Your rating of this hotel:
10.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
10.0
Service:
10.0
Cleanliness:
10.0
Food:
8.0
Amenities:
8.0
We rested in the "Nora" at the end of April-beginning of May 2010. We chose on the recommendation of a travel agency in which our friends work.
There are probably cons in any hotel, if you purposefully look for them, but we just rested and, frankly, we did not find them. Therefore, I will describe what is there, and everyone will decide for himself whether the rest in this hotel suits him.
1. The hotel is a 5-minute drive from the airport and a 20-minute walk or 5-10 minutes drive to the central street of Chaweng, where there are cafes, restaurants and other entertainment. There are hotels that are located right in the center of Chaweng, but it is noisy there, there are few beaches for swimming + smells of food from the main street. "Nora" is just the right distance from the city to enjoy a relaxing holiday in the midst of greenery and if you want entertainment or just eat in different restaurants, then close to the main street.
2. The hotel consists of a small administrative building with budget rooms and bungalows that descend directly to the beach. We lived in Nora Villa. This is a house on stilts, with a terrace overlooking the garden and fish pond, behind the garden you can see the Gulf of Thailand. Very picturesque, feeling as if you are in the middle of wild nature. Various exotic plants and trees with fruits grow, rather large butterflies fly.
3. The bungalow has 2 showers (outside and inside), a bathtub, one large room, one bathroom with a toilet and a terrace. There is air conditioning, hairdryer, mini-bar, satellite TV, DVD, telephone, safe. In the closet they found several sealed sets of slippers, two bathrobes, a lot of different towels, everything except bathrobes and slippers was changed every day. The room is also cleaned every day, if you leave a tip, then you can also decorate the room with orchids. Checked. Once I was too lazy to go somewhere, so they called from the reception until the very evening that they say the person who should clean up could not do it, since we are there and they do not let him go home because of this. I had to explain for a long time that everything is fine and today you can not clean it.
4. Mostly Germans lived in the hotel, a few Italians and Englishmen. Of the Russian speakers, there were us and another couple. The hotel is small, so in the restaurant and near the pool you meet the same people. Rest mostly families, few children. Everyone rests, no one bothers anyone.
5. Everyone swims mostly in the pool. The pool itself is clean, there is a bar right in the pool. Sun loungers and towels free of charge. They were always free, no one takes anything in advance. You want to lie by the pool, you want right on the shore by the water. The beach is cleaned every morning, the tides are very strong, so every morning there is algae. The depth is shallow, so that it was with your head, you need to swim about 50 meters, the bottom is sandy, there are few fish, there are corals, but they are mostly dead.
6. The territory of the hotel is all in greenery, there is a small waterfall, on the bank of a palm tree with coconuts.
7. Entertainment. They took a kayak for a small fee and swam to a nearby small uninhabited island. You can see it right from the shore. There are jet skis for rent near the hotel. In the evening, two locals play the guitar, it's very beautiful. Every day in the evening some kind of program, such as dinner on the beach or cooking some local dishes. Since they mostly spent the evening in the city, they did not take part in them. Near the reception there is also free internet on 4 computers. If you need WIFI, then for an additional fee you can connect from your laptop or phone.
8. Food. We took the tour with breakfast only. The rest of the time we went to eat in the city, where there is a large selection of different restaurants. The food is good at the hotel, there was not much variety, but the food is not as boring as in Egypt, for example, there is always a large selection of fruits, the tables are always beautifully set, if you need something, the staff immediately brings it. You eat on a large terrace, under palm trees, right next to the water. The view is excellent.
9. Service at the hotel is excellent. Everyone greets and smiles. Once we greeted one Thai before he was with us, so he apologized for not having time first. Maybe they are so accepted, in general, they were amazed by this. If you need something they will always listen and help. There were problems with the bill from the minibar, they wrote down an extra couple of cans of beer that we did not take, after we said that there was an error, they apologized, corrected and did not take the money. Please don't abuse it : )
10. Prices in a hotel, as in any other, are about 2-3 times higher than outside of it. Therefore, massages, SPA, products, fruits, etc. it is better to order and buy outside the hotel if there is no extra money. : )
THE SHOPS.
