The Best Luxury Escape in Koh Samui

Villa Wayu is a seven-bedroom beachfront villa on Maenam Beach, on the quiet north coast of Koh Samui, and the house we book most often for families: four of its bedrooms interconnect, the children have a living room of their own with an en-suite bunk room, and the lawn runs down to the sand. It sleeps fourteen, comes with its own staff and breakfast every morning, and is about fifteen minutes by car from Samui’s airport. It is one of the beachfront houses in our Thailand villa rentals, and a smaller family can take it as a five- or six-bedroom house.

Villa Wayu at a glance

How the house works for a family

The villa is a set of Thai-roofed pavilions around a lawn and an infinity pool filled with mineral water. The pool terrace is raised above the beach, so it looks over the sea without being overlooked from the sand. Beside the pool, a covered terrace holds a dining table for fourteen with its own barbecue; inside, the main living room has a second table for fourteen in Thai wood, and the kitchen opens onto a separate Thai kitchen, where the chef works.

The children’s living room has its own television and an en-suite bunk room with three sets of bunk beds and a single bed, so cousins can share a room of their own. Four of the seven bedrooms interconnect, which lets a parent sleep next door to a small child. Every bedroom has its own bathroom with an indoor shower and an open-air one; the master suite adds a walk-in wardrobe and a small office, and the two twin rooms have outdoor jetted tubs. For the adults there is a gym, a sauna, a media room and an open-air massage sala.

Staff, meals and what is included

Villa Wayu is one of our fully staffed villas: a villa manager on call, a chef and two housekeepers, with breakfast served in the villa every morning. The chef cooks Thai dishes from the villa’s own menu, and menus planned around your group can be added. Our concierge arranges what sits around the stay: the airport transfer, a day on a boat, tee times at Santiburi, massages in the villa’s sala.

Five, six or seven bedrooms

The same house can be booked in three sizes, so a family of ten has it without rooms standing empty. The beach and the pool are the same in each.

Maenam: the quiet north coast of Koh Samui

Maenam faces north across the water to Koh Phangan, on the other side of the island from Chaweng’s nightlife. The beach is long and uncrowded, and in the dry months the water stays calm and shallow a long way out, which is why it works for small children. A grocery store and a clinic are about five minutes from the villa, and Bangkok Hospital Samui about twenty minutes by car.

Santiburi Samui Country Club, five minutes away, has the island’s only full-size golf course, eighteen holes on the hillside above Maenam, and tennis courts. Fisherman’s Village in Bophut, a short drive east, fills with a walking-street market on Friday evenings; Chaweng, the island’s busiest beach, is about twenty minutes away. Further out, the concierge arranges a day by boat among the 42 islands of Ang Thong National Marine Park, best from February to September when the sea is calmer, and a visit to the Grandfather and Grandmother rocks at Lamai, on the south-east coast. If Villa Wayu is taken for your dates, our Koh Samui villas include other houses on the beach.

When to go to Koh Samui with children

Rainfall: monthly averages for Ko Samui, Weather Atlas. The sea stays between about 28 and 30 °C all year.

For Christmas, New Year and the summer holidays, ask nine to twelve months ahead; for spring and autumn, six to nine months is usually enough. Flights from Bangkok land at Samui International Airport, about fifteen minutes from the villa, and we arrange the transfer. For the beaches beyond Maenam, our guide to kid-friendly beaches in Thailand covers both coasts.

Villa Wayu: your questions