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REVIEW: THE STAY CHAWENG BEACH RESORT - A PLACE ON KOH SAMUI YOU'LL BE ALL TOO HAPPY TO STAY AT
During our search for a cute, good, clean and affordable resort on Koh Samui, preferably on Chaweng Beach, we came across The Stay Chaweng Beach Resort. Neat rooms? Check! A balcony? Check! A swimming pool? Check! Good reviews? Check! Centrally located and right on the beach? Double check! “Found it! This will be the resort for a week in Chaweng, you want me to book this one right away?” I shouted down, “YES do it!” my soon to be wife shouted back.
In August 2022 we slept a total of six nights at The Stay Beach Resort on Koh Samui. The resort is clean, affordable, and is located on a quieter part of Chaweng Beach on one side and the main street of Chaweng on the other side. Looking for a good stay on Koh Samui that also happens to be on one of the island’s most popular beaches? Then stay at The Stay, quality at a great price!
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Image: Thailand Magazine
The location on Koh Samui, right on Chaweng Beach
The Stay Resort is located in the northern part of Chaweng, sandwiched between the main street and Chaweng Beach. Chaweng is one of the most famous beach destinations on Koh Samui. Besides a pleasant beach, Chaweng has a vibrant shopping area where you can enjoy shopping, eat delicious food and drink great drinks. On certain days there even is a lively night market to visit. The Chaweng Night Market is located right behind the Central Samui shopping center, which is less than a fifteen-minute walk from The Stay.
On the other side of The Stay Resort lies Chaweng beach. In a few minutes, your feet will touch the soft sand from your own room. And a few steps further, your ankles will feel the lukewarm seawater of Samui. We often choose to spend a couple of nights in Chaweng when we visit Koh Samui. The little village is very close to Samui’s airport and with a car or scooter, you can easily drive to some of the island’s other well-known destinations. Popular beaches nearby include Lamai Beach, Crystal Bay, Bophut Beach and Choeng Mon Beach. Tourist attractions such as the Big Buddha or Wat Plai Laem are also within half an hour by car or scooter. At The Stay you stay in the right spot!
The Stay Beach Resort in Chaweng
The Stay Resort, which opened on November 20 and still looked brand new during our stay in August 2022. The resort consists of a number of oblong buildings. connected by a number of covered walkways. On the street side of Chaweng, you will find the parking lot, followed by the lobby, where you are kindly welcomed during check-in. Behind the lobby there are three large buildings housing the different types of rooms. This is followed by the swimming pool with a pool bar. Following is the restaurant and OOK OOK Social Beach Club, which overlooks Chaweng Beach.
The Stay is a modern and stylish boutique resort! Much attention has been paid to the design, with a tropical theme including bananas, lots of bananas. This design is reflected in everything. A nice addition and in our opinion this makes the beautiful resort unique. The lobby is pleasant to sit in and especially the OOK OOK Social Beach Club is a nice place to hang out and have a drink including a snack. During our stay we saw a lot of happy faces at the resort, a good indicator if we may say.
The three different type of rooms at The Stay
The fun beach resort The Stay has three different types of rooms that can be booked. There is the standard room type, with a spacious double bed or two separate single beds. We booked the slightly more luxurious room that comes with a balcony or terrace. For this room type, it’s also possible to book it with a double bed or two separate single beds. Of course, the team at The Stay has also thought about families with (small) children as well. The family room was created for that purpose.
The Stay Chaweng Beach Resort is for every type of traveler! For the adventurous solo traveler who prefers to sleep in a quality private room, rather than a shared space like in a hostel. For that cute couple (like us haha), who’s looking for a combination of rest, adventure and wants to enjoy their well-earned vacation to the fullest. But also for the family with (small) children who want to discover the island of Koh Samui at a more leisurely pace. One thing is certain, no matter what type of traveler you are, you will quickly feel at home at The Stay on Koh Samui.
All rooms have air conditioning, television, minibar and small safe to keep valuables. But there are also two bathrobes hanging above the bath slippers and a beach bag with two beach towels in the closet. You get tropical wallpaper and a cute pillow in the shape of a banana with it, obviously.
Standard Room at The Stay
At 19 m2, the standard room at The Stay Chaweng Beach Resort is the smallest room of the three different types of room options. Despite that, you have enough living space to enjoy this small but nice stay on Koh Samui. There is even a small sofa placed in the room. The bathroom has a shower and neat washbasin.
Family Room at The Stay
The most spacious room at The Stay Chaweng Beach Resort is the family room. You’ll find these rooms on the ground floor of the resort. Even a small terrace is placed outside the family room where you can relax. The total area of the family room is 28 m2 and it consists of a comfortable double bed. Further in the room a bunk bed is placed, a partial (sleeping) couch with a bed above it. The family room of The Stay is perfect for a family with one or at most two small children.
Our room, the Deluxe Room at The Stay
When we spend over two nights in an accommodation, we prefer to choose one that includes a balcony or terrace. This is one of the reasons why we chose the 23 m2 Deluxe room. Our nice little balcony partly overlooked the Gulf of Thailand. Unfortunately, it lacked a table, seat or chairs.
After calling the service desk to explain that we really would like to sit on our balcony, in less than ten minutes a nice employee of The Stay arrived at our door with two chairs. What a service! On the balcony there is a small laundry rack, very handy to dry your swimwear for example. Every morning, even before breakfast, we drank a cup of coffee and tea together on the small balcony. A great place for waking up!
The Deluxe room was good, nothing more and nothing less. It has a spacious, soft double bed with something that is supposed to represent a nightstand on both sides. On the wall, opposite the bed, hangs a fairly large flat-screen television. Below the tv is a handy shelf on which a few things can be placed. At the entrance, opposite the bathroom, there is a large open cabinet, which houses the mini-fridge and safe. On it is a kettle and some bags of tea, coffee, sugar and powdered milk. The standard stuff, but fine.
The bathroom is very clean and spacious enough to cozily brush teeth together in front of the mirror. We always appreciate it when a shower stall is installed that can actually close. After all, that keeps the rest of the bathroom neat and dry. Only downside we have about the bathroom is the water pressure and temperature fluctuation of the shower. Despite someone from The Stay quickly trying to fix this shortcoming on two occasions, this resort is not awarded with “the best shower on Samui” trophy.
After all, we enjoyed the week we slept at The Stay. As such, we recommend that you at least put this nice resort on your list of potential accommodations for Chaweng Beach and even for Koh Samui. The value for money is very good and the resort is located in a pleasant seaside town, right on the beach.
Image: Thailand Magazine
The facilities at The Stay
Unfortunately, the resort doesn’t have a gym, but it does have a very nice swimming pool including a pool bar. The pool size is 15 by 4 meters and up to 1.30 meters deep. Perfect for swimming a few lengths that still gives you plenty of exercise. Of course, you can also splash, play and relax in the pool. There even is a small pool especially made for children.
A number of beanbags, tables and parasols have been placed at the edge of the pool. This makes it a nice spot to finally go and read that book or flip through that magazine that you brought from home. Thanks to The Stay’s great free Wi-Fi (available throughout the resort), you can scroll or swipe on your phone as well. Are you already following us on Instagram, Facebook or joining our Thailand Travelers WhatsApp Group?
Prefer to spend some time in the sea located directly across from the resort? At The Stay, guests can use kayaks for free. You can also rent a sup board or the Aqua Tricycle (a type of large pedal boat). Both cost 150 THB per half hour.
Food & Beverages with an amazing view on Chaweng Beach
Although The Stay has a nice beach club, due to our busy schedule, we were only able to have breakfast at this beach resort on Chaweng Beach. During our stay in Chaweng, we did have dinner and some cocktails at (in our opinion) one of the nicest beach clubs on Chaweng Beach, namely Salt Society. Nonetheless, next time we are in Chaweng, we will definitely make time to have a nice drink and snack at OOK OOK, The Stay’s beach club.
Breakfast at The Stay
Fair enough, you don’t book a room at The Stay Resort for breakfast. Don’t get us wrong, for what you pay per night, including breakfast, makes a booking at The Stay quite good. But breakfast at The Stay is pretty limited. For instance, only Nespresso coffee is available. We don’t mean the coffee from a fancy Nespresso machine, but those little red bags that contain coffee powder that you mix with hot water.
Eggs are placed in a warming tray and come in the style ‘sunny side up’. In terms of spreads, some type of jam is placed in a tray and you can fortunately toast bread under a grill. For lovers of Thai cuisine, you may choose from a number of Thai dishes that are also placed in warming trays. These dishes change daily, think in terms of Pad Thai, Fried Rice and Pad See Ew. The breakfast location is very nice, there is a small restaurant and a covered terrace overlooking the beach. The place is clean, atmospheric and feels spacious.
OOK OOK Social Beach Club
When in Chaweng visit the OOK OOK Social Beach Club! A fun space overlooking Chaweng beach and its sea. At OOK OOK you can snack, order a cocktail, beer or other drink and socialize. All in the well-known The Stay look and feel. You can Go Bananas until 10 p.m.
In conclusion
We found The Stay Chaweng Beach Resort a nice place for a week-long stay in Chaweng. The quality you get for the price you pay is well worth a stay. The staff are all very friendly and were there for us at all times. A big plus is the location of the resort. The Stay is just off the busiest part of Chaweng, but still central enough. If we visit Chaweng again next time we will most probably book at The Stay again.
DID YOU KNOW?
The management of The Stay has another resort on Mae Nam Beach. Find out more on The Flow Samui’s site. They also have Sea Sun Samui which is located on Bangrak Beach. This is an insanely nice beach bar where you can eat and drink well. The cocktails here are very good. Sun, sea and Sea Sun, what more could a person on vacation want!
General information about The Stay Resort
Check-in at The Stay Resort is from 14:00 and check-out is until as late as 12:00. For the current prices of this nice hotel on Chaweng Beach, check Booking and/or Agoda. In addition, you support Thailand Magazine by booking through our partner links. This is because we receive a small commission on the booking you make. This costs you nothing extra and this allows us to continue working hard on our great passion, sharing our deep-rooted love for Thailand and thus promoting the land of smiles.
Address: 162/5 Moo 2 Chaweng Beach, Bophut, Koh Samui District, Surat Thani 84320, Thailand
Address in Thai: ตำบล บ่อผุด อำเภอเกาะสมุย สุราษฎร์ธานี 84320
Phone number: +66 7741 5200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestay.samui
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestay.samui/