AKWA Guesthouse Koh Samui
FODORS TRAVEL said "Rooms at Australian proprietor Timothy Schwan's guesthouse have giant pop-art paintings on the walls, chairs in the shape of giant hands, and kitschy lamps. Small details, like shelves of books (including Thai language manuals and beach novels), a stack of DVDs atop the TV, colorful beach towels, and even the odd stuffed animal make it feel like you're crashing in a friend's well-designed bedroom. A penthouse room has a huge terrace with two teak sun beds, an outdoor dining area, and a lazy banana bed with a sweeping view; indoors, a private bathtub overlooks the terrace angled toward Chawaeng Beach. Breakfasts are arguably the best on the island. Other meals are decent as well, and the vibe in the lobby's bar-restaurant is friendly and easygoing."
AKWA Guesthouse Review - Koh Samui | Fodor’s Travel (fodors.com)
”Home away from home in Samui with the best people”
Fantastic art and decoration - full of colour and life. Fun and friendly staff. Tim the owner is a total star. Fantastic location right near the beach. Excellent service - couldn't recommend more. Food and drink in restaurant/cafe amazing. DVD's available for use in case you fancy a quiet night in.
This is not a standard 'hotel' and has more of a home from home feel - personally I loved this but some people may be looking for somewhere more conventional I guess, personally I'd go for somewhere less sterile every time and this place was most definitely the one for us. We'd move in tomorrow!
My boyfriend and I loved everything about this guesthouse/hotel and definately intend to go back there to stay next time we are in Samui. I did a lot of research online to find a good place to stay and after reading plenty of rave reviews we decided on the Akwa - and it was the best decision we ever could have made. This place is alive with colour, character and amazing artwork. To top it off the food, owner and staff are fantastic! The owner Tim is an exceptional host, full of fun, always friendly and energetic and always willing to answer any questions and provide lots of useful information. Though we didn't know it was coming, our holiday experience wouldn't have been complete without having had the pleasure of meeting him and we definitely plan to stay in touch in the future. All the staff at the Akwa are very friendly and helpful, smiling all the time and making us feel very welcome. Seeing them when we came back from exploring each day was like coming home to a group of flatmate you get on really well with and they were always interested in what we'd been up to which was very refreshing. I read certain complaints in previously reviews about the staffs lack of English speaking and it is true that they have limited complex English but we found this no problem at all as between our extremely limited Thai ('hello' & 'thank you'!) and their far better grasp of English we happily muddled our way through without any mishap or frustration. We booked a deluxe room for our five nights stay and paid in advance. For no apparent reason as soon as we arrived we were advised that we were being upgraded for the last four nights free of charge to the penthouse which was a huge, but of course, welcome shock. The general gist as far as we could gather was that Tim likes to surprise people when he has the opportunity, he seemed genuinely delighted to do something that made our visit extra special and we can't thank him enough.
