Centara Grand Beach

We%26#39;re in the process of planning a break in Samui mid year and have been offerred a rate at the Centara via our Travel Agent which almost seems too good to be true.

Would appreciate getting feed back from anyone who has stayed there recently. Appreciate that the off-season is approaching but...

Assistance / advice appreciated.

Whetu

Centara Grand Beach

Make sure exactly which hotel is being quoted.Centara or Central as they used to be have two resorts here.

The Grand is in Chaweng and a top grade resort.

Centara Villas are located at Natien beach in the south-east of the island.

Centara Grand Beach

Thanks - appreciate the advice. Part of the reason that I%26#39;m a bit dodgy on this one is that some site%26#39;s show photo%26#39;s ';from'; the Hotel that do not look like the Chaweng Beach that I was at a couple of years ago.

Some of the reviews make comment about refurbishment / construction so was unsure whether the bargin being offerred was in fact a building site.

Got home 3 days ago and would highly reccomend the Centara. Any questions in particular email me direct. I will send you pics direct of the beach if I can work out how! The hotels section of beach was the best along that strip, but due to the weather the conditions were not good for swimming. Several people nearly drowned whilst we were there as the wind was blowing a gale for the first 5 days. In fact after one really upsetting event the hotel put signs up forbidding swimming in the sea.I was told by our tour rep that a tourist died off the Centara one month earlier. During our last 3 days it calmed slowly, but then a nasty brown sludgy slick appeared just where the waves began to curl, about 30 meters off shore and a slight whiff of sewers, so we swam in the pool.

Oh yes, no building work what so ever, the hotel was superb and well maintained. The Centara was like paradise itself, beach, rooms, staff and grounds etc, but the resort of Chaweng when we stepped out in the evening was another story! In our opinion Samui is a lovely island with still lots of magic left it, especially the local people, but if we ever returned we would not stay in Chaweng again.

Thanks for this post - appreciate the update on the Centara and the allaying of my concerns.

Seems hard to imagine the beach ever getting rough - we were there a couple of years ago in July and the bay was flat as. Mind you, sounds from your comments that the surf may be the least of the worries - hopefully the sewerage issue was a temporary one.

Whetu

I booked for THB 4750 per night inclusive breakfast..is this worth it??

or there%26#39;s better hotel nearby which more valuable for money?

If the place is a s good as the brochure%26#39;s say and based on Caron%26#39;s post, it seems that it is, then you would have to say that the price is pretty good.

We stayed at Kandaburi a couple of years ago and that is more expensive - the deluxe rooms were great and we were weighing up the alternatives based on that experience. When we saw the price offered for the Centara, and compared it with what is a lower rated hotel (i.e. Kandaburi) it was a bit hard to reconcile why the price difference. Appears from feedback that they are simply being sharp in their pricing.

Sounds as though the location of the Centara isn%26#39;t too bad either - close but not too close to the main strip.

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