Six Senses Samui

We stayed for 3 nights. Villa: spacious, mosquito-free, very comfortable. Swimming Pool: beautiful, amazing view Beach: a bit small Service: excellent Butler: excellent. Do all the bookings for us. Dining: We tried both Dining on the Rocks and Dining on the Hill. Both OK. Spa: as expected. Overall: Value for money. One of the very best resort hotel you can find.

My fiance and I spent 2 nights / 3 days here and we wished we could have stayed longer. The service and attention to detail is absolutely fantastic at Sila Evason in Koh Samui. A butler is assigned to each villa and is responsible for making your stay as hassle free as possible. They will arrange DVD's, Music, Restaurant Bookings, Car Hire, Transport, Airline confirmation... pretty much anything to take the hassle out of you organising anything during your stay. Our butler Mai was fantastic. The one downside to the Sila Evason is that it is expensive..... very expensive!! Although you definately pay for what you get in terms of view, food, service etc, it is still significantly more expensive than most other accomodation in Thailand. Recommend you go to their website to look at what to expect (www.sixsenses.com).

My husband and I spent a couple of nights here end of January, start of February. We had a fantastic time! We stayed in a Pool Villa on the sunrise side and loved it! The villa was beautiful, so rustic and yet very, very comfortable and luxurious. The bathroom was the most different design I have seen - and it worked!! With shutters that you can open on the sea side and bifold doors at the rear that open to your outdoor shower it was great! We had a bath of an evening and it was stunning, open the shutters and you can view the ocean while in the bath with the stereo speakers playing music in the same room! We did light the provided scented mosquito coils and it just made it even more nice! The view from inside the villa was stunning and even though it rained on and off for one day while we were there it was fantastic! The pool was just the right size and the sala and sun loungers were an added bonus! In regards to mosquitos I only bitten maybe three times only! So we did not have a problem! We didn't spend too much time out of the room and around the rest of the hotel although when we did the staff were very courteous and they spoke the most English I had heard the whole trip! It was an unforgettable experience!

Excellent service, beautiful resort... it seems like HEAVEN on earth! Will definitely return!

I stayed in a Pool Villa at the Sila Evason Hideaway in Dec 2005 and had an amzing time. It was a truly relaxing and stress free experience from the moment we stepped off the plane! Our butler Gigg was lovely, she purchased tickets, booked restaurants and really made us feel welcome at the hotel. The villas are beautiful - yes rustic chic with gaps in the wood but that only adds to the appeal of the resort - if you want to sleep in a concrete box - go elsewhere! I was slightly concerned about the Mosquito problem as we arrived at the tail end of the rainy season, however it was not really a problem - we bought a plug in repellent and used the spray provided, upon leaving I only had the 1 bite. They seem to have the fogging system under control now. The pool area is beautiful, if you do go for a dip it's like swimming in Evian. The villas are extremely private allowing you to induldge in an invigorating outdoor shower. I really could not find fault with the hotel - we did have a problem with the DVD player, but one call to Gigg and it was fixed within minutes. The staff were always extremely courteous. I would no hesitate in recommending this resort to anyone! It's wonder ful.

My partner and I stayed at the Evason in Samui for 14 nights during September 2005. Having travelled extensivey throughout the world and been lucky enough to eperience many 5 star hotels, I can safely say that this hotel is not one of them. From start to end our stay there was a disaster and the dreadful experiences are just too long to list. However, the principle errors that this hotel falls foul to are the simplest reservation, management, health & safety and service issues. The entire show is badly managed, poorly serviced and highly disorganised.The hotel has no magic or prescence expected of a 5 star venue and in truth the communial areas are shabby and could do with renovation (so long as maintenance work is undertaken out of the view of guests - as was not the case during our stay!). The only saving grace here is that our assigned butler was friendly. All other aspects are truly terrible. I would just be greatful if we can prevent likeminded travellers, in search of an expensive retreat, from making the same mistake that we did. Go for the Tongasi instead. I will be truly suprised if the Evason retains its 5 stars. An objective view would be to place it into the 3* catagory (at best). A total rip off!

