Hello, everyone I am Chifumi Maeda, a Japanese female president living in Bangkok.
Thank you, guys, for visiting this
“True comments from Japanese female presidents living in Thailand” blog.
Today, I will talk about a hotel on the Samui Island, 5-Stared resort,
Garrya Tongsai bay, that I’ve stayed with more than any other hotels.
This stay is probably something like 6th stay at the hotel.
Only 15 minutes by car from the airport, you are at the resort in no time.
The Story of Garrya Tongsai Bay: Luxury Resort in Koh Samui
The hotel is said to have started its operation in the year 1987.
In 1985, Mr. Akorn Hoontrakul, the owner of Imperial Hotel Group fell in love with the land at the first sight.
He laid down every day on the beach here for 3 month creating idea to build a hotel
that is in harmony with the surrounding nature and he finally built The Tongsai bay.
Their policy is to inherit to the next generation the rich nature
and live in harmony with animals and plants.
Mr. Akorn Hoontrakul past way in year 2000
but his policy still lives with his son, the current owner.
Samui Island resides many hotels nowadays including those with famous foreign capitals however,
it used to be a quiet and peaceful island in the old days.
The island is so small that it only takes you about an hour on a motorcycle.
The Tongsai Bay is said to be “the first 5-Stared hotel on the Samui Island”.
The area of the resort is as big as 25 acres (approx. 10,118 sqm)
but in spite of its land size, there are only 83 rooms combining Suite, Cottage, and Villa all together.
The No.1 feature of the resort is that every guest rooms offer sea view
and veranda is equipped with a bathtub where you can sit in the tub enjoying the sea view.
You can spot many birds and insects in the resort
premise as it is surrounded by the beautiful trees and plants.
A nice walk through the passages surrounded by rich green gives you the feeling every morning
you are making your way to the breakfast dining room from the Villa.
In-depth Review: Nang Gong Sea View Double Pool Villa, Garrya Tongsai Bay
I like more the Cottage or Villa compared to the Suite type that is in the building.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been staying with the resort several times in the past
and all those stay was in Seafront Cottages、McGuigan Cottage、or Hideaway Cottage.
And this time, we stayed in Nang Gong Villa out of so many rooms to choose from.
As we are repeating guests and are entitled to be upgraded,
we were offered to stay in Akorn Villa where they named the room after the founder.
Thank you for the offer however,
the Akorn Villa is a 2-bedroom type of villa
and the view that it offers compared to Nang Gong Villa
that stands on a hill with wider view,
we decided to stay in the Nang Gong Villa as our original plan.
On entering the villa room,
the first thing comes into your eye is a bathtub and a large swimming pool.
And there are also a gazebo and a dining table at the far end.
There are sunbeds too.
And on the bar counter, there was a nice setting of white wine as a present from The Tongsai Bay.
There was a basket of plumeria flowers for us to take a flower bath.
I love this spacy terrace very much where I spent sitting here almost all day.
I also had a massage session on the terrace.
The natural wind felt so good on my body as well as birds’ chirping to my ears.
I had a wonderful session of massage here.
We made reservation to stay at The Tongsai bay in November 2021 however,
the resort was closed for renovation and therefore we stayed at InterContinental Koh Samui.
Club Panoramic Ocean View Suite at InterContinental Koh Samui
where we stayed at the time had a very spacy terrace however,
they did not have a roof and sadly enough it was raining during our stay there,
we were not able to enjoy our terrace then.
Compared to that, The Tongsai bay is equipped with the roof;
it doesn’t matter if it is rain or shine,
the terrace was always ready for us to enjoy.
The room is as big as 244 sqm.
There are 2 bathtubs, one outside with the sea view, and the other inside of the room .
It was very luxuriously built with separate living-room, bedroom, and shower-room.
You can enjoy the sea view from the living room and the bedroom.
The biggest feature of the Nang Gong Villa is that there are 2 swimming pools on the terrace,
one by 2.8m x 8.65m and the other by 2.5m x 4.74m.
The wide ocean spreads out in front of your eyes
where you can see Choeng Mon Beach and Tongsai bay.
As it stands on a hill, even there are people having party of their lifetime with music and loud voices,
you hear nothing of those here,
it was dead quiet here except the nice sounds offered by the rich nature.
