Outrigger Koh Samui Beach Resort

Great hotel in a great location. The staff were all so lovely.

Our Garden family room was a really generous size with separate area for the bunk beds. Didn't qualify for Voyager 47 lounge access however.

Great breakfast options with an omelette station and lots of juices to choose from. Coffee was good. Some nice yogurts and granolas to choose from and a fridge of cheese and meats. Lots of 'American-style' bread and no sourdough.

The kids loved the kids club craft activities and boxing lessons. The staff were very friendly and engaging here too. Having a games room with pool, air hockey and ping pong was also brilliant for older kids.

You had to cross the road for the main pool and bar/restaurant but two crossing guards made this easy.

Pools were great with options for smaller children. Beach was ok, but when the tide goes out it can be dirty and not easy to walk on.

However the hotel is right in Lamai near fab restaurants, places to do washing and walking distance to the vibrant Lamai night market.

Our favourite location on Koh Samui.

We spent five nights at the hotel in a Club Lamai Suite on the second floor. This was our first visit to Koh Samui. We have mixed feelings about the hotel.

We enjoyed the large room which was close to 80sqm on the second floor where I believe all the Club rooms are located. It was kept spotlessly clean throughout our stay. We found the bed to overly firm but this is typical of Thailand. We asked for it to be made softer but their attempt didn’t make much difference. While the room is large the bathroom was a little cramped and there was nowhere to hang towels etc other than on the clumsy pull-out washing line. This was a little frustrating. Bathroom hooks are needed.

There was also no coffee machine in the room which was disappointing. We’re surprised that this standard of hotel doesn’t have them and particularly in the case of Club rooms.

We found out the first night that the bed was broken with the wooden joins just about to break apart. We let Reception know and they had it repaired that day.

Our biggest issue was with the air conditioning which wasn’t working properly when we arrived. It was ‘fixed’ but continued to be erratic throughout our stay. A room swap was offered but this was inconvenient and who knows, we could have ended up in an even worse situation. It’s happened to us before. It remained adequate but not great. Reception organised a large floor fan for us but that didn’t help much.

We had breakfast at Mala kitchen each morning which was good with lots of food options and lots of lovely fresh fruit. The one disappointment was with the coffee machines which struggled to provide hot or consistent coffee.

Our Club room provided access to the Voyager 47 Club Lounge for afternoon tea and evening drinks and snacks. We found this to be a little underwhelming with limited choices of food and drink options. You can have spirits but only gin, white rum and vodka. There is no whiskey or tequila which we found strange. We really feel this needs to be expanded/enhanced. If you arrived much after 6pm there wasn’t much in the way of food left. Again, this needs to be enhanced. There is no breakfast offered.

The huge asset to the Club are the wonderful staff who made us feel very welcome and appreciated. Special thanks to Khun Sao, she’s wonderful. We’ll miss her. The staff in general were friendly and responsive. Nothing was too much trouble for them.

We had lunch at the main restaurant where we ordered the most underwhelming Thai food we’ve had in Thailand. It didn’t taste right at all. I make better Pad Thai and chicken with cashew nuts at home. It was not good at all. Work needs to be done on that.

One thing we struggled with is the fact that you have cross a busy road to get to the main swimming pools which face the beach. Sure, there’s a pool within the main hotel grounds but we wanted to be near the ocean. There are crossing guards, who again are wonderful at their difficult, hot, sweaty job and they were always cheerful. The pools are busy and noisy at this time of year. We chose to sit on the chairs on the lower terrace facing the ocean.

The biggest disappointment which we acknowledge is out of the hotel’s control, is the state of the beach directly in front. It’s putrid with what we’re sure looks and smells like raw sewage in the water. It was truly gross. What was troubling is that hotel guests were wading about in the filth and then jumping in the main pool to wash it off. We saw this a few times. I think the hotel really should consider putting up some kind of warning signs. If anyone has a cut on their foot and gets into that part of the ocean they could end up with a life-threatening infection. That would be sad.

We ended up walking up the beach for about 2kms to find a lovely stretch of sand and water to enjoy. It was disappointing to have to do that.

While we enjoyed the hotel overall and the lovely staff, I think we’d book a true beach resort if we ever go back to Koh Samui. The Outrigger, sadly, didn’t live up to expectations.

We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel and would happily recommend it. The staff deserve special mention — they were exceptionally friendly, responsive, and always ready to help with any request.

The housekeeping was excellent: the rooms were cleaned thoroughly and consistently, with great attention to detail. The beds were very comfortable, the pillows were excellent, and the bed linen felt clean and of very good quality, which made the stay even more relaxing.

Breakfast was another highlight, with a good variety of fresh and tasty options every morning.

Overall, this is a very well-run hotel with great service, clean rooms, comfortable beds, and a welcoming atmosphere. We would definitely consider staying here again and can recommend it to other guests.