It is not very common for Thais to bargain, so do not count on big discounts. As practice has shown, in the store you can buy the same souvenirs or food cheaper. And their English is bad, it's hard to explain something. Buddha statues are sold everywhere, but I do not advise you to buy, otherwise they can be taken away at the airport, as it is prohibited for export. Fruit is better to take at the market, they are cheap and the choice is large. Almost everything costs 1-2 bucks per kilo. For joy, I advise you not to collect everything in a row and a lot, as we did, since many fruits become boring quickly, and you won’t eat a lot of some. In the end, in a week we already ate only pineapples, Malay apples and grapes. Everything else, only in the form of fresh.
MONEY
It is better to change a little, and take, just in case, dollar bills of the last years of issue. It was 100 dollars. 90s, so they didn’t take it, they said that it was old.
EXCURSIONS
There are few of them on Koh Samui. Basically, these are day trips to the islands or half a day inland, where you can ride elephants, buy in waterfalls, and even drive in an open jeep to look at nature. There are few attractions on the island, mainly nature and Buddhist temples. There is a small zoo in the interior of the island where you can feed monkeys, parrots, ostriches, deer and swim in the pool at the top of the island. The feeling is indescribable. Be careful with monkeys. Very cunning. For example, one of them, tugging at my pocket while I was distracted and looking at the pocket, pulled off a bag of deer food. In the same way, glasses and other things that she doesn’t need at all are easily taken from you, but if she takes it, then it’s almost impossible to take it away. Be careful with parrots too. One huge cockatoo jumped onto his shoulder and sat there. To celebrate, we took pictures with him, and then he did not want to get off. The result - they barely took off, but managed to grab a finger, as he grabbed what he saw while filming.
You can talk endlessly, I think everything will be clear from the photos. Holidays on Koh Samui are worth it. Even if the hotel is expensive for you, I advise you to take a cheaper one, but visit Koh Samui anyway. Have a good rest!
There are probably cons in any hotel, if you purposefully look for them, but we just rested and, frankly, we did not find them. Therefore, I will describe what is there, and everyone will decide for himself whether the rest in this hotel suits him.
1. The hotel is a 5-minute drive from the airport and a 20-minute walk or 5-10 minutes drive to the central street of Chaweng, where there are cafes, restaurants and other entertainment. There are hotels that are located right in the center of Chaweng, but it is noisy there, there are few beaches for swimming + smells of food from the main street. "Nora" is just the right distance from the city to enjoy a relaxing holiday in the midst of greenery and if you want entertainment or just eat in different restaurants, then close to the main street.
2. The hotel consists of a small administrative building with budget rooms and bungalows that descend directly to the beach. We lived in Nora Villa. This is a house on stilts, with a terrace overlooking the garden and fish pond, behind the garden you can see the Gulf of Thailand. Very picturesque, feeling as if you are in the middle of wild nature. Various exotic plants and trees with fruits grow, rather large butterflies fly.
3. The bungalow has 2 showers (outside and inside), a bathtub, one large room, one bathroom with a toilet and a terrace. There is air conditioning, hairdryer, mini-bar, satellite TV, DVD, telephone, safe. In the closet they found several sealed sets of slippers, two bathrobes, a lot of different towels, everything except bathrobes and slippers was changed every day. The room is also cleaned every day, if you leave a tip, then you can also decorate the room with orchids. Checked. Once I was too lazy to go somewhere, so they called from the reception until the very evening that they say the person who should clean up could not do it, since we are there and they do not let him go home because of this. I had to explain for a long time that everything is fine and today you can not clean it.
4. Mostly Germans lived in the hotel, a few Italians and Englishmen. Of the Russian speakers, there were us and another couple. The hotel is small, so in the restaurant and near the pool you meet the same people. Rest mostly families, few children. Everyone rests, no one bothers anyone.
