I would definitely recommend a trip down here especially the restaurant called The fishermans outlet, which has a nice freibdly feel with a little waterfall and pools round the outside with turtles in. They do excellent food, best Thai fishcakes I had had, even the fish and chips for 150 baht(£3) was fantastic if you fancy something less Thai. plus you can get 3 bottles of chang beer for 100baht(£2) which was the cheapest I have seen anywhere!
Summary
So basically the resort is beautiful and after our whole stay i cant really find anything to fault, apart from maybe the wifi cost but dont really go on holiday to use wifi anyway! Its a little far out for some but other areas are more than accessible at a cheap price via the hotel mini bus. Food is more than the cheapest you can get on the island but of very good quality. Drinks arnt the cheapest either but I think you would expect this and do become good value during the buy one get one free periods (just for info they don’t bring you both drinks together, you drink one then they brink the next). And on top of all this there are a couple of restaurants and a shop 2 minutes walk for very good but cheaper alternatives!
One thing I have not really touch too much was the staff here, and would just like to say that they were absolutely amazing so friendly and helpful, was a pleasure staying here!
