Samed Cabana Resort

At the last minute we decided to spend the New Year in Ko Samet and this hotel became available after a cancellation. The overall rating was 3.5 and I was skeptical, but we didn't have many options. That said, I ended up being very pleased with this hotel resort and would definitely come back. The beach location of this hotel is great, and it's one of the more (if not the most) peaceful and beautiful beaches on the island. You can take a speedboat directly to this beach from the port, or take the slower ferry and then take an inexpensive taxi ride through the downtown port area to get to the hotel. We spent a couple of hours checking out the shops "downtown" but ultimately spent 95% of our stay on the beach where the resort was located. The beach is shared with some other more expensive hotels and about 10 bars and restaurants that you can easily walk between, and the Samed Cabana Resort owns a pretty big piece of property. The location was scenic and clean but also had a good selection of places that you could easily walk to for food and drinks (other parts of the island catered more to the "lets get drunk and party" scene, but this beach was clean with more upscale (yet inexpensive) offerings for couples and families. Breakfast was included at the hotel, and they put together a really nice spread each morning which was an added bonus. For other meals you have the option to pay with credit card which was a nice convenience and relatively rare here. The cabanas were clean and cute and the grounds are well maintained. Most of the tourists on the island were Chinese or Dutch and we encountered very few Americans. Overall great stay.