It was very nice and relaxing.
As Nang Gong Villa is facing west, you can see the sunrise.
I got up early in the morning to enjoy my swim in the morning coolness
watching the sunrise followed by a nice dip in the warm bath.
Because of such a comfortable place the Nang Gong Villa was,
we were completely living a “Lock-Ourselves-Inside” of the villa life.
Highlights of Staying at the Nang Gong Villa: A Personal Experience
Dining at Garrya Tongsai Bay: An Honest Food Review
We are not a kind of people who are choosy with the foods
and if and when we feel that the foods are not as nice as it should be,
we will not be a repeating customer.
We’ve stayed with The Tongsai bay many times
and we can give you our personal guarantee that the foods are very good.
The breakfasts are served at Rhoy! Rhoy! Restaurant next to the Lobby.
You can also order a room service
but we thought that the room was so comfortable that if we didn’t go out for a breakfast,
we will really become a stay-in-the-room-all-the-time kind of guests
so we forced ourselves to go out to put ourselves in different surroundings.
It was choose from the menu type of foods when we were staying there.
There are Thai foods and western foods on the menu.
The Tongsai bay has its own garden where they grow their own fruits,
vegetables, and herbs in the resort
where they use them to consume as herbs and jams within. (Partially.)
The mulberry jam especially was very nice.
We had our lunch in our room ordering the room service.
This is how it begins as “Stay-in-the-room-only guest”.
Having our lunch with the ocean view all to ourselves was very nice.
Thanks to the roof and ceiling fan, we could enjoy our meals in comfort.
I spent my daytime here working and reading.
As we are not good in enjoying spicy foods, we rarely eat Thai foods
but here in The Tongsai bay, they prepare according to our request,
we enjoyed delicious but not spicy Thai foods.
We had our dinner in the Fish Tales Restaurant.
Here they serve both lunches and dinners.
A restaurant on the beach front where they serve Thai foods and western foods.
We both like the evening twilight time and we already start our dinner when it is still light.
We enjoyed the complimentary wine from the hotel enjoying the evening darkness
after the sunset for hours in a relaxing atmosphere.
As the Nong Gong Villa stands on the hill,
you have an ocean view under your eye and on the other hand,
the restaurant is located on the beachfront,
you can enjoy the sound of sea racing to the shore.
It may be a good idea to watch the movie that they play on the beachfront on Friday evenings.
(But as I go to bed quite early, I started my way to the Villa….)
Massage Experience at ELEMENTS SPA in Garrya Tongsai Bay: A Personal Review
Both my hubby and I love massage and we of course enjoyed the massage this time as well.
You can also have your session in the Villa or here at the spa.
Prana Spa allows you to have Thai massage and oil massage in a same room.
Thai massage session given on the Thai massage bed.
The room is built spacious that gives you a relaxing atmosphere.
The treatment room is equipped with toilet, shower, and bathtub which is very comfortable.
This goes for any resorts but the Spa has a different atmosphere in the facility
and therefore I would recommend you to pay a visit to the spa to get rid of your stress
that you’ve developed in your day to day life.
Comparing the Pros and Cons: My Stay at Garrya Tongsai Bay
What Makes Garrya Tongsai Bay Stand Out? My Take on the Pros
Something for Improvement? The Cons of Staying at Garrya Tongsai Bay
Choosing the Best Time to Visit Koh Samui Island: Seasonal Guide
Bangkok has Hot season (March – April), Rainy season (early May – late October), and the Dry season.
That’s how the god has divided the season for Thais.
The best visiting season, among the tourists,
to visit Samui is said to be February – September, i.e.
the Dry season and especially February is the month
that has less rainfalls compared to other months
and the temperature is not too high which makes the life on the island quite comfortable.
The island gets tourist both from domestic and abroad in July – September.
The rainy season does not have rainfall all day long.
There is squall in the morning and in the evening however,
there can be some exceptional days in November – December,
in the middle of the rainy season when it can rain all day all night.
Essential Information for Your Stay at Garrya Tongsai Bay
84 Moo 5, Bo Phut, Ko Samui Surat Thani, 84320 Thailand
Please leave a comment if you like this article.