I wrote a scathing review of the Evason in January thinking that we would never return. After all, it is a long ways to go from Luxembourg. However, my husband convinced me to give it a second try; I had moved to Hong Kong by then, he is more susceptible to memory loss from the previous visit, and it happened to be on his way to another destination. There are many characteristics of the Evason that would draw one back, most spectacularly the raw beauty of the place which is unique to its location on the edge of the island, an image as close to paradise as one can get. This time, we were uninterrupted in our appreciation of what the resort had to offer. (Last time, just too many things went wrong for us) I was a bit anxious about how we would be received given the previous visit. Eric Hallin, the General Manager, sounded inviting and welcoming enough in the emails, but then you would expect that, right? We were met at the airport and instead of asking for us to wait for a second couple that was on the same flight, we were taken directly to the resort. Eric was there and greeted us with a welcoming smile. We were introduced to our butler, Nadia, and soon enough were taken to a stunning pool villa (villa 56). The view was breathtaking and it was very private with enough natural barriers from our neighbors. The highlights of the visit were: (1) It all looked the same as last time, but the service was significantly improved. Service at the pool, beach, Drinking on the Hill, villa service was much more prompt. We recognized Andy, the Activities Manager, by the pool getting out towels for us, etc. He welcomed us back to the resort and we asked if he had transferred from the Activities Desk. He just happened to walk by and saw that some guests (us) required service and pitched in until the pool staff came back. The person serving guests on the beach also had a great attitude and easily accommodated our dietary requirements. He was the same person enthusiastically making fresh juice and smoothies at breakfast and refused to let me carry anything and insisted that it would be brought to me. (2) Nadia is the best butler we could have asked for. Her English was perfect which meant that if we had any language issues with the other staff they were resolved immediately. It's great to have local folks add to the genuine atmosphere of the resort, but on holiday, it is also good to have someone facilitate communication when necessary. She had an uncanny knack of finding us wherever we were to provide us with follow up info/progress (i.e. one of the wooden shutters in our villa needed to be fixed), make arrangements (spa, meals, transport), etc. And, she has a talent for anticipating our needs including calling for transport to take us to the spa when it was raining, rescheduling our appts due to weather conditions, asking to take the DVDs off my hands when she saw me carrying them, offering alternative DVDs in the same genre when she discovered what we reserved was unavailable, knowing about problems we had with in villa dining without us telling her about them. (3) The spa was heaven. We used it last time, but had encountered issues which took away from the experience. This time, Nadia suggested it, made arrangements and everything went smoothly. I mentioned to Nadia that I was three months pregnant, and everyone at the spa was made aware of it and it ensured that the treatments I was offered were appropriate. (4) I felt that the hygiene was greatly improved. The breakfast buffet was covered, even the fresh honeycomb had its own plastic casing to protect it from insects. When my husband spilled a little honey on the table, he found that it was cleaned up when he returned. When Eric and his managers were circulating at breakfast, everything was spotless. However, on the day that Eric happened to be away, unfortunately standards dropped a little. Other guests have an annoying habit of leaving the covers ajar after they help themselves to the cold salads, smoked salmon, etc. And, typically these are quickly recovered from the attentive staff. But, on that day, I found myself closing a number of them myself as they were left open and the thought of insects was not very appetizing. By the way, the quality of the Thai food when catered for vegetarians is still not quite up to scratch, however the western/fusion dishes were absolutely delicious. (5) The mosquito situation has been improved, although there are still plenty of casualties. Our villa was consistently cleaned and fogged in the evenings and we felt safe there (mosquito net didn't have any holes this time). No matter what the weather or condition or time of day, one has to be religious about applying the crème insect repellent provided. This is a great lotion and very effective. Instead of being eaten alive like last time, the only times I was bitten was when I walked out the villa without this, thinking I could get away with it. Make sure you apply plenty on your departure as the mosquito at the departure lounge are merciless. Despite the above, I'm not writing a perfect review because there are always things that don't go well, even in the most ridiculously fabulous, luxurious places. This is normal. For us, as long as issues are given the appropriate attention and are addressed timely (like phones being picked up when we call, and staff responding promptly), and we aren't distracted from enjoying the holiday, then we are perfectly happy, which we thoroughly were. In the end, we felt that Eric was indeed sincere about making sure our second stay was enjoyable and we could see everything that has been done to improve on the service. This time we felt that he and his staff were visible, accessible, but not intrusive in the slightest. Key was Nadia, who was indispensable.

