Centara Reserve Samui review: the best of both worlds on Koh Samui

All the expectations of Koh Samui slip away as you make your way to Centara Reserve. Passing hubbubbing crowds and pleasant chaos, the private transfer reaches a sudden quiet stretch, where the resort rises in polished pastels with an almost understated palm-lined drive.

At Centara Reserve, Samui’s old image has been elevated. It’s no longer just the cheap and cheerful island of backpacker lore – though you can still find that much-loved charm in spades once you step beyond Centara’s cream colonnaded lobby and peaceful surrounding streets.

Staying at the Reserve provides the best of both Samui’s worlds. Its nightlife, cafes, tourist fun and frenetic energy is only a short hop away, but feels a world beyond Centara’s plush rooms, accessible activities, manicured grounds and huge beach.

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Why stay here

Centara’s extensive catalogue of hotels claims a variety of nuanced approaches – Reserve is the brand’s most luxurious offering, with resorts designed to be immersive, locally-inspired and offer personalised stays. At Samui, the grounds on the island’s west coast had already been a hotel 30 years prior; Centara reimagined the old, abandoned property with Thai design elements, while retaining some of its original, colonial aesthetic. The result is a grand white arc that cups itself around the longest beach on Koh Samui, Chaweng – a white sand stretch with warm shallow waters ideal for morning swims and snorkelling.

The resort keenly focuses on sustainability and community. Centara supports 300 students at a local orphanage and provides education at a hospitality school, from where Centara prioritises its staff hiring. Ecologically, the resort has banned single use plastics (even the key cards are wood), recycles all products possible, utilises solar panels and electric cars, and now uses food waste biogas and filter water in house. There’s an organic garden that, for now, supports little more than herbs and garnishes, but there are plans to expand locally grown organic ingredients at staff accommodations.

Rooms and suites

Centara Reserve Samui has a whopping 13 room categories, all of them offering high-end stays. The 184 award-winning rooms face the ocean, with either garden, pool or balcony access. The Reserve Pool Suite has its own private terrace and small pool, while family rooms and villas have larger pools and living rooms.

All of the rooms are decorated in calming cream and stone tones with natural fibre furnishings and wood finishes. Each comes with its own minibar, complete with coffee machine, cocktail making set, a fridge of mixers and carafes of the resort’s spirits. Bathrooms – a somewhat confining term for the huge dressing, sink, toilet and shower area – comes kitted out with two types of dressing gown and slippers depending on your mood and material needs, and enough cupboard space to house a catwalk collection. The shower is a blissful waterfall supplied with gendered his-and-her products (providing a small opportunity for rebellion in this otherwise perfectly catered-to stay).

Eating and drinking

Food is one of Centara Reserve Samui’s focal selling points. With five restaurants, there’s a wide range of options to choose from that caters to all ages and palates. The theatrical, high-end Act 5 restaurant is its current flagship show-stopper, but the resort is to soon renovate the restaurant, turning away from modern international and Thai cuisine towards an approachable, western-style steak house.

Its crowning glory is easily Sa-Nga, where executive chef Chris Patzold has created a dramatic Thai tapas menu. Sa-Nga’s soft-lit, intimate dining room brings together classic Thai flavours and innovative small plates: the pomelo salad and scallop red curry are standouts, but the highlight is the brilliant chicken atop tempura betel leaves. Just upstairs sits The Gin Run, a cream and dark wood bar dedicated to gin. The resort makes its own in a world of flavours – avoid the wasabi, but make sure to try some of local infusions and cocktails.

Further along Chaweng beach brings you to Salt Society, an open sunny beachfront bar awash with bright wood slats and artful shadows. Here you’ll find fresh seafood, wine pairings and light lunches afront spectacular views. Order the raw courgette and grilled halloumi with zaatar and olive tapenade, the tuna with fennel and the whole baked red snapper with chimichurri and tortillas. For breakfast, you can order in-room or explore the heavily-laden buffet and a la carte menu at The Terrace.

What to do

At the Reserve Spa Cenvaree treatments are mind-meltingly good. They’re also upping their eco-credentials by using 100% organic, cruelty-free products, and oils and clays made and infused on-site from the herb garden. Facials, couples’ experiences and massages tumble from the spa menu making it incredibly hard to pick, but the top spot goes to the “forces of nature” inspired treatments. “Ocean tranquility” incorporates wave body massage, shiatsu points, warm stones and breathing exercises to leave you in jelly-like levels of relaxation.

As well as multiple pools, a sauna, steam room and gym, Centara Reserve has a PADI dive centre and tour desk that can organise water sports, cultural explorations of the island and more. One of the finest offerings is the Thai cooking class, where chefs from the resort restaurants will teach you how to tackle classic dishes of the region, like Panang curry and a traditional fish soup.

Jo Davey was a guest of Centara Reserve Samui. 38/2 Moo 3, Borpud, Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, Surat Thani 84320,Thailand; centarahotelsresorts.com