5. Everyone swims mostly in the pool. The pool itself is clean, there is a bar right in the pool. Sun loungers and towels free of charge. They were always free, no one takes anything in advance. You want to lie by the pool, you want right on the shore by the water. The beach is cleaned every morning, the tides are very strong, so every morning there is algae. The depth is shallow, so that it was with your head, you need to swim about 50 meters, the bottom is sandy, there are few fish, there are corals, but they are mostly dead.
6. The territory of the hotel is all in greenery, there is a small waterfall, on the bank of a palm tree with coconuts.
7. Entertainment. They took a kayak for a small fee and swam to a nearby small uninhabited island. You can see it right from the shore. There are jet skis for rent near the hotel. In the evening, two locals play the guitar, it's very beautiful. Every day in the evening some kind of program, such as dinner on the beach or cooking some local dishes. Since they mostly spent the evening in the city, they did not take part in them. Near the reception there is also free internet on 4 computers. If you need WIFI, then for an additional fee you can connect from your laptop or phone.
8. Food. We took the tour with breakfast only. The rest of the time we went to eat in the city, where there is a large selection of different restaurants. The food is good at the hotel, there was not much variety, but the food is not as boring as in Egypt, for example, there is always a large selection of fruits, the tables are always beautifully set, if you need something, the staff immediately brings it. You eat on a large terrace, under palm trees, right next to the water. The view is excellent.
9. Service at the hotel is excellent. Everyone greets and smiles. Once we greeted one Thai before he was with us, so he apologized for not having time first. Maybe they are so accepted, in general, they were amazed by this. If you need something they will always listen and help. There were problems with the bill from the minibar, they wrote down an extra couple of cans of beer that we did not take, after we said that there was an error, they apologized, corrected and did not take the money. Please don't abuse it : )
10. Prices in a hotel, as in any other, are about 2-3 times higher than outside of it. Therefore, massages, SPA, products, fruits, etc. it is better to order and buy outside the hotel if there is no extra money. : )
THE SHOPS.
It is not very common for Thais to bargain, so do not count on big discounts. As practice has shown, in the store you can buy the same souvenirs or food cheaper. And their English is bad, it's hard to explain something. Buddha statues are sold everywhere, but I do not advise you to buy, otherwise they can be taken away at the airport, as it is prohibited for export. Fruit is better to take at the market, they are cheap and the choice is large. Almost everything costs 1-2 bucks per kilo. For joy, I advise you not to collect everything in a row and a lot, as we did, since many fruits become boring quickly, and you won’t eat a lot of some. In the end, in a week we already ate only pineapples, Malay apples and grapes. Everything else, only in the form of fresh.
MONEY
It is better to change a little, and take, just in case, dollar bills of the last years of issue. It was 100 dollars. 90s, so they didn’t take it, they said that it was old.
EXCURSIONS
There are few of them on Koh Samui. Basically, these are day trips to the islands or half a day inland, where you can ride elephants, buy in waterfalls, and even drive in an open jeep to look at nature. There are few attractions on the island, mainly nature and Buddhist temples. There is a small zoo in the interior of the island where you can feed monkeys, parrots, ostriches, deer and swim in the pool at the top of the island. The feeling is indescribable. Be careful with monkeys. Very cunning. For example, one of them, tugging at my pocket while I was distracted and looking at the pocket, pulled off a bag of deer food. In the same way, glasses and other things that she doesn’t need at all are easily taken from you, but if she takes it, then it’s almost impossible to take it away. Be careful with parrots too. One huge cockatoo jumped onto his shoulder and sat there. To celebrate, we took pictures with him, and then he did not want to get off. The result - they barely took off, but managed to grab a finger, as he grabbed what he saw while filming.
You can talk endlessly, I think everything will be clear from the photos. Holidays on Koh Samui are worth it. Even if the hotel is expensive for you, I advise you to take a cheaper one, but visit Koh Samui anyway. Have a good rest!
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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