This hotel has a major problem with mosquitoes. The management are doing everything possible to alleviate the problem, handing out repellent on check in, tigerbalm at breakfast to soothe those itches and fumigating where they can, but during the rainy season they cannot win. The hotel is in a great location with stunning views, service is fine, the food is good especially in "Dinning on the the Hill" but the problem is the design and construction of the rooms. The bathroom, toilet and wardrobe areas are open to the elements and the bedrooms have large gaps around the windows and doors. If the idea was to create an environment at one with its surroundings it has succeeded as the mosquitos have taken up residence in the thatched roofs, the bathrooms and the bedroom. The air conditioning is simply ineffective and inefficient in these circumstances. Ouch!

Before leaving the UK on our honeymoon my wife and I were very concerned about visiting the Sila Evason Hideaway due to the reviews posted on here. We even considered cancelling and staying elsewhere - the Sala Sumai. Thank god we didn't, this place is paradise. Therefore I feel obliged to post a review. We stayed 11 nights and it is virtually impossible to describe how truely amazing the Evason is. We stayed in a Pool Villa and found it very very difficult to leave just the villa as it was out of this world. From your own infinity pool to your own daybed (not all pool villas have daybeds, but we did request one), overlooking the sea with other islands on the horizon, absolute heaven. The staff were simply amazing and our butler, Yai, was fantastic. We were slightly embarrassed by how much the butler and other staff did for us, but thats how it works at the Evason, they just do as much as they can for you, even if you are not expecting it. A brilliant touch was that our butler always made sure we have the best table in any restuarant we asked him to book for us on the island, even though we did not request this. I could go on forever about every aspect such as the restuarants, spa etc etc but some reviews previous to this already comment on how good these are so I will leave it there as they are spot on. The only thing that did not impress us was the beach, but when you have your own infinity pool at your villa, who needs it. The Evason is designed to be a rustic 5 star luxury hideaway, so if that is what you are looking for you will not be disappointed. I read comments on how people complain about the language barrier. I can certainly say that the staff's english is a lot better than my Thai (yes we tried and pretty much failed, but Thai people really appreciate any effort made) and I think this made the experience even more special and made us feel a million miles away. My wife and I agree that this was a truely a once in a lifetime experience. If you are thinking of going here - then go, you will not be disappointed, but that is just my opinion. p.s Villa 25 comes highly recommended!!! Views from the villa are attached

We have just come back from a 7 night stay at the Evasson Hideaway, initially like others i had read the reveiws and was very nervous. Upon arrival we were greeted by our Butler Mai who could not of been more helpful. We requested a villa that was more private and she spent about 3 hours with us on the first day making sure we were happy. This high level of service continued throughout our stay. The hotel management team are on hand at all times, they are the first to admit that there have been some problems when the hotel first opened but i cannot stress enough, if you have a problem they will move heaven and earth to help you. The romms and veiws are stunning, the Dining on the rocks is excellent and we had a couple of joint treatments in the spa which too was good. We arrived from the Four Seasons in Chiang Mai which was excellent, people have to understand the difference between the ethos of the normal luxury hotel and the "six senses" experience, it is more rustic, relaxed and in tune with it's natural surroundings. We thouroughly enjoyed our stay